Debt Up $3T In Less Than 3 Yrs Under Boehner’s Deals; More Than Under All Presidents from Washington Through Reagan
December 11, 2013 – 8:22 PM
By Terence P. Jeffrey
(CNSNews.com) – The new debt run up by the federal government since House Speaker John Boehner cut his first spending deal with President Barack Obama has now topped $3 trillion—exceeding all the debt accumulated under all American presidents from George Washington through Ronald Reagan.
Boehner became speaker in January 2011, after the Republicans won a majority of the House of Representatives in the 2010 elections. He cut his first spending deal with President Barack Obama on March 1, 2011, and that deal took effect after March 4, 2011 when the continuing resolution then funding the government expired. Since then, the federal government has been funded under legislation approved by the Republican-controlled House that Boehner leads.
At the close of business on March 4, 2011, the federal debt was $14,182,627,184,881.03, according to the U.S. Treasury. As of the close of business on Dec. 10, 2013, it was $17,234,005,998,603.93.
That means that under federal spending deals negotiated during Boehner’s speakership and approved by a Republican-majority House that Boehner leads, the federal debt has increased $3,051,378,813,722.90.
Taxpayers Shell Out $14,000 per Obamacare “Enrollee”
$5.2 billion for just 364,682 “enrollees”
In her testimony before Congress today, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius provided an updated dollar amount for the cost of HealthCare.gov: $677 million. In addition to the $677 million spent on the federal Obamacare website, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has shoveled $4.5 billion of taxpayer money to promote Obamacare on the state level.
Posted on: 12:40 pm, December 10, 2013, by CNN Wire Service, updated on: 08:46pm, December 10, 2013
(CNN) — If you have ambitions of being one of the first people on Mars, listen up: A Dutch company says it is moving along with its plan to send four lucky Earthlings to colonize the Red Planet. The catch: They won’t ever come back.
The Mars One foundation announced Tuesday that it has secured lead suppliers for an unmanned mission launching in 2018, which involves a robotic lander and a communications satellite. Lockheed Martin has been contracted to study building the lander, and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. will develop a concept study for the satellite, Mars One said.
This first mission will demonstrate technology that would be involved in a permanent human settlement on Mars. If all goes well — and that’s still very much an “if” — the first pioneers could land on Mars in 2025.
NJT ANNOUNCES SUPER PASS NOW AVAILABLE TO SPEED TRAVEL THROUGHOUT SUPER BOWL WEEK
Commemorative pass good for unlimited rides across the NJ TRANSIT system between January 27 – February 3, 2014
December 9, 2013
NEWARK, NJ — In conjunction with the Christie Administration’s ongoing preparations to welcome and safely transport hundreds of thousands of visitors across the Garden State for Super Bowl XLVIII, NJ TRANSIT today announced the launch of a commemorative, unlimited ride SUPER PASS that will speed travel for customers utilizing the agency’s transit system throughout Super Bowl Week.
“The Garden State is ready to welcome the world to Super Bowl XLVIII,” said Governor Chris Christie. “Our Administration’s SUPER PASS will further speed their travels and offer the flexibility to utilize the entire NJ TRANSIT system throughout Super Bowl Week.”
The SUPER PASS is now available to the general public via online orders only at njtransit.com/superbowl through January 20, 2014. The 4 1/8 x 5 1/2 inch SUPER PASS will be printed on card-type stock with lanyard capability for convenient use.
“This is the first ‘Mass Transit Super Bowl, and we’re thrilled to be able to partner with Governor Christie and NJ TRANSIT to offer this convenient, cost-effective pass to efficiently and safely transport hundreds of thousands of visitors to events in New Jersey and across the region during Super Bowl week and for the game itself,” said Al Kelly, Jr., CEO of the New York-New Jersey Super Bowl Host Committee.
Super Bowl XLVIII will be played at MetLife Stadium on February 2, 2014. More than 400,000 guests are projected to visit the New York/New Jersey metropolitan region in conjunction with this mega-event, infusing an estimated $550 million into the region’s economy. NJ TRANSIT has been designated by the NFL and the New York-New Jersey Super Bowl Host Committee as the lead transportation agency for this important event.
“Our SUPER PASS will provide significant savings for those travelling to and from Newark Liberty Airport as well as for customers planning to attend Super Bowl events, such as Media Day at Newark’s Prudential Center, the NFL’s Super Bowl Boulevard in Manhattan or any other of the myriad of events planned near NJ TRANSIT’s service areas,” said Transportation Commissioner and NJ TRANSIT Board Chairman James Simpson.
To support the anticipated spike in ridership between critical venues, NJ TRANSIT is currently finalizing service plans that will provide robust and convenient service on Super Bowl Sunday and throughout Super Bowl Week. These plans will be unveiled and further communicated in the coming weeks.
The agency is also recruiting and training and will deploy more than 800 NJ TRANSIT Employee Ambassadors across the system during Super Bowl week. The agency also is completing critical infrastructure improvements in Secaucus which will support Super Bowl-related transportation operations as well as events well after Super Bowl XLVIII. Rail platform extensions will permit the use of longer, higher-capacity trains to and from MetLife Stadium. A new bus service area will also triple bus capacity, which will further enhance Meadowlands-area bus operations.
“NJ TRANSIT is ready to welcome the legions of Super Bowl visitors to the Garden State, and we look forward to providing them with a safe, efficient and comfortable transportation experience across our system,” said NJ TRANSIT Executive Director James Weinstein.
Global Warming theory has failed all tests, so alarmists return to the ‘97% consensus’ hoax
Posted on June 5, 2013 by Anthony Watts
Guest essay by Joseph D’Aleo, CCM, Weatherbell Analytics
National Academies of Science defines a scientific theory as
“a well-substantiated explanation of the natural world that can incorporate facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses.”
Dr Richard Feynman, Cornell Physicist in a lecture explained how theorys that failed the test of data or experiment are falsified (“wrong”) and must be discarded.
Global Warming Theory Has Failed
(1) Warming not ‘global’. It is shown in satellite data to be northern hemisphere only
(2) It is now not warming. Warming (global mean and northern hemisphere) stopped in the 1990s
(3) Models suggest atmosphere should warm 20% faster than surface but surface warming was 33% faster during the time satellites and surface observations used. This suggests GHG theory wrong, and surface temperature contaminated.
(4) Temperatures longer term have been modified to enhance warming trend and minimize cyclical appearance. Station dropout, missing data, change of local siting, urbanization, instrumentation contaminate the record, producing exaggerating warming. The GAO scolded NOAA for poor compliance with siting standards.
(5) Those who create the temperature records have been shown in analysis and emails to take steps to eliminate inconvenient temperature trends like the Medieval Warm Period, the 1940s warm blip and cooling since 1998. Steps have included removal of the urban heat island adjustment and as Wigley suggested in a climategate email, introduce 0.15C of artificial cooling of global ocean temperatures near 1940.
(6) Forecast models have failed with temperature trends below even the assumed zero emission control scenarios
(7) Climate models all have a strong hot spot in the mid to high troposphere in the tropical regions. Weather balloons and satellite show no warming in this region the last 30 years.
(8) Ocean heat content was forecast to increase and was said to be the canary in the coal mine. It too has stalled according to NOAA PMEL. The warming was to be strongest in the tropics where the models were warming the atmosphere the most. No warming has been shown in the top 300 meters in the tropical Pacific back to the 1950s.
(9) Alarmists had predicted permanent El Nino but the last decade has featured 7 La Nina and just 3 El Nino years. This is related to the PDO and was predicted by those who look at natural factors.
(10) Alarmists had predicted much lower frequency of the negative modes of the AO and NAO due to warming. The trend has been the opposite with a record negative AO/NAO in 2009/10
(11) Alarmists predicted an increase in hurricane frequency and strength globally but the global activity had diminished after 2005 to a 30+ year low. The U.S. has gone seven consecutive years without a landfalling major hurricane, the longest stretch since the 1860s
(12) Alarmists have predicted a significant increase in heat records but despite heat last two summers, the 1930s to 1950s still greatly dominated the heat records. Even in Texas at the center of the 2011 heat wave, the long term (since 1895) trends in both temperature and precipitation are flat. And when stations with over 80 years of temperature data were considered, the number of heat records last July were not extraordinary relative to past hot summers.
(13) Extremes of rainfall and drought were predicted to increase but except during periods of strong El Nino and La Nina, no trends are seen
(14) Alarmists indicated winter would become warmer and short. The last 15 years has seen a decline in winter temperatures in all regions. In places winter have been the coldest and longest in decades and even centuries.
(15) Alarmists had indicated snow would become increasingly rare in middle latitudes especially in the big cities where warming would be greatest. All time snow records were set in virtually all the major cities and northern hemisphere snow coverage in winter has increased with 4 of the top 5 years since 2007/08. Also among the east coast high impact snowstorms tracked by NOAA (NESIS), 11 of the 46 have occurred since 2009.
(16) Alarmists had indicated a decline of Antarctic ice due to warming. The upward trends since 1979 continues.
(17) Alarmists had indicated Greenland and arctic ice melt would accelerate. The arctic ice tracks with the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and the IARC shows the ice cover was similarly reduced in the 1950s when the Atlantic was last in a similar warm mode. In Greenland, the warmth of the 1930s and 1940s still dominates the records and longer term temperatures have declined.
(18) Sea level rise was to accelerate upward due to melting ice and warming. Sea levels actually slowed in the late 20th century and have declined or flattened the last few years. Manipulation of data (adjustment for land rises following the last glaciation) has been applied to hide this from the public.
(19) Alarmists claimed that drought western snowpack would diminish and forest fires would increase in summer. Snowpack and water equivalent were at or near record levels in recent winters from Alaska to the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rockies. Glaciers are advancing. Fires have declined.
(20) Alaska was said to be warming with retreating glaciers. But that warming is tied intimately to the PDO and thr North Pacific pattern NP and happens instantly with the flips from cold to warm and warm to cold. Two of the coldest and snowiest winters on records occurred since the PDO/NP flipped cold again (2007/08 and 2011/12). January 2012 was the coldest on record in many towns and cities and snowfall was running 160 inches above normal in parts of the south. Anchorage Alaska set an all time record for seasonal snow in 2011/12. In 2007/08, glaciers all advanced for the first time since the Little Ice Age. In 2011/12, the Bering Sea ice set a new high in the satellite era. Latest ever ice out date records were set in May 2013.
(21) Mt. Kilimanjaro glacier was to disappear due to global warming. Temperatures show no warming in recent decades. The reduction in glacial ice was due to deforestation near the base and the state of the AMO. The glaciers have advanced again in recent years
(22) Polar bears were claimed to be threatened. Polar bear populations instead have increased to record levels and threaten the populace.
(23) Australian drought was forecast to become permanent. Steps to protect against floods were defunded. Major flooding did major damage and rainfall has been abundant in recent years tied to the PDO and La Nina as predicted by honest scientists in Australia. All years with La Nina and cold PDO composited show this rainfall. Drought was associated with El Ninos and warm PDO fro 1977 to 1998
(24) The office of the Inspector General report found that the EPA cut corners and short-circuited the required peer review process for its December 2009 endangerment finding, which is the foundation for EPA’s plan to regulate greenhouse gases. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) report confirmed that EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program-which EPA acknowledges is the “scientific foundation for decisions” – is flawed, echoing previous concerns from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) that the agency is basing its decisions on shoddy scientific work.
(25) Of 18,531 citations in the 2007 IPCC Assessment Report, 5,587 or 30% were non-peer-reviewed material, including activist tracts, press releases, and in one amazing case, “Version One” of a Draft. In important instances, IPCC lead authors chose non-peer-reviewed material, or papers of low credibility, favoring their argument, in the face of prolific peer-reviewed material to the contrary. Instances include alleged climate relevance to malaria, hurricanes, species extinction, and sea levels.
Given the failures of global warming science, just a few mentioned here, the most disreputable alarmists like Oreskes, Cook and Trenberth and the demagogue party have tried to convince the uniformed by using the consensus argument. See the latest failed attempt here. It was also described on Forbes here.
“Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you’re being had. Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics.” Michael Crichton 17 January 2003 speech at the California Institute of Technology
Ridgewood planners to review shade tree proposal
Tuesday December 10, 2013, 10:50 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
Having already created an official tree commission, the Ridgewood Council is moving forward with the next step in strengthening its regulations on shade trees.
At a council meeting this week, the governing body is expected to assign the Planning Board to review recommendations on a shade tree policy.
“There has not been a policy in the planning process to address trees at all – someone can just come in and take out 50 trees,” said Ellie Gruber, a member of the Ridgewood Environmental Advisory Committee, which has helped draft a revised shade tree policy. “Our general [existing] shade tree policy is kind of a joke. No development should have ever taken place without the Planning Board asking about trees.”
Reader mad about PSE&G wait till Valley Gets its Way
PSE&G cut their deal years ago and don’t need anyone’s permission to put these poles up. OK, some residents raised objections, the Mayor paid some lip service and there was a meeting or two. In the end, however, PSE&G never needed our permission to put their poles up.
Now consider Valley Hospital and the developers that want to build their apartments. All they need is an amendment to our Master Plan which our Planning Board and Council seem very willing to grant. Once the Master Plan is changed and Valley wants to go to 200 feet or the developers want to build 1,000 unit apartments, there won’t be any hearings or public comment because they won’t need anyone’s permission.
Mrs. Hauck are you paying attention? Be careful what you wish for.
Report offers snapshot of Ridgewood students
Tuesday December 10, 2013, 10:47 AM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
The most recent state report on the district shows that Ridgewood elementary school students have better testing aptitude than students in similar districts, but sometimes lose those gains over their peer group in higher grades.
The report does not differ significantly from previous years’ reports, which inspired the district to look at ways to improve language arts testing in middle school, where advanced proficiency and passing percentages have sometimes been lower than those of other districts in Ridgewood’s district factor group (DFG).
DFG J – the top socioeconomic tier for public schools – encompasses 25 districts, including Ridgewood, Ho-Ho-Kus, Glen Rock, and Upper Saddle River.
Reader says Once the Village downtown is destroyed, there will be no turning back and the rest of the Village will follow
We seriously need to stop this train wreck from happening. Once the Village downtown is destroyed, there will be no turning back and the rest of the Village will follow. To protect our homes, our schools and the Village way of life for future generations and people, we need to speak up now.
The approaching holiday season provides the perfect opportunity to pull your elected representatives aside whenever and wherever you see them, and politely but earnestly let them know these projects can’t go through. The current zoning allows plenty of room to build new units for empty nesters and new comers alike (too much room probably.) Lets enforce the zoning as currently written.
Why is Brancheau going down this path? Why is the planning board going down this path? We don’t need these hearings. We need to put a stop to them now and just say “no” — we like the Village just the way it is, thanks. Go build in Wychoff or another Town.
Make that your holiday message to the Village council.
Ridgewood Police : Ice & Snow – Remove It Before You Go
Remember to remove all ice and snow from your vehicle before driving, especially from the hood, windows and roof. It’s the law in New Jersey! Motorists who fail to do so face fines of $25 to $75 for each offense, regardless of whether the ice and snow is dislodged from the vehicle. If flying ice or snow causes property damage or injury to others, motorists face fines of $200 to $1,000 for each offense.
Stockman: Budget deal a ‘joke and betrayal’
Published: Wednesday, 11 Dec 2013 | 1:44 PM ET
By: Jeff Morganteen | Producer, CNBC.com
House Republicans “capitulated” in agreeing to the two-year budget deal reached last night and left the country to deal with an unsustainable fiscal situation until the peak of the presidential primaries in 2015, when nothing will get done, former federal budget director David Stockman told CNBC on Wednesday.
“First, let’s be clear—it’s a joke and betrayal,” Stockman, who served under President Ronald Reagan, said on “Squawk on the Street.” “It’s the final surrender of the House Republican leadership to Beltway politics and kicking the can and ignoring the budget monster that’s hurtling down the road.”
Stockman added that the budget deal means lawmakers would take a “two-year vacation” from dealing with the country’s fiscal situation and revisit it in 2015 at around the same time as the Iowa straw polls. Without an incumbent in the presidential race, both political parties will be too busy to touch the budget, he said
The End of Private Property in the Era of the American Police State
By John W. Whitehead The Rutherford Institute
Posted on LewRockwell.com December 10, 2013
If the government can tell you what you can and cannot do within the privacy of your home, whether it relates to what you eat, what you smoke or whom you love, you no longer have any rights whatsoever within your home.
If government officials can fine and arrest you for growing vegetables in your front yard, praying with friends in your living room, installing solar panels on your roof, and raising chickens in your backyard, you’re no longer the owner of your property. If school officials can punish your children for what they do or say while at home or in your care, your children are not your own-they are the property of the state.
This is what a world without the Fourth Amendment looks like, where the lines between private and public property have been so blurred that private property is reduced to little more harass you to suit its own purposes, and you the homeowner and citizen have been reduced to little more than a tenant or serf in bondage to an inflexible landlord.
JPMorgan files patent for Bitcoin-style payment system
By Tracy Alloway in New York
PMorgan Chase has filed a US patent application for a computerised payment system that resembles some aspects of Bitcoin, the controversial virtual currency.
Like Bitcoin, JPMorgan’s proposed system would allow people to make anonymous, electronic payments over the internet, without having to reveal their name or account numbers or pay a fee, according to the patent application.
The application put a spotlight on the behind-the-scenes battle being waged between the biggest banks, credit card operators and companies such as Google, Apple and PayPal – are all keen to grab a slice of the rapidly expanding business of providing mobile and internet payments as more people shift to online buying.
Not limiting their activities to the earthly realm, American and British spies have infiltrated the fantasy worlds of World of Warcraft and Second Life, conducting surveillance and scooping up data in the online games played by millions of people across the globe, according to newly disclosed classified documents.
Fearing that terrorist or criminal networks could use the games to communicate secretly, move money or plot attacks, the documents show, intelligence operatives have entered terrain populated by digital avatars that include elves, gnomes and supermodels.
