They’re So Scared, They’re Making It Up.

A blind item posted at a blog site was tweeted out tonight by Multnomah County Democrats as fact to try to smear Mitt Romney, who has wrapped up his triumphant overseas trip to Britain, Israel, and Poland.

The blog site is open to anyone. It is unsigned. It on a beta site for an open site possibly connected to Salon.
Read more below:

The “story” which includes this phrase, “Now, obviously, this is a statement by one person so it’s veracity has to be established,” was the latest, laughably dishonest attempt to smear Romney about his taxes. He’s released his records as Governor and now Presidential candidate.

It links to another blogger over at HuffPo which includes the apparent meat of the story: speculation from Harry Reid. 

I understand why Harry Reid would want to make a splash about JSG talking about something or somebody else. After all, this disaster of a “leader” hasn’t produced or passed a budget for three years.

But Harry, I’m pretty sure the American people are more interested in President Obama passing the biggest tax increase in human history–and planning to add to it!–than they are in Mitt’s taxes.

The more desperate you sound, the more confident I become.

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He Rides Up

He Grabs the Sign

CULPRIT CAUGHT, BUT WHO IS HE? WHAT’S HIS MOTIVE? SEE AFTER JUMP.
Former GOP Congressional Candidate David Hedrick caught this man in the act of stealing political signs in Clark County, Washington. The caught-on-tape moment happened after a spate of GOP sign thefts and a stake out commenced.
 
Do you know who he is?
See a close up of the Sign Stealer and the video of him stealing the sign  after the jump.

WHO IS THIS SIGN STEALER?JOHN ELLIS IS THIS MAN’S NAME. WHO IS HE?

He Rides Away With Sign

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From Powerline Blog a story that I should have picked up on the Jonathan Alter book, The Promise, but thinking it was just another I Love Barack Obama book, I didn’t read it. I should have.

From Powerline: 

In his book The Promise, left-wing writer Jonathan Alter recounts the following incident from President Obama’s first year in office:

A congressman approached the first lady at a White House reception after the [stimulus] bill’s passage and told her the stimulus was the best anti-poverty bill in a generation. Her reaction was “Shhhh!” The White House didn’t want the public thinking that Obama had achieved long-sought public policy objectives under the guise of merely stimulating the economy, even though that’s exactly what had happened.

Stanley Kurtz picks up on this theme in his brilliant, must-read book Spreading The Wealth: How Obama Is Robbing The Suburbs To Pay For the Cites. Kurtz shows that spreading the wealth is the central organizing principle of Obama’s ideology, and his deepest aspiration as president.

Kurtz will be on the show in the upcoming weeks to talk about his latest book. But from Powerline Blog here’s more on his theme and it’s one folks on both sides of the Columbia River need to heed:

How can Obama “rob the suburbs”? In brief, and to oversimplify, he hopes to accomplish this by conditioning federal grant money on the creation and/or use of “regional” bodies, as opposed to standard governmental units like cities, towns, and counties. The regional bodies would be controlled by a coalition of cities and poorer “inner ring” suburbs and aided by regulations and additional conditions imposed by Washington to the disadvantage of the suburbs. This alliance of Washington and “regional” politicians would push for regional “revenue sharing,” consolidation of school districts, and other measures designed to halt the expansion of suburbs and eventually push people back into the cities.
To get the details, you’ll have to read the book. If you do, and you should, you will learn how Obama has set the stage for this power grab through the work of his “Sustainable Communities” initiative, which is dominated by key figures from the community organizing movement, including Obama’s former community organizing trainer and boss.

Do you doubt it? Me, neither. 

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Recently Clark County Commissioner Marc Boldt came on The Victoria Taft Show to comment on his letter to the State of Washington calling for transportation officials to establish a tolling advisory board (see the letter nearby). During our conversation (find it here) I asked if he agreed that the upcoming sales tax increase on the November ballot serves as a proxy for a decision on light rail itself. He did. Since it’s the only time voters will be allowed to speak out on the issue and some of the funding would go to support light rail, it follows naturally that this vote does serve as a proxy.

Leavitt:

This November, there will be an ask of the voters within the CTRAN service area to increase sales tax of 1 penny on a 10 dollar retail purchase. If approved, the revenues generated will be utilized to pay for: 

a) The CRC LRT [LIGHT RAIL] annual operations and maintenance cost, and
b) The proposed bus rapid transit improvement (both local matching capital — about 30% of the capital cost, and the annual operations and maintenance). 

The CTRAN service area — or those that will vote on this ballot measure — include all households within the limits of the City of Vancouver and within the Vancouver Urban Growth Boundary (this comprises some 65% of the CTRAN service hours for fixed bus routes), and all households within the city limits of every other city in Clark County.

If not approved by the voters, then, obviously, there will not be a sales tax increase to cover the costs of both projects. However, if the voters do not approve of sales tax as a funding mechanism for either project (as I suspect they will), the projects do not go away. 

This ballot measure is in no means intended to be a referendum on either project, or the CRC for that matter. You’ll hear politicians and candidates opine that this is the case, and no doubt some in our community will be persuaded as such and vote accordingly (yes or no), but the fact is that this measure is not planned/not intended/not perceived by honest folks to be a referendum.  Those that suggest otherwise are merely misguiding our public and such statements are entirely disingenuous and, my opinion….insulting to the intelligence of our citizens.

I could go on with arguments about the non-sense of having a referendum vote on a project of national significance….but that’s another conversation for another day.

**The “Exclusive” designation means this blog must be credited with content from this post.

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From Powerline Blog a story that I should have picked up on the Jonathan Alter book, The Promise, but thinking it was just another I Love Barack Obama book, I didn’t read it. I should have.

From Powerline: 

In his book The Promise, left-wing writer Jonathan Alter recounts the following incident from President Obama’s first year in office:

A congressman approached the first lady at a White House reception after the [stimulus] bill’s passage and told her the stimulus was the best anti-poverty bill in a generation. Her reaction was “Shhhh!” The White House didn’t want the public thinking that Obama had achieved long-sought public policy objectives under the guise of merely stimulating the economy, even though that’s exactly what had happened.

Stanley Kurtz picks up on this theme in his brilliant, must-read book Spreading The Wealth: How Obama Is Robbing The Suburbs To Pay For the Cites. Kurtz shows that spreading the wealth is the central organizing principle of Obama’s ideology, and his deepest aspiration as president.

Kurtz will be on the show in the upcoming weeks to talk about his latest book. But from Powerline Blog here’s more on his theme and it’s one folks on both sides of the Columbia River need to heed:

How can Obama “rob the suburbs”? In brief, and to oversimplify, he hopes to accomplish this by conditioning federal grant money on the creation and/or use of “regional” bodies, as opposed to standard governmental units like cities, towns, and counties. The regional bodies would be controlled by a coalition of cities and poorer “inner ring” suburbs and aided by regulations and additional conditions imposed by Washington to the disadvantage of the suburbs. This alliance of Washington and “regional” politicians would push for regional “revenue sharing,” consolidation of school districts, and other measures designed to halt the expansion of suburbs and eventually push people back into the cities.
To get the details, you’ll have to read the book. If you do, and you should, you will learn how Obama has set the stage for this power grab through the work of his “Sustainable Communities” initiative, which is dominated by key figures from the community organizing movement, including Obama’s former community organizing trainer and boss.

Do you doubt it? Me, neither. 

Follow

Recently Clark County Commissioner Marc Boldt came on The Victoria Taft Show to comment on his letter to the State of Washington calling for transportation officials to establish a tolling advisory board (see the letter nearby). During our conversation (find it here) I asked if he agreed that the upcoming sales tax increase on the November ballot serves as a proxy for a decision on light rail itself. He did. Since it’s the only time voters will be allowed to speak out on the issue and some of the funding would go to support light rail, it follows naturally that this vote does serve as a proxy.

Leavitt:

This November, there will be an ask of the voters within the CTRAN service area to increase sales tax of 1 penny on a 10 dollar retail purchase. If approved, the revenues generated will be utilized to pay for: 

a) The CRC LRT [LIGHT RAIL] annual operations and maintenance cost, and
b) The proposed bus rapid transit improvement (both local matching capital — about 30% of the capital cost, and the annual operations and maintenance). 

The CTRAN service area — or those that will vote on this ballot measure — include all households within the limits of the City of Vancouver and within the Vancouver Urban Growth Boundary (this comprises some 65% of the CTRAN service hours for fixed bus routes), and all households within the city limits of every other city in Clark County.

If not approved by the voters, then, obviously, there will not be a sales tax increase to cover the costs of both projects. However, if the voters do not approve of sales tax as a funding mechanism for either project (as I suspect they will), the projects do not go away. 

This ballot measure is in no means intended to be a referendum on either project, or the CRC for that matter. You’ll hear politicians and candidates opine that this is the case, and no doubt some in our community will be persuaded as such and vote accordingly (yes or no), but the fact is that this measure is not planned/not intended/not perceived by honest folks to be a referendum.  Those that suggest otherwise are merely misguiding our public and such statements are entirely disingenuous and, my opinion….insulting to the intelligence of our citizens.

I could go on with arguments about the non-sense of having a referendum vote on a project of national significance….but that’s another conversation for another day.

**The “Exclusive” designation means this blog must be credited with content from this post.

Follow

How desperate? In the last three days I have received three hysterical sounding emails from the Obama campaign.

One was from former Vice President and Man Made Global Warmist, Al Gore, whose email contained the subject line, “Disaster.”

Victoria —

The last thing we want is the Republican Party — a party that’s been hijacked by an extremist fringe — to win the White House and tighten its grip on Congress.

That would spell disaster for our economy and our environment.

 Then he begged for money because the party beholden to Hollywood, whacko environmentalist fringies, communists and socialists is better than the “extremist fringe” of people who tout the constitution like those Tea Party people.

Democrat strategist James Carville brought a little sunshine into my email box with the word, “Nightmare.” The Koch Brothers are apparently the aforesaid nightmare:

Victoria —

I wish I had good news for you.

I want to tell you that President Obama has a second term in the bag. I want to tell you that the Koch Brothers are giving up their plot to buy the election.

And then he asked for my money so Obama could buy the election.  Apparently George Soros, the mainstream media, Talking Point Memos, Media Matters, the SEIU, AFL-CIO, Government workers, people threatened by the White House, Daily Kos, New York Times, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC and nighttime TV shows and movies donn’t have enough political heft to “plot to buy” their own election.

Then Veep Joe Biden sent one over on Saturday with the subject line, “Outspent.”

Victoria —

For the last two months, Governor Romney and the Republicans have outraised us — and in the last month alone, they raised $35 million more than we did.

They’ve caught up to us in the fundraising race for the first time this election, and we have to do everything we can to close the gap now — before it’s too late.

Then he begged for money.

The Democrats complain all day long about the Citizens United decision, but plan to use the SuperPac money that decision allowed to be given to campaigns to finance the bulk of their campaigns. In fact George Soros and Media Matters have already combined to create one!

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Oregon Claims This Water on Private Property Belongs to State

An Eagle Point, Oregon man vows to appeal a decision in Jackson County which will send him to jail for 30 days for collecting RAIN WATER on his own property. The State of Oregon won a court battle against Gary Harrington who has been collecting rain water on his 170 acre ranch, saying that water belongs to the state under state water rights laws..

CNS News reports the man has two weeks to report to jail to begin serving a 30 day jail term for possession three rain catchers–reservoirs–on his land. The state says Gary Harrington also also diverted river water to the reservoirs.

Does This Water Belong to the State, too?

Harrington say he plans to “appeal his conviction in Jackson County (Ore.) Circuit Court on nine misdemeanor charges under a 1925 law for having what state water managers called “three illegal reservoirs” on his property – and for filling the reservoirs with rainwater and snow runoff. “The government is bullying,” Harrington told CNSNews.com in an interview Thursday.

“They’ve just gotten to be big bullies and if you just lay over and die and give up, that just makes them bigger bullies. So, we as

Americans, we need to stand on our constitutional rights, on our rights as citizens and hang tough. This is a good country, we’ll prevail,” he said.
The court has given Harrington two weeks to report to the Jackson County Jail to begin serving his sentence.”

The issue is whether Harrington diverted water from a stream on his property to put in his reservoirs/ponds. From CNS News:

But Tom Paul, administrator of the Oregon Water Resources Department, claims that Harrington has been violating the state’s water use law by diverting water from streams running into the Big Butte River.

“The law that he is actually violating is not the 1925 provision, but it’s Oregon law that says all of the water in the state of Oregon is public water and if you want to use that water, either to divert it or to store it, you have to acquire a water right from the state of Oregon before doing that activity,” Paul told CNSNews.com.

Yet Paul admitted the 1925 law does apply because, he said, Harrington constructed dams to block a tributary to the Big Butte, which Medford uses for its water supply.

“There are dams across channels, water channels where the water would normally flow if it were not for the dam and so those dams are stopping the water from flowing in the channel and storing it- holding it so it cannot flow downstream,” Paul told CNSNews.com.

Harrington, however, argued in court that that he is not diverting water from Big Butte Creek, but the dams capturing the rainwater and snow runoff – or “diffused water” – are on his own property and that therefore the runoff does not fall under the jurisdiction of the state water managers, nor does it not violate the 1925 act.

Follow

How desperate? In the last three days I have received three hysterical sounding emails from the Obama campaign.

One was from former Vice President and Man Made Global Warmist, Al Gore, whose email contained the subject line, “Disaster.”

Victoria —

The last thing we want is the Republican Party — a party that’s been hijacked by an extremist fringe — to win the White House and tighten its grip on Congress.

That would spell disaster for our economy and our environment.

 Then he begged for money because the party beholden to Hollywood, whacko environmentalist fringies, communists and socialists is better than the “extremist fringe” of people who tout the constitution like those Tea Party people.

Democrat strategist James Carville brought a little sunshine into my email box with the word, “Nightmare.” The Koch Brothers are apparently the aforesaid nightmare:

Victoria —

I wish I had good news for you.

I want to tell you that President Obama has a second term in the bag. I want to tell you that the Koch Brothers are giving up their plot to buy the election.

And then he asked for my money so Obama could buy the election.  Apparently George Soros, the mainstream media, Talking Point Memos, Media Matters, the SEIU, AFL-CIO, Government workers, people threatened by the White House, Daily Kos, New York Times, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC and nighttime TV shows and movies donn’t have enough political heft to “plot to buy” their own election.

Then Veep Joe Biden sent one over on Saturday with the subject line, “Outspent.”

Victoria —

For the last two months, Governor Romney and the Republicans have outraised us — and in the last month alone, they raised $35 million more than we did.

They’ve caught up to us in the fundraising race for the first time this election, and we have to do everything we can to close the gap now — before it’s too late.

Then he begged for money.

The Democrats complain all day long about the Citizens United decision, but plan to use the SuperPac money that decision allowed to be given to campaigns to finance the bulk of their campaigns. In fact George Soros and Media Matters have already combined to create one!

Follow

Oregon Claims This Water on Private Property Belongs to State

An Eagle Point, Oregon man vows to appeal a decision in Jackson County which will send him to jail for 30 days for collecting RAIN WATER on his own property. The State of Oregon won a court battle against Gary Harrington who has been collecting rain water on his 170 acre ranch, saying that water belongs to the state under state water rights laws..

CNS News reports the man has two weeks to report to jail to begin serving a 30 day jail term for possession three rain catchers–reservoirs–on his land. The state says Gary Harrington also also diverted river water to the reservoirs.

Does This Water Belong to the State, too?

Harrington say he plans to “appeal his conviction in Jackson County (Ore.) Circuit Court on nine misdemeanor charges under a 1925 law for having what state water managers called “three illegal reservoirs” on his property – and for filling the reservoirs with rainwater and snow runoff. “The government is bullying,” Harrington told CNSNews.com in an interview Thursday.

“They’ve just gotten to be big bullies and if you just lay over and die and give up, that just makes them bigger bullies. So, we as

Americans, we need to stand on our constitutional rights, on our rights as citizens and hang tough. This is a good country, we’ll prevail,” he said.
The court has given Harrington two weeks to report to the Jackson County Jail to begin serving his sentence.”

The issue is whether Harrington diverted water from a stream on his property to put in his reservoirs/ponds. From CNS News:

But Tom Paul, administrator of the Oregon Water Resources Department, claims that Harrington has been violating the state’s water use law by diverting water from streams running into the Big Butte River.

“The law that he is actually violating is not the 1925 provision, but it’s Oregon law that says all of the water in the state of Oregon is public water and if you want to use that water, either to divert it or to store it, you have to acquire a water right from the state of Oregon before doing that activity,” Paul told CNSNews.com.

Yet Paul admitted the 1925 law does apply because, he said, Harrington constructed dams to block a tributary to the Big Butte, which Medford uses for its water supply.

“There are dams across channels, water channels where the water would normally flow if it were not for the dam and so those dams are stopping the water from flowing in the channel and storing it- holding it so it cannot flow downstream,” Paul told CNSNews.com.

Harrington, however, argued in court that that he is not diverting water from Big Butte Creek, but the dams capturing the rainwater and snow runoff – or “diffused water” – are on his own property and that therefore the runoff does not fall under the jurisdiction of the state water managers, nor does it not violate the 1925 act.

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Gov’t Hot Air Responsible for Higher Gov’t Temps?

By the time the US Government reports the temperature data from the reporting stations they’ve played pretty fast and loose with the data: 

Using the new Leroy 39 (2010) classification system on the older siting metadata used by Fall et al. (2011), 40 Menne et al. (2010), and Muller et al. (2012), yields dramatically different results.

Here’s the Press release today from ANTHONY WATTS, “WATTSUPWITHTHAT.COM” BLOG 

PRESS RELEASE

This pre-publication draft paper, titled An area and distance weighted analysis of the impacts of station exposure on the U.S. Historical Climatology Network temperatures and temperature trends, is co-authored by Anthony Watts of California, Evan Jones of New York, Stephen McIntyre of Toronto, Canada, and Dr. John R. Christy from the Department of Atmospheric Science, University of Alabama, Huntsville, is to be submitted for publication.

I know that is prior to acceptance, but in the tradition that I grew up in (under Nobel Laureate Luis Alvarez) we always widely distributed “preprints” of papers prior to their publication or even submission. That guaranteed a much wider peer review than we obtained from mere referees.

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You might be a moron if…

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Gov’t Hot Air Responsible for Higher Gov’t Temps?

By the time the US Government reports the temperature data from the reporting stations they’ve played pretty fast and loose with the data: 

Using the new Leroy 39 (2010) classification system on the older siting metadata used by Fall et al. (2011), 40 Menne et al. (2010), and Muller et al. (2012), yields dramatically different results.

Here’s the Press release today from ANTHONY WATTS, “WATTSUPWITHTHAT.COM” BLOG 

PRESS RELEASE

This pre-publication draft paper, titled An area and distance weighted analysis of the impacts of station exposure on the U.S. Historical Climatology Network temperatures and temperature trends, is co-authored by Anthony Watts of California, Evan Jones of New York, Stephen McIntyre of Toronto, Canada, and Dr. John R. Christy from the Department of Atmospheric Science, University of Alabama, Huntsville, is to be submitted for publication.

I know that is prior to acceptance, but in the tradition that I grew up in (under Nobel Laureate Luis Alvarez) we always widely distributed “preprints” of papers prior to their publication or even submission. That guaranteed a much wider peer review than we obtained from mere referees.

Follow