Sunday, March 10, 2013
28% of Alaska Reserve’s Recoverable Oil Declared Off-Limits
Newsmax
Outgoing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has signed a directive placing 28 percent of the “estimated economically recoverable oil” in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve off-limits to oil exploration.
The Record of Decision signed by Salazar marks the first time a plan has been put into effect to regulate all of the Reserve.
The action “allows the development of 72 percent of the estimated economically recoverable oil in the nearly 23-million-acre Reserve, while protecting the vital subsistence resources of Alaska Natives and the habitat of world-class wildlife populations,” the Interior Department said in a statement.
The plan protects “critical areas for sensitive bird populations” and for “the roughly 400,000 caribou” in parts of the Reserve, the statement asserts.
The statement does not disclose that 28 percent of the Reserve is now closed to development. Simple math does.
The Reserve was set aside by President Warren Harding in 1923 as an emergency oil supply for the U.S. Navy. It was transferred to the Department of the Interior in 1976 and is now known as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
Republicans were quick to criticize Salazar’s move.
Rep. Doc Hastings of Washington, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement: “Only in President Obama’s backwards worldview of anti-energy policies does it make sense to prohibit energy production in a place specifically set aside for energy production at a time when gasoline prices are skyrocketing.”
The village of Nuiqsut, a mostly Alaska Native community in the Reserve, had requested that more land south of nearby Teshekpuk Lake be made available for drilling leases, but the request was ignored by the Interior Department, CNS News reported.
Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska said: “No one disputes the importance of Teshekpuk Lake to waterfowl and caribou, but I think we should listen most closely to those who live there and depend on these critical subsistence resources as well as the economic opportunity resource development can bring.”
Salazar, who oversaw a moratorium on offshore drilling after the BP oil spill and promoted alternative energy sources throughout the nation, is stepping down this month.
Newsmax
Outgoing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has signed a directive placing 28 percent of the “estimated economically recoverable oil” in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve off-limits to oil exploration.
The Record of Decision signed by Salazar marks the first time a plan has been put into effect to regulate all of the Reserve.
The action “allows the development of 72 percent of the estimated economically recoverable oil in the nearly 23-million-acre Reserve, while protecting the vital subsistence resources of Alaska Natives and the habitat of world-class wildlife populations,” the Interior Department said in a statement.
The plan protects “critical areas for sensitive bird populations” and for “the roughly 400,000 caribou” in parts of the Reserve, the statement asserts.
The statement does not disclose that 28 percent of the Reserve is now closed to development. Simple math does.
The Reserve was set aside by President Warren Harding in 1923 as an emergency oil supply for the U.S. Navy. It was transferred to the Department of the Interior in 1976 and is now known as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
Republicans were quick to criticize Salazar’s move.
Rep. Doc Hastings of Washington, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement: “Only in President Obama’s backwards worldview of anti-energy policies does it make sense to prohibit energy production in a place specifically set aside for energy production at a time when gasoline prices are skyrocketing.”
The village of Nuiqsut, a mostly Alaska Native community in the Reserve, had requested that more land south of nearby Teshekpuk Lake be made available for drilling leases, but the request was ignored by the Interior Department, CNS News reported.
Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska said: “No one disputes the importance of Teshekpuk Lake to waterfowl and caribou, but I think we should listen most closely to those who live there and depend on these critical subsistence resources as well as the economic opportunity resource development can bring.”
Salazar, who oversaw a moratorium on offshore drilling after the BP oil spill and promoted alternative energy sources throughout the nation, is stepping down this month.
"Jihad is a duty": Bin Laden's son-in-law pleads not guilty in NY
From Jihad Watch / Posted by Robert Spencer
Why is he being tried in New York? This just gives him a platform. But while he is in the U.S., maybe he will see Hamas-linked CAIR's jihad-is-romping-through-the-daisies ads, and realize the error of his ways.
"Bin Laden's Son-in-Law: Pleads Not Guilty in NY," by Lara Jakes and Tom Hays for the Associated Press, March 8 (thanks to Pamela Geller):
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, the charismatic al-Qaida spokesman, fundraiser and son-in-law to Osama bin Laden, is likely to have a vast trove of knowledge about the terror network's central command but not much useful information about current threats or plots, intelligence officials and other experts say.
Abu Ghaith pleaded not guilty Friday to conspiring to kill Americans in propaganda videos that warned of further assaults against the United States as devastating as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Believed to be more of a strategic player in bin Laden's inner circle than an operational plotter, Abu Ghaith would be the highest-ranking al-Qaida figure to stand trial on U.S. soil since 9/11. Intelligence officials say he may be able to shed new light on al-Qaida's inner workings — concerning al-Qaida's murky dealings in Iran over the past decade, for example — but probably will have few details about specific or imminent ongoing threats.
He gave U.S. officials a 22-page statement after his Feb. 28 arrest in Jordan, according to prosecutors. They would not describe the statement.
Bearded and balding, Abu Ghaith said little during the 15-minute hearing in U.S. District Court in New York — in lower Manhattan just blocks from Ground Zero — and displayed none of the finger-wagging or strident orations that marked his propaganda in the days and months after 9/11.
Through an interpreter, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan asked whether he understood his rights. Abu Ghaith nodded and said, "Yes." Asked whether he had money to hire an attorney, he shook his head and said no. He nodded and said yes when asked whether he had signed an affidavit describing his financial situation.
Kaplan promised to set a trial date when the case returns to court on April 8. Bail was not requested, and none was set. Abu Ghaith's lawyer declined comment after the hearing.
The fact that the defendant is being tried in federal district court is controversial in itself. Republicans are criticizing the Obama administration for bringing Abu Ghaith to New York instead of sending him to the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
President Barack Obama has promised to close Guantanamo, where terror detainees generally have fewer legal rights and due process than they would have in a U.S. federal court. But critics say a suspect like Abu Ghaith should be held at Guantanamo and treated as an enemy combatant rather than a "common criminal" with full rights in an everyday court.
A month after 9/11, Abu Ghaith called on every Muslim to join the fight against the United States, declaring that "jihad is a duty."
"The Americans must know that the storm of airplanes will not stop, God willing, and there are thousands of young people who are as keen about death as Americans are about life," he said in the Oct. 9, 2001, speech....Islamic supremacists avowedly and proudly love death. A Muslim child preacher recently taunted those he has been taught to hate most: "Oh Zionists, we love death for the sake of Allah, just as much as you love life for the sake of Satan." Jihad mass murderer Mohamed Merah said that he "loved death more than they loved life." Nigerian jihadist Abubakar Shekau said: "I'm even longing for death, you vagabond."
Ayman al-Zawahiri's wife advised Muslim women: "I advise you to raise your children in the cult of jihad and martyrdom and to instil in them a love for religion and death." And as one jihadist put it, "We love death. You love your life!" And another: "The Americans love Pepsi-Cola, we love death." That was from Afghan jihadist Maulana Inyadullah.
Of course, this idea comes from the Qur'an itself: "Say (O Muhammad): O ye who are Jews! If ye claim that ye are favoured of Allah apart from (all) mankind, then long for death if ye are truthful." -- Qur'an 62:6
“Sequester,” a word foreign to most of us, “is a term used to describe the practice of using mandatory spending cuts in the federal budget if the cost of running the government exceeds either an arbitrary amount or the gross revenue it brings during the fiscal year.” In short, it is what happens when the cost of running the government exceeds the revenue.
Washington only talks about two choices when the cost of running the government exceeds the revenues: raising taxes and cutting spending. Taxes were raised as a part of the fiscal cliff deal. Sequester fills out the other half of the equation by cutting spending.
But there is an overlooked option: creating new wealth—which is different from printing new money.
Creating new wealth involves producing something of value which didn’t exist before, but that someone will pay for, bringing new money into the system. Our personal budget generally works this way: we have a job that we get paid for. We use that money to pay bills and buy stuff. That same money cycles through the system and ultimately comes back to us in the form of a paycheck. And the cycle continues. But if, one day, you were digging in your backyard and you found a pot of gold—that puts new wealth into your personal system. You can sell the gold, creating new wealth for yourself.
As a country, our bills and the stuff we buy—the cost of running the government— has exceeded the revenue for some time. The same is true for many states, counties, and cities—often resulting in bankruptcy. Not every city, county, or state has a pot of gold, but in the form of natural resources—many do. Some choose to dig up the pot of gold, creating wealth resulting in a healthy community and government. Some choose not to and instead are back to the same two choices: raising taxes and cutting spending.
On January 10, I was at a county commission hearing in New Mexico’s San Miguel County. This poor, rural county in northeastern New Mexico has geology that leads the experts to believe that there might be oil or natural gas under their feet. Several surrounding counties do have known resources and people who own the land and production companies are eager to explore to see if there is, in fact, a “pot of gold.” As is to be expected these days, there is plenty of opposition, scaring folks with talk of supposed water contamination and other calamities.
The hearing opened with a Skype presentation from the executive director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. He clearly stated that the group’s goal were to stop or block production or to create so many regulations that exploration and development was cost-prohibitive. Next a parade of naysayers, with a sprinkling of supporters, addressed the county commissioners.
The commissioners asked questions throughout the day-long process. However, they really perked up at the testimony of two county officials from the oil-producing corner of the state: Greg Niebert—County Commissioner for Chaves County; and Mike Gallagher—County Manager for Lea County. Both talked about the decades, during which fracking has been used in their counties, with only positive impacts: their schools are fully funded, unemployment is virtually nonexistent (one proclaimed that anyone who can pass a drug test can get a job), and their economies are thriving. I could almost see the dollar signs rolling through the eyes of San Miguel County Commissioners like a slot machine spinning.
Niebert produced some papers containing a resolution that the Chaves County Commission had just passed that morning. The gist of the document said that the oil and gas counties of the state were tired of supporting all the other counties—especially those that had resources, but elected not to use them. In New Mexico, revenues generated from resources extracted from state lands fill the Land Grant Permanent Fund—which is the largest contributor to the state’s schools and hospitals. Overall, the industry is responsible for nearly half of the state’s budget—which generally has a surplus. The resolution proposed that the schools and hospitals in the counties with resources that chose not to extract them should not get the benefit of the counties that do.
That is New Mexico’s story. But the theme runs through other states that are creating new wealth: Texas, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania—with a welcome increase in jobs and tax revenues. Each has very low unemployment and a thriving economy. Contrast those states to two of the states hardest hit in this time of economic demise: California and Nevada. Like New Mexico’s San Miguel Country, both have natural resources, but unlike the poor, rural county, the states’ resources are known. While San Miguel is considering a drilling ban, the troubled states have an effective ban and a big part of their pot of gold is on federally owned land. Policies and regulations could prevent the states from accessing their individual pots of gold (Nevada has the Chainman Shale and California the Monterey Shale), which would create new wealth for local communities as well as state and federal governments. David Pratt, president of Santa Maria Energy, says: “the Monterey is California’s way out of the ‘fiscal toilet.’”
California’s Senate Republican Leader, Bob Huff, agrees. He told me: “California sits on two-thirds of America's shale oil reserves, which is an economic gold mine just waiting to be safely extracted. Tapping into this reserve could cause an oil boom that would dwarf North Dakota’s oil riches that have given the state a $3.2 billion budget surplus and the nation’s lowest unemployment rate at 3.2%.”
“I am committed to new job and business creation for all Californians. We should not ignore recent technological innovations that have released a bounty of wealth in other oil-producing states and put people back to work. It makes absolutely no sense to create these new jobs and wealth in countries who are not friendly to the United States, when we can put our own citizens to work and gain energy independence at the same time.”
“But alas,” Matt Insley, a specialist on commodities and natural resources, says, “this is California. The political and environmental red tape in the state have brought energy development to a virtual halt.”
The New York Times reports: “The oil companies’ plans for the Monterey Shale are already drawing increasing scrutiny from environmental groups.” Despite the fact that “oil companies have engaged in fracking in California for decades,” Kassie Siegel, a lawyer at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), calls it “one of the most, if not the most, important environmental issue in California.”
Meanwhile, people are leaving the state, houses are being foreclosed, and unemployment levels are the highest in the country.
Though less-widely reported, Nevada faces a similar opportunityand opposition.
Houston-based Noble Energy Inc. has leases for 350,000 acres in ElkoCounty. They plan to spend $130 million over four years to ramp up operations. However, the Las Vegas Review Journalcites the federally owned land as “the greatest limitation Nevada faces in getting its resources to market. … Much of Noble's plan requires Washington's blessing. Midwestern states, which are composed almost entirely of private land, have no such problem, hence their prosperity.”
As we’ve seen with the Keystone pipeline, it is expected that the greens will “put on a full-court press to block the project.” Rob Mrowka, who heads the Nevada CBDoffice, says: “Fracking is not a good thing.
We don't feel there is a safe way to do it.”
California and Nevada—along with New York—have known resources, yet they depend on other localesfor much of their energy. What if the states that sell their resources to California, decided to follow Chaves County’s lead and told California they are on their own? California is using the resources, but sending their money out of state—which helps the other states and hurts California.
Gabe Garcia, an assistant field officer for the Bureau of Land Management in Bakersfield, CA, reports: “the government receives 12.5 percent of revenues from the oil retrieved. … Last year we brought in $190 million.” Half of that goes to the state of California; the other half goes to the federal government. And the $190 million figure is before the Monterey Shale takes off.
Insley believes “A change in tone from the political side” could fuel a turnaround. It is the politics that is holding back a boom in new wealth creation and as California Senator Huff said: “It makes absolutely no sense.”
Sequester didn’t have to happen. Allowing, even encouraging, development of our natural resources would bring welcome new tax revenues that might even exceed the cost of running the government.
Last week on Hannity a “Democratic Strategist” named Zerlina
Maxwell told Sean and his audience that guns are not the proper
deterrent to dissuade rapists, but rather “teaching men not to rape is the key”.
When I heard that chunk of stupidity I blew apple juice out of my nostrils -- and I haven’t had any apple juice in the last eight years.
That’s what you call “strategy”, Zerlina? Man, I hope she advises the Dems in the upcoming midterms and in 2016, because she’s denser than a chunk of Turkish walnut.
First off, I don’t know what planet Maxwell hails from, but here on Mother Earth I would say, aside from certain countries influenced by the religion of peace, pretty much everyone and their dog knows it’s wrong to put a knife or gun up to a woman’s noggin and then forcibly molest her.
Secondly, I don’t think, from a viability standpoint, her plan is workable. Primarily, because no matter how much men are “trained not to rape women” our society counters that tutelage by fueling notions of entitlement and narcissism within an atmosphere of violence that’s saturated with porn, where if you don’t get what you want then you act out.
From Zerlina’s zinger of teaching men not to rape, we then move to the brilliance of a girl named “Liberal Chick” who, in order to eschew an “evil gun” firearm defense in rape situations, states that we should train boys to …
Given our malevolent milieu, here are three ditties that’ll greatly decrease your chances of getting raped, ladies.
1. Hone your BS Detector. The BS detector is essentially that little voice inside your head telling you to listen to the little voice inside your head. It’s an internal salvific alarm alerting you to dangerous situations. If you hone your BS Detector and listen to it when it starts screaming at you, you’ll be safer.
2. Become an expert in self-defense. In this violent environment you’re crazy to play the damsel in distress. Learn to kick some ass. Take formal training, throughout your life, as much as you can, by the best of the best.
3. Get a gun. Forget rape whistles, pepper spray and screaming for help. Get a firearm, sister. It is the great equalizer. A 5’1” petite coed with a Colt Python or a pump 20-guage, who knows how to use it, is a scary girl indeed. Think Lara Croft.
The thing that’s truly pathetic and evil is that Maxwell and her Leftist cabal, in order to forward their anti-gun agenda, will table such unworkable, scat-based nonsense to the very women they claim to champion.
When I heard that chunk of stupidity I blew apple juice out of my nostrils -- and I haven’t had any apple juice in the last eight years.
That’s what you call “strategy”, Zerlina? Man, I hope she advises the Dems in the upcoming midterms and in 2016, because she’s denser than a chunk of Turkish walnut.
First off, I don’t know what planet Maxwell hails from, but here on Mother Earth I would say, aside from certain countries influenced by the religion of peace, pretty much everyone and their dog knows it’s wrong to put a knife or gun up to a woman’s noggin and then forcibly molest her.
Secondly, I don’t think, from a viability standpoint, her plan is workable. Primarily, because no matter how much men are “trained not to rape women” our society counters that tutelage by fueling notions of entitlement and narcissism within an atmosphere of violence that’s saturated with porn, where if you don’t get what you want then you act out.
From Zerlina’s zinger of teaching men not to rape, we then move to the brilliance of a girl named “Liberal Chick” who, in order to eschew an “evil gun” firearm defense in rape situations, states that we should train boys to …
1. Play with dolls so they will learn to be gentle.Look, if I were a lass I’d tell both Zerlina and Liberal Chick, “No, gracias, senoritas”. Liberal Chick’s and Maxwell’s brain farts are right up there with Democratic Congressman Salazar’s “rape whistle” and University of Colorado’s “pee your pants” prevention in molestation situations.
2. Avoid hunting, football and other macho stupid activities that lead to rape.
3. Be vegetarians and suppress their love of eating meat that also leads to rape.
4. Purchase Prius’s instead of big SUV’s, which we all know macho, stupid rapists drive.
5. Become gay, or at least metro sexual, so that as men they will be more delicate and complex.
Given our malevolent milieu, here are three ditties that’ll greatly decrease your chances of getting raped, ladies.
1. Hone your BS Detector. The BS detector is essentially that little voice inside your head telling you to listen to the little voice inside your head. It’s an internal salvific alarm alerting you to dangerous situations. If you hone your BS Detector and listen to it when it starts screaming at you, you’ll be safer.
2. Become an expert in self-defense. In this violent environment you’re crazy to play the damsel in distress. Learn to kick some ass. Take formal training, throughout your life, as much as you can, by the best of the best.
3. Get a gun. Forget rape whistles, pepper spray and screaming for help. Get a firearm, sister. It is the great equalizer. A 5’1” petite coed with a Colt Python or a pump 20-guage, who knows how to use it, is a scary girl indeed. Think Lara Croft.
The thing that’s truly pathetic and evil is that Maxwell and her Leftist cabal, in order to forward their anti-gun agenda, will table such unworkable, scat-based nonsense to the very women they claim to champion.
Op-ed:
The newest jobs numbers
are NOT what they seem
By: Diane Sori
Barack HUSSEIN Obama and his minions
are trying to fool 'We the People' once again, and this time his
bloviations have to do with the latest jobs numbers.
I sure hope the American people don't
get fooled by last Friday's new numbers. And while Obama does a 'happy dance' of 'I told you so,' the
only reason the numbers appear to fortell a glimmer of hope for an
economic recovery is that the numbers are NOT what they seem if
they're picked apart and really examined under the proverbial
microscope.
And that's NOT happy news as there are now 89.304 million eligible workers (up from 89.008 million in January) not in the labor force...people who want to work but who can't work because there simply are NO jobs for them...which means the so-called economic recovery is just NOT a reality NO matter what Obama and crew say. And with employers moving towards part time employees instead of full time employees things are NOT good for working middle class families, because shifting towards part time work causes added loss of income for families. And now add in the effects of the Obama payroll-tax increase, and the simple fact becomes that most workers are even worse off than they were at the end of last year.
For example, the median annual household income in January 2013 of $51,584 was 4.5% LOWER than the median of $54,008 in June 2009, which is when the Obama claimed the 'supposed' recovery began. Also, household income is now 6.2% LOWER than it was when the recession began (December 2007), and is 7.3% LOWER than the median of $55,659 in January 2000 before we ever heard the dreaded name Barack HUSSEIN Obama.
Also,
the unemployment rate is still at a high of 7.7% and really won't
drop much lower NO matter how much Obama promises it will...NOT with
twelve million Americans officially classified as unemployed, and
with 4.8 million of them being out of work for six months or longer.
In addition, roughly 8 million people are part-time workers, and
another 2.6 million are classed as 'marginally attached to the work
force,' meaning they wanted a job but hadn’t actively looked for
one in the latest four-week period of numbers taking.
I'll tell you why...it's because the newest jobs numbers are just another one in the string of lies told by the Obama administration. In fact, The Labor Department just revised DOWN the number of jobs added in January to 119,000 from the 157,000 Obama's people had claimed. Also, these numbers are the last before the government's across the board spending cuts known as sequestration go into effect forcing economists to wait and see if the Congressional Budget Office's projection of 750,000 fewer jobs actually happens or if the US economy is strong enough to survive the cuts, and continue to create enough private sector jobs to make up for the government jobs that could be on the chopping block.
By the way, overpaid useless government jobs going bye-bye would be just fine with me.
So, if you only look at and believe the numbers thrown out by team Obama, it appears the employment picture is improving but it's NOT because NO matter how they twist the numbers too many Americans are NEVER going to get back economically to where they were before the Obama created recession.
And that is something Barack HUSSEIN Obama built and owns.
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