Iowa don't need no chicken shit tort lawyer

One big difference I've noticed between city folk and farmers is the latter's ability to withstand almost any assault to the olfactory senses. No matter how gag inducing the odor may be they manage to smile and joke, "Smells like money to me," as they heartily wolf down breakfast. It's a cultural divide that cannot be mitigated by sensitivity training, affirmative action or any of the other social nostrums peddled by the meddling class.
A rhetorical inquiry, "What makes the grass so green?" is answered matter-of-factly, "horse shit".
Generally both sides think this divide to be both harmless and humorous but there are limits to everyone's patience and if one is seeking public office one might think about cultivating tolerance for the other point of view just as the other viewpoint is gagging down it revulsion to  tort lawyers.
Usually it's been the GOP that has had the misfortune to nominate gaff prone candidates for critical senate races but the first view many Iowans saw of Democratic Congressman Bruce Braley was a YouTube video of Braley forecasting an ominous denouement for Iowa and the county should he not be elected to the senate. “You might have a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school, never practiced law, serving as the next chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
Zounds! Just as the dust had begun to settle from that faux pas a story went out that the good congressman had threatened a lawsuit against a women whose chickens had trespassed upon his vacation property. As the Washington Post reports,

This spring, Pauline Hampton’s chickens roamed onto Bruce and Carolyn Braley’s vacation property on tranquil Holiday Lake. Hampton said she did not know this until she walked over one day to offer Carolyn a dozen fresh eggs. To which she said her neighbor replied, “We aren’t going to accept your eggs — and we have filed a formal complaint against you.”
Carolyn took her complaint to their neighborhood homeowners’ association board meeting in May. Her husband, Bruce, then called the association’s lawyer, Thomas Lacina, to say that he believed “chickens are not pets and should not be permitted at Holiday Lake,” and that he wanted to “avoid a litigious situation,” according to an e-mail Lacina wrote. Braley denied that he threatened a lawsuit.

How cordial!

Holiday Lake bristled at his tactics. “They are not neighborly,” said Hampton, a mental health therapist who uses the hens as therapy animals. “In Iowa, we are very well known for being friendly, and if one has a problem with another, we always talk to them face-to-face. This kind of floored me.”
Another neighbor, William Nagel, who sits on the homeowners association board, said, “Buddy, we’re here in Iowa. We talk like men here and we act like men. Usually, a man’s word is like gold. A handshake is a contract. Neighbors are neighbors, and if you’ve got a problem with your neighbor, you talk it out.”

Yes, but the odor? Smells like money to Mrs Hampton. Not the sort of thing to get a congressman's nose out of joint.
That's just beginning of the injustices that have been visited on Braley. Readers can imagine the indignity of a congressman having to launder his own towels in the House gym during the government shutdown. And that was after he had paid an annual membership of $260.


Recent polling suggests that Iowa voters don't need a chicken shit tort lawyer. Braley has gone from the odds on favorite to trailing Joni Ernst in the latest CBS News/NYT/YouGov poll.

The Middle East conflict explained

Indian crew captures Hamas firing rockets from residential area

  Hoosierman wrote yesterday that the New York Times can't seem to find any pictures or guilt on the part of Hamas firing from populated areas.
  The NYT isn't the only "news" organization that can't seem to find the truth.
  Huh.
  Well, NYT, here's the video, captured by an Indian crew.

  I have to admit I don't get it.
  How do you ignore facts?
  Like this.

 

 I guess you brilliantly claim Gaza is "pretty small" and that's why Hamas has to fire missiles from schools, hospitals and neighborhoods.

  WaPo gives us an idea: 

   Even though Gaza was given over voluntarily by Israel and even though Israel sends text messages and tells Gazans where they'll be bombing and even though Gaza rains missiles down on Israel whenever they feel like it.

  I'll admit. I don't get it.

Democrats drive UP the cost of college tuition, then complain about cost of college

  Uninformed solipsistic Obama voters complain about the size of their college loans, yet they do not seem to have any idea why those loans are so high. 
  And they have no clue why they can't get good jobs with majors in puppetry and political science.
  Leftists ensconced in the Ivory Tower of the university somehow manage to secure amazing paychecks--students' tuition money-- for very little work; do they turn down the money because of the debt burden imposed on young people by their extraordinary "salaries"?
  Of course not.
  It's really obscene what colleges, particularly ivy league colleges, charge students to get through four years of indoctrination. So-called top colleges soak students for about $60,000 a year.
  What's also obscene is that the bigwigs at these colleges pay celebrities so much for so little.
  A few examples: these are not really anecdotal considering the haul Leftist celebrities take in every year.
  1. First let's look at possible presidential (gack) candidate Elizabeth Warren, who makes the Leftist base quiver with excitement at the mention of "income equality," one of her favorite memes.   
  Warren repeatedly decries the cost of a college education even while her hand's out getting $350,000 for teaching one course. Front Page Mag:

Harvard Law paid Warren $350,000 to teach a single course. When Scott Brown brought it up during a debate about student loans, she protested. “I want to talk about the issues. Senator Brown wants to launch attacks.”

But Warren’s outrageous compensation is the issue. Harvard pays the adjuncts who teach many of its undergraduate classes an average of $11,037. Elizabeth Warren, who likes comparing the salary of a company’s employees to its CEO’s, isn’t comparing the $429,981 that Harvard paid her before she ran for office to an adjunct’s salary. And unlike a CEO, all Warren did was show up for a little bit and then go back to her real business as a lawyer and government consultant.

  Warren's brilliant (because all Leftists are brilliant all Democrats are brilliant all Democrat presidents are ESPECIALLY brilliant) shriek that "You didn't make that!" resonated with loony Leftists like Obama and is the basis of her candidacy as a representative of the communist way of thinking, where everyone is equal, except for the upper one percent. 
  See, that's the way this whole Cloward Piven Saul Alinsky thing works. You overwhelm the system with lies and you get out in front of your own misbehavior by claiming others are guilty of exactly what your own crimes. Thus you inoculate yourself of any bad things you may have done or are doing.
  2. Then there's that brilliant millionaire economist Paul Krugman, whose dyspeptic verbal explosions about others' wealth belie his own greed. Krugman is worth millions but resents the success of others.
  But Krugman is being paid $225,000 for two semesters' worth of gracing CUNY with his mere presence and no teaching responsibilities. Gawker deliciously points out the disparity between reality and Krugman's word:

According to a formal offer letter obtained under New York’s Freedom of Information Law, CUNY intends to pay Krugman $225,000, or $25,000 per month (over two semesters), to “play a modest role in our public events” and “contribute to the build-up” of a new “inequality initiative.” It is not clear, and neither CUNY nor Krugman was able to explain, what “contribute to the build-up” entails.

  When the news of Krugman's good fortune leaked out, the Democrat media machine immediately leapt into action to defend Krugman, claiming he wasn't a hypocrite and in fact the salary was indeed modest, keeping the cost of living in Leftist run New York in perspective. 
  In fact, Krugman's $225,000 to teach 5 classes to young minds of mush is "more than fair", given the importance of the brilliant Krugman's contributions to the conversation about, um, income inequality.
  But then, we shouldn't be surprised that Leftist "journalists" have reorganized after being caught a while ago plotting their mutual political storylines and memes (after declaring objectivity and nonpartisanship) in a secret Google group called Journolist.
  They've reorganized to form a new secret Google Leftist writer group which is called Gamechanger Salon; I'm sure its members are only the brilliantest among us.
  3. While complaining of being "dead broke" when they left the White House, Hillary has been cashin' in with the universities ever since, so much so that the Washington Post ran this title: 
  At Time of Austerity Universities Spent Top Dollar on Hillary Clinton Speeches. From the WaPo:

In one previously undisclosed transaction, the University of Connecticut — which just raised tuition by 6.5 percent — paid $251,250 from a donor fund for Clinton to speak on campus in April. Other examples include $300,000 to speak at the University of California at Los Angeles in March and $225,000 for a speech scheduled for October at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

   Those speeches which probably run under 60 minutes have some enlightened students angry. ABC reports a disgruntled student's complaints at University of Nevada at Las Vegas:

“Tuition just went up seventeen percent. It’s gone up a hundred percent over the past decade or so. We think that students could really use this support from the $225,000—and greatly benefit from the scholarships–from the speaking fee, Waqar said.

  Well, of course tuition has to go up all over the place, regardless the cost of living and the student debt bomb. 
  These colleges need to pay their celebrities!
  4. Another Leftist who complains about high incomes and excessive student loans is receiving a rather large fee for teaching one class, the Daily Caller reports.
  That brilliant individual is Robert Reich, who it can now be revealed will receive $20,000 a month to teach one class this semester and 4 classes in the Spring:

The ultra-progressive economist — inasmuch as a mere law school graduate can be an economist — raked in an impressive income of $242,613 from the taxpayer-funded school in 2013, according to EAGnews.org.

For that sweet salary of $20,217 per month, Reich is slated to teach exactly one course this fall.

  And don't you complain about any of this. 
  These people are the best among us! 
  They have important missions in life! Spreading the word to you rummies out there! 
  Which also justifies their flying private jets to conferences around the globe to organize their message that YOU shouldn't fly at all because waste. Global warming. Climate change. Mother Earth. Or something.
  This all brings back bad memories of AlGore who rode the Global Warming train to become the first Climate Change billionaire, although admittedly with lies about ethanol to get re-elected. AlGore's Climate Change hysteria partner's name is Blood, believe it or not. 
  Blood and Gore. yeah.

No Hamas rockets here!

The popular media and especially the New York Times has come under criticism for its photographic content. While the media has shown countless photographs of destroyed buildings in Gaza not a single photograph of a Hamas fighter or a rocket being launched from a populated urban area has been published.
Here’s what Eileen Murphy, the Times’ vice president for corporate communications, says:
Our photo editor went through all of our pictures recently and out of many hundreds, she found 2 very distant poor quality images that were captioned Hamas fighters by our photographer on the ground. It is very difficult to identify Hamas because they don’t have uniforms or any visible insignia; our photographer hasn’t even seen anyone carrying a gun.
I would add that we would not withhold photos of Hamas militants. We eagerly pursue photographs from both sides of the conflict, but we are limited by what our photographers have access to.

It's too bad Ms Murphy doesn't have the benefit of a copy editor who could tell her not to end a sentence with a preposition but journalistic standard have succumbed to tight budgets.
Gallagher Fenwick, Bureau Chief In Jerusalem for France 24 inadvertently corrects the imbalance in this video.

Hillary beats Christie in Jersey but loses to him in Arkansas.

So much for the home state advantage. Drudge Report links to a Quinnipiac poll that shows Hillary beating Christie in New Jersey but before we crown her as the Democratic nominee consider that a PPP poll just released has Christie beating Hillary in Arkansas. For that matter everybody beats Hillary in Arkansas. We'll know when Hillary's career has ended when Republicans set beating Hillary in the polls is the minimum requirement for any serious GOP nominee.
In the Quinnipiac poll Hillary beats Christie 50% to 42%, she also beats Jeb Bush 54% - 34%, Rand Paul 55% - 35% and Mike Huckabee 57% - 34%.
While her pretty girl from the state next door image may play well in Jersey she is not homecoming queen material in Arkansas. In the tit for tat Hillary loses to Christie 42% - 41%. She also loses to Jeb Bush 46% - 41% to Mike Huckabee 55% - 39% to Rand Paul 45% - 42% and Ted Cruz 46% - 42%.

Elaine Chao punches back

Mitch McConnell’s wife, former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao hits back. Supposedly she was the victim of a racist Twitter attack begun by Kathy Groob which the Kentucky Democratic Party felt compelled to condemn. The exact text of the offending tweet was;

If Mitch McConnell is going to bring his wife in the race, then her lack of KY status is fair game. #FancyFarmhttp://t.co/5qxqmD0IvL

I suppose in an around about way questioning Ms Chao's Kentucky status is pointing out that she is oriental in that she's not running for office but pardon me if I opine that people are wearing their feeling on their coat sleeves. At the risk of sounding churlish I thought South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian exhortation to “send Nikki Haley back to wherever the hell she came from” was more clever than racist. When asked by reporters where he thought she came from he quickly replied, Butler County.
In any event the McConnell campaign, sensing an opening, quickly released an ad featuring Chao extolling the Senator's commitment to women's rights. It's high time someone rammed the war on women theme down the Democrats' throat but frankly I'm sick of identity politics.

Let's talk about impeachment

I think it's wrong for Republicans to take the threat of impeachment off the table. Yes, it has served as a good talking point for Democratic fund raising but no president should ever feel that he has carte blanche to ignore the constitution and the rule of law. If Obama attempts to grant amnesty to 5 million illegals all bet are off. Polling puts disapproval of of his handling of the border crisis in the 70 percent range and while a majority of Americans think illegals presently living in the United States should be given a path to citizenship they also know how a bill becomes a law. Unilateral executive action is tolerated during time of war but seldom do president push the law to its limit in peacetime. Amnesty by executive action is unknown territory and there is not the slightest indication of how the public will react. Certainly public apathy will disappear. Those of us old enough to remember Richard Nixon and Watergate remember it was a gut wrenching experience for the body politic. It was not business as usual. Nixon was reelected with 60% of the popular vote, as compared to Obama's 51%, yet when the public became convinced he had crossed the line he had to go-no, if's buts, and's or maybe's. There was more than enough public support for his impeachment.
The latest indication is the amnesty order will come down by the end of the summer. It will certainly evoke an outrage that no legal opinion from from some obscure DOJ lawyer will be able to quell. And it will certainly be the political death of many if not all senators running for reelection in red states. If the Republicans will borrow a page from the Tea Party playbook and argue constitutional principles rather than the long term effect on the party's chance of pulling the Hispanic vote they can make Obama's impeachment a campaign issue.
"Senator Landrieu does not have the courage to stand up for the constitution she swore to protect and defend."
"Can Obama abolish Medicare?"
Tell Senator Hagan to stand and protect the constitution and impeach Obama."
"How many votes must Senator Pryor and his party import to turn America into a banana Republic? If he will not vote to impeach Obama now will he after the election? Tom Cotton has the courage to impeach."
I have no doubt the sale for impeachment could be made for in every red state.
The beauty of the GOP's opposition is that it can be custom tailored for each state. If impeachment sounds too strident for New Hampshire it can be rephrased into a blander message while Mitch McConnell and Tom Cotton can shout it from the roof tops. As stated, executive amnesty is unknown territory and it may cause more than expected outrage in deep blue states as urban blacks and blue collar municipal unions sense a threat to their well being.



There is certainly doubt that executive amnesty will work. Assuming the GOP wins the senate it could hold every Obama favored spending program hostage. Boehner may be allowed to amend his lawsuit to include amnesty thus making Obama argue his indefensible position in court. States that have incurred increased welfare and education expenses over the years could probably find sympathetic courts. Pity the Democrat candidate in 2016 having to defend Obamacare and amnesty. Will the party of big government also want to be called the party of lawlessness?
There is enough downside risk to make one wonder if amnesty just the prelude to coup d'etat. Usually dictators begin by asserting that they have powers beyond their offices. If unchecked they claim more power. Up to this point Obama has circumvented the law by inaction; by not enforcing immigration law, by not defending the Defense of Marriage Act, by not implementing the employer mandate. Granting work permits to illegals is active defiance and a long step down the road toward autocratic rule. Keep the threat of impeachment visible. It may be needed.

Senator Ben Nelson; No federal exchange in Obamacare

I wonder if Senator Ben Nelson would care to repeat his requirements for voting for Obamacare. In this video he pushes back that he had been bought by the infamous Corn Husker Kickback. No, he didn't sell his vote but he had requirements and one of those requirements would meant no federal exchanges. The way Obamacare was produced with secret meeting and no committee hearings makes it impossible to divine the will of congress as defender of that flawed piece of legislation have attempted to do.



If the plaintiffs in Halbig v Burwell should prevail in the Supreme Court Obamacare mandates, both individual and employer, would be nullified in 36 states leaving only blue states under the Obamacare burden.

After the Toledo water crisis

  Well, we survived the recent crisis and eagerly await the next one. It's somewhat challenging living with tainted water, even for a few days.
  Our local crisis crippled many businesses who depend on a clean water supply.
  Within an hour or two of the announcement at 2 in the morning, stores were emptied of water. Lines at small local stores stretched around the store, something we've never seen before.
  People lined up at big block stores, snatching every bottle of water in sight, regardless the other people who were also there to buy water. 
  This is what is called greed.There's no way those people could use all that water for drinking anyway, while others had nothing, and you had to know those people drink Coke before they drink 7 bottles of water a day.
  Others waited for the "government" to provide water, passively standing in line at government sites, complaining.
  Apparently it's every man for himself in crises like this.
  Someone reported that one woman loaded her car with so much water at Anderson's that her car wouldn't move.
  Some businesses were guilty of gouging prices, while others like Churchills had trucks available to give water away. The state is currently pursuing those complaints.
  The lack of transparency from Toledo officials was disturbing: news update conferences were scheduled and canceled, scheduled and canceled. Test results were not disclosed; obfuscating answers were delivered repeatedly.
  Local Oregon city water's supply was good. Still not sure why that's so, but Toledo's was contaminated. 
  Kaptur took political advantage and immediately blamed the problem on Bush and even Reagan.
  People on social media were furious with local leaders, at the same time posting incredibly ignorant unintelligible comments about their frustration.  Individuals' lack of education became quickly obvious in local news comments' sections.
  Some people wonder why we live in Northwest Ohio.
  Because, overall (at least in my town), in general people approached the crisis with good cheer and concern for others.
  Children went door to door to make sure their neighbors had water. 
  People still went about their business, making do with what they had.
  Churches organized assistance; people with wells openly offered their water to anyone who needed it. 
  Chick-Fil-A handed out water.
  There were many instances of behavior like this.
  A tornado ripped through here not long ago, just a couple miles away from where I sit now; it destroyed a local high school and a number of other buildings and killed 7 people.
  Local authorities put in calls to FEMA but before anybody from the federal government could get here, teams were formed through local churches and organizations to clean up and assist those in need. Donations poured in and even local teenagers arrived on the scene to help.
  By the time FEMA responded days later, the mess had been cleaned locally and arrangements had been made through local schools to accommodate students' needs until new facilities were built.
  Which leads me to my main points.
  Don't count on the feds it comes to crises; local leaders are not only closest to the scene but locally accountable.
  Be prepared. For anything. When crises happen, they happen fast and sometimes without warning.
  Keep your sense of humor. Attitude changes everything.
  I might add that suspicions remain.
  Some visuals:

A drink at Swig: the Lake Erie Algae Bloom - vodka, lemonade, lime syrup and gummy worm!

.

  And some people are actually returning to the store the water they so greedily acquired a few days ago.

This year's shootout at Fancy Farms

There is no parallel to the Fancy Farms Picnic anywhere in the nation. Located in Graves County in western Kentucky the village began the tradition in the 1880's as a fund raising device for the local school. It remains that and no outside vendors are allowed as tons of barbecued pork, mutton, and chicken are sold and served. For a candidate running for statewide office attendance is mandatory. Notable attendees from outside Kentucky include Al Gore and George Wallace. Coming from a political family, Alison Lundergan Grimes has probably been attending this political shootout her entire life. The audience is both highly partisan and exceptionally tolerant as it protects the rights of the speakers to be both bullying and, God forbid, hurtful. Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Bill Cunningham laid out the rules, "When you agree with what they say, cheer. If you disagree, boo. And then shut up and let them go on with their speech."
It's remarkable that the is more tolerance in an elementary schoolyard in Kentucky than on an Ivy League campus.



While the crowd was it usual boisterous self during Grimes and McConnell's speeches notice the difference when Senator Rand Paul speaks. Paul begins with an unfortunate poem but when he focuses on the topic of coal the audience is hushed. It neither cheers nor boos loudly but seems to hang on Pauls every word. The subject is coal and in Kentucky that is serious business.

Keeping up with the science Kardashians

Judith Curry is a professor and Chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Although she once shared many of the scientific opinions of the hockey stick, apocalyptic, save the polar bears, crowd Curry followed the facts into the skeptical persuasion. She is troubled by what she calls the "tribal nature" of parts of the climate-science community and the perpetual stonewalling of the release of data that does not conform to the preconceived ideas of that community.
Today on her blog, Climate Etc, in half serious, half whimsical prose Curry examines the Kardashian Index in a must read post. The K Index was published at Genome Biology and determines one's social media presence. The creator, Neil Hall, worries that many scientist achieve professional renown not through the traditional course of publishing serious academic papers but rather through the Twitter sphere meaning that speaking loudly is more important than speaking correctly. Hall created the K Index to allow serious scientists to check their media presence. If one should have a K-index greater than 5 one should quit tweeting and start publishing serious work.
"Hence a high K-index is a warning to the community that researcher X may have built their public profile on shaky foundations, while a very low K-index suggests that a scientist is being undervalued. Here, I propose that those people whose K-index is greater than 5 can be considered ‘Science Kardashians’."

The Abstract

In the era of social media there are now many different ways that a scientist can build their public profile; the publication of high-quality scientific papers being just one. While social media is a valuable tool for outreach and the sharing of ideas, there is a danger that this form of communication is gaining too high a value and that we are losing sight of key metrics of scientific value, such as citation indices. To help quantify this, I propose the ‘Kardashian Index’, a measure of discrepancy between a scientist’s social media profile and publication record based on the direct comparison of numbers of citations and Twitter followers.
Writing further Hall states;
Now consider Kim Kardashian; she comes from a privileged background and, despite having not achieved anything consequential in science, politics or the arts (although apparently she does have a scientific mind, she is one of the most followed people on twitter and among the most searched-for person on Google. Her notoriety is said to have stemmed from an inadvertent internet release of a video featuring her and a boyfriend in a private moment. While her Wikipedia entry describes her as a successful businesswoman, this is due most likely to her fame generating considerable income through brand endorsements. So you could say that her celebrity buys success, which buys greater celebrity. Her fame has meant that comments by Kardashian on issues such as Syria have been widely reported in the press. Sadly, her interjection on the crisis has not yet led to a let-up in the violence.

While we would all agree that Al Gore became the ultimate Science Kardashian before the inception of Twitter Curry detects support for Kardashian method both in the New York Times and in academia. Whether one learned nuclear physics from Jane Fonda or nutritional science from Michelle Obama should make no difference as we fight the holy war to democratize science.

Ohio's Utica Shale Rivals Texas' Eagle Ford Start Up

Ohio's Utica Shale is coming of age. Beginning next month the U.S. Energy Information Administration will begin including Utica Shale oil and gas data in its monthly report on major shale plays. It will join the Bakkan Shale in North Dakota, the Eagle Ford in Texas, the Haynesville in Louisiana, the Marcellus in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, the Niobrara in Colorado,and the Permian in Texas. That's good company!

Comparing the first 20 month of production, Columbus Business First states, " Initial natural gas production from the Utica shale mirrors that of the Eagle Ford shale in Texas and is slightly higher than the Haynesville formation in Louisiana, according to a recent Energy Information Administration report."
That same comparison with the Marcellus shows the Utica to be only about two thirds as productive but it is something of an apples and oranges comparison. The Marcellus is a straight natural gas play whereas the Utica and Eagle Ford are mixed plays, producing both oil and wet gas (natural gas containing valuable condensates such as butane, ethane, and propane) necessitating the build out of a large midstream infrastructure for separation and fractionation which of course takes time.
Enlink is a midstream processor of natural gas and has several plants across the country. This is a tour of their Ohio facility

Louisiana sees Obamacare increases of 10% to 20%

From the Shreveport Times,

The state's largest insurer says close to 45,000 Louisiana policyholders could see the rates for their health coverage jump anywhere from 10 percent to nearly 20 percent next year, and the Affordable Care Act is a major reason.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana accounts for the bulk of those individual policies, which people buy directly from an insurance company rather than through their employer.
Blue Cross spokesman John Maginnis said the Affordable Care Act expanded access to health insurance to millions of Americans, regardless of age or health status, and guaranteed richer benefits. He says those things come at a cost.

Insurance companies are just beginning to announce their premium rates for next year and by all indications they will be painful. Senator Mary Landrieu is already lagging in the polls and having 45,000 angry policyholders/voters will not help her chances.

Put a bumper sticker in your yard

It's our girl Alison again. Competing for gaff master among gaff prone Democrats such as Joe Biden, Sheila Jackson Lee and Hank Johnson is a challenge even for Alison Lundergan Grimes. I hope you'll pick up one of her bumper stickers and put it in your yard.

NW Ohio's water problem

  Well, since there's a national story going on in my hood, I feel compelled to report on it.
  Perrysburg, along with numerous other communities (like 400,000 people) buys its water from Toledo, which sent out an emergency alert this morning at 2 am that we are not to use the water which may be toxic, presumably because of Lake Erie algae.
  Oddly, nearby Oregon has their own equally sophisticated water treatment plant pumped in from Lake Erie and they suffer no such difficulties; indeed Toledo's water treatment was just declared  superior and non-toxic.
  Thus the Governor has declared Lucas and Wood counties in a state of emergency.
  I'll admit I've felt rather smug about the fact that we have plenty of water here in NW Ohio. People are always making fun of those of us who live here until they figure out that we have the GREAT LAKES.
  So I'm feeling a bit abashed this morning to admit that we, um, have no water.
  This means no drinking, no laundry, no dish washing, no washing veggies. 
  We were relieved to learn this morning that it's ok to shower and flush, as if that were a concern with toilet water.
  Needless to say, people are behaving badly. Water was sold out around the town by 7 am with people lining up at Sam's and Costco with case after case of water, which they will undoubtedly not drink for years to come since, to be honest, how many people drink that much water around here anyway. I mean, unless you're a health nut in NW Ohio (of which we have a few), the normal consumption of water is NOT 7 bottles per individual per day.
  Though I suspect this water problem is indicative of the coming zombie apocalypse, I have to wonder in the event of a real emergency where no one was available to port in supplies such as the Red Cross, the National Guard and those big trucks from Walmart what we'd all do, considering how quickly people become ravenous beasts.
  Our situation also brings to mind a discussion by the "ladies" on The View the other day. 
  Shockingly 4 of the 5 ladies decided it would be prudent to own a gun, in the event of an emergency.
  This is pretty fascinating video, considering the cultural indications.
  It's also fascinating how true character is revealed in an emergency.

UPDATE: The National Guard is here.

Obama: it's all about my birthday

  Well, the big baby is at it again.
  He's bragging that the economy's better, that he's stuck at it and persistence has paid off.
  Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
  Reporters dig into Obama asking questions about things that actually matter and he complains that no one asked him about his birthday.
  Maybe because he's yesterday's news.

UPDATE: Maybe he was impatient for his weekend party to begin.

Living large at the Texas Hilton-If you build it they will come

One cannot help but be impressed by the detention facility at Karnes City, Texas. The story presently being spun in the press is that this is a converted prison. As usual the national media has it wrong. It was not suddenly remodeled and spruced up. It is a brand new building; built and owned by GEO Group at a cost of $32 million. The facility opened in 2012. Before you call you congressman to raise hell about about this ostentatious display of first world opulence to be lavished on a third world clientele consider the possibility that he, through no fault of his own, was not aware of this extravagance. Writing in the LA Times Brian Bennett in his objectively worded A kinder, gentler immigrant detention center reveals Congress was kept in the dark.

Behind tall walls, the grassy compound offers inmates a salad bar, a library with Internet access, cable TV, an indoor gym with basketball courts, and soccer fields. Instead of guards, unarmed "resident advisors" patrol the grounds in polo shirts and khakis.

How did they get away with this? ICE contracted with GEO Group to build the Karnes City Hilton to its specifications.

The $32-million Karnes City complex was built and will be managed by GEO Group Inc. a publicly traded company. It was built directly for Karnes County, but to specifications set by ICE, which limited public scrutiny and congressional oversight.

Just the sort of thing we have come to expect from the most transparent administration ever.
GEO Group is rather proud of its duplicity in the matter. It's all on their web site. Somehow the municipality of Karnes City is woven into this web of public deceit.

The Center’s property spans nearly 29 acres of land. The
construction cost for the Center was $32 million which was
financed by GEO. Karnes County contracts with GEO for
the Center’s day-to-day operation and the detainee population is
housed at the Center under an Intergovernmental Service
Agreement between Karnes County, Texas and ICE. The
Center’s highlights and services include:
• Contact visitation for residents 7 days a week
• Eight (8) person dorms complete with cable television and
private bathroom
• Open movement from 6 am to 10 pm
• Cafeteria style dining with salad bar and hot bar
• Commissary with walk-up feature open 7 days a week
• Daily recreation activities and resources including exercise
equipment, soccer field, volleyball court, basketball court,
indoor recreation center and handball court
• Computer lab with access to email and internet services
• English as a Second Language and Life Skills classes

Naturally such a facility deserved a truly grand opening with everyone who was anybody in attendance including of course the Islamic Society of
North America.

The grand opening ceremony was complemented with
refreshments and tours given to national media outlets
including The New York Times, NBC News, NBC Universal
(Telemundo), Agence France Press, National Public Radio, and
KWX Univision. Local news media attending were CBS KENS
5, Fox 29 News, San Antonio Current, WOAI, ABC KSAT
12, Texas Public Radio, and the San Antonio Express News.
Several Non-Governmental Organizations attended and toured
the Center as well. Grassroots Leadership, Detention Watch
Network, Texas Civil Rights Project, and Islamic Society of
North America were some of the organizations in attendance.

Hmm. Some of the same news media that are now expressing surprise at this damn boondoggle.
Just a few tips from ICE if you want to send cousin Julio money or are planning a visit to see him. Don't send cash and don't show up drunk.

If detainees receive funds in the mail, they will be taken to the processing area for the money to be placed into their account. The processing officer will provide a receipt for all funds received. Detainees are cautioned not to have cash sent to them in the mail.

and

If visitors are or appear to be intoxicated, visitation will not be allowed.

No one wants to be mean especially to innocent children but when pictures of this reach  Latin America it cannot help but promote more illegal entries. Like Field of Dreams, if you build it they will come and that is probably its purpose.

68% disapprove of Obama's immigration debacle

The AP-GFK poll is bad news for Democrats, especially Democrats running in red states. First, the poll finds Obama underwater by 19 percentage points; 59% to 40%. During the rollout of Obamacare Obama's approval was lower at 37% but the finding that 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of his job performance should give Obama and the Democrats pause. That coupled with the fact that on the issue the public cares the most about (immigration policy) his approval is the lowest. Also only 12% of respondents strongly approve of the job he is doing while 35% strongly disapprove.
When asked which issues were the most important immigration was ranked highest at 62%. The break down is as follows:

	Extremely/ very important
Immigration	62%
Relationships with other countries	52%
The situation in Ukraine	38%
The conflict between Israel and Hamas	42%
The situation in Iraq	38%
The situation in Afghanistan	40%
The U.S. role in world affairs	51%

So how do they rate Obama?

	Total approve	Total disapprove
Immigration	31%	68%
Relationships with other countries	43%	55%
The situation in Ukraine	41%	57%
The conflict between Israel and Hamas	37%	60%
The situation in Iraq	41%	57%
The situation in Afghanistan	38%	60%
The U.S. role in world affairs	39%	59%

Obviously this polled is skewed toward foreign affairs but it's doubtful Obama will find redemption in Obamacare or the overall economy. He has damaged the Democrat brand. He may rail against House Republicans but the public trusts them more than his party to handle foreign affairs including immigration.

Which party do you trust to do a better job of immigration? Republicans 29%, Democrats 25%.
Which party do you trust to do a better job of protecting the country? Republicans 33%, Democrats 18%.
Which party do you trust to do a better job of handling the U.S. image abroad? Republicans 27%, Democrats 24%.

If 68% of the public does not approve of the President's handling of immigration now will it be more approving after a promise of amnesty? There is no polling that suggests that hundreds of thousands illegals entering the country is going to get the Democrats through the next election. I've always thought Obama would over play his hand and his party is may be about to get slammed in spades.
 

Kaiser poll: Obamacare more unpopular than ever!

According to the Washington Post Obamacare has moved beyond being controversial; it's almost universally detested or to use the Post's wording unpopular. In a post entitled Suddenly, Obamacare is more unpopular than ever the Post cites polling from the Kaiser Foundation showing that as the public has made up its mind those who were merely ambivalent about the law now view it unfavorably. Kaiser cannot explain the sudden up tick in the law's unpopularity which is at an all time high in this poll. In general Kaiser polling has been kinder to Obamacare than most polls and has become the poll of last resort for Obamacare supporters. Now that prop is gone.