Friday, August 31, 2012

Obama rams through emission reductions with executive order

He couldn't get Congress to do it, so President Obama instead used (the unconstitutional?) executive order power to ram through new emission reductions.

The wire story from Reuters actually paints it as a good thing: Obama's new order will slash carbon emissions by 150 million tons per year, and in so doing, boost energy efficiency, encourage investment, save the planet, yada yada. But the reality is this is just another green agenda item that will raise costs, ultimately, on consumers -- and one that is so obviously unpopular that it had to be implemented over the objections of Congress, while the eyes of the media were turned toward the Republican convention.

From the Reuters story: The order directs the Departments of Energy, Commerce, and Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency, in coordination with a number of White House advisory groups, to coordinate their policies to encourage investment in industrial efficiency. The order also directs the federal agencies to help states to use CHP [combined heat and power] to achieve their national ambient air quality standards, and provide incentives through their regulations to help boost the technology.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Marine forced into pysch ward will sue, attorney says

The former Marine who was forcibly placed in a psychiatric ward by government officials who didn’t like his Facebook postings will sue for unlawful arrest, according to his attorneys.

“We are definitely going to move forward with a lawsuit,” said Nisha Whitehead, assistant to the president at the Rutherford Institute, the nonprofit civil rights firm defending Brandon Raub.

Mr. Raub, 26, a decorated former Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was arrested at his Richmond, Va., home Aug. 16 for anti-government statements and song lyrics posted on his private Facebook page. Secret Service, FBI and Chesterfield County police transported him to John Randolph Medical Facility in Hopewell, Va., for a psychiatric evaluation. Over the objections of attorney and Rutherford Institute President John Whitehead, Mr. Raub was then transferred to the VA Hospital in Salem, Va.

Mr. Raub won his freedom on Aug. 23 when Circuit Court Judge Allan Sharrett found his forced detention “so devoid of any factual allegations that it could not be reasonably expected to give rise to a case or controversy.”

Friday, August 24, 2012

CNN's Cooper rips into DNC's Debbie Wasserman-Schultz



Is this a dream or reality?

CNN's Anderson Cooper completely tears into DNC chief Debbie Wasserman-Schultz for completely misrepresenting an L.A. Times quote to further the Democrats' political agenda against Romney.

It's seven minutes of pure mouth-opening joy.

It comes from Cooper's Aug. 23 "Keeping them Honest" segment. It's a keeper, that's for sure.





Thursday, August 23, 2012

Court frees Marine forced into psych ward for Facebook postings

A former Marine who was forced into a psychiatric ward for anti-government Facebook postings has been freed from the hospital, according to a Circuit Court ruling handed down Thursday.

Judge Allan Sharrett dismissed the case against Brandon Raub, who had been detained by government officials and transferred to a VA Hospital in Salem, Va., earlier this week. The judge called the petition to continue Raub's forced detention “so devoid of any factual allegations that it could not be reasonably expected to give rise to a case or controversy.” Mr. Raub will be released immediately.

“This is a great victory for the First Amendment and the rule of law,” said John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, in a written statement. “Brandon Raub was arrested with no warning, targeted for doing nothing more than speaking out against the government, detained against his will, and isolated from his family, friends and attorneys. These are the kinds of things that take place in totalitarian societies. Today, at least, Judge Allan Sharrett proved that justice can still prevail in America.”

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Marine put in psych ward for Facebook posts gets legal help

The attorney for the former Marine who was forced into a psychiatric ward for anti-government Facebook postings filed a petition Wednesday claiming law enforcement did not uphold Virginia laws for involuntary detentions.

“The law requires that within four hours of detaining someone, you have to have a magistrate write a petition for a temporary restraining order,” said John Whitehead, an attorney with the Rutherford Institute, the Virginia-based civil rights firm that is defending the ex-Marine. “They didn’t do that. That didn’t happen.”

Brandon Raub, 26, was taken into custody at his Richmond, Va., home Thursday, Aug. 16, by FBI and Secret Service agents and Chesterfield County Police. He has yet to be charged with a crime; he was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police vehicle and transported to the police department. From there, he was admitted to the John Randolph Medical Facility in Hopewell for a psychiatric evaluation.

His crime?

Officially, nothing.

“They did not charge him with anything,” Whitehead said.

The Facebook postings — the biggest clue so far to the reasons for his detention — were part of a private chat, inaccessible without an invitation, and included anti-government sentiments and warnings of revolution.

“This was a closed group, not public, not a posting on a wall,” said Cathleen Thomas, Raub’s mother, in a Wednesday morning interview. “They had to hack in to it to see it, then they took the comments out of context. But agree with him or not, agree with his comments or not, the bigger question is, why is the government checking on postings in the first place? The point is, he has a right to free speech.”

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Forced hospitalization of Marine spits on First Amendment

Shame on you, Virginia. From Restoring Liberty:

"A former Marine involuntarily detained for psychiatric evaluation for posting strident anti-government messages on Facebook has received an outpouring of support from people who say authorities are trampling on his First Amendment rights.

"Brandon J. Raub, 26, has been in custody since FBI, Secret Service agents and police in Virginia’s Chesterfield County questioned him Thursday evening about what they said were ominous posts talking about a coming revolution. In one message earlier this month according to authorities, Raub wrote: “Sharpen my axe; I’m here to sever heads.”"

Were his comments over the top? That's an opinion ... but be careful how you phrase it. In Virginia, the wrong opinion will get you thrown behind bars.

Read more here: http://joemiller.us/2012/08/fox-news-finally-reports-marine-vet-detained-for-another-month-due-to-facebook-posts/

Monday, August 13, 2012

Fracking to save America?

An abundance of domestic energy will enable the United States to cut in half its reliance on oil from the Middle East by the end of the decade, and could end any reliance at all by 2035, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

America’s bright energy outlook is due to new technologies for hydraulic fracturing, extraction from oil sands, and deep-sea oil recovery, EIA explains in a newly released report. EIA, for example, expects energy producers to more than double oil production in the rich Bakken shale formation in North Dakota during the next 20 years. Recent advances in hydraulic fracturing make such Bakken oil production economically possible, EIA explains.

EIA’s promising domestic energy forecast may nevertheless be derailed by environmental activists and government officials clamping down on energy production. Activist groups such as the Sierra Club oppose hydraulic fracturing, citing water pollution fears.

Read more here: http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2012/08/08/eia-forecasts-bright-energy-future-thanks-hydraulic-fracturing 

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Less than half of Americans buy into global warming

Less than half of Americans believe global warming is occurring and is primarily caused by humans, a newly published Angus Reid public opinion poll reports.

Merely 42 percent of Americans and 43 percent of Britons believe global warming is occurring and is primarily caused by humans, according to the three-nation poll. Canadians are more willing to buy into climate alarmists’ assertions, with 58 percent saying global warming is occurring and is primarily caused by humans.

According to the survey results, global warming alarmists shot themselves in the foot when the public learned about prominent alarmist scientists hiding, doctoring, and destroying data and bullying editors of peer-reviewed journals not to publish studies casting doubt on global warming alarmism.

“We saw a big drop in belief in emissions-caused climate change immediately after the so-called Climategate controversy,” said Mario Canseco, vice president of Angus Reid. “Many people in the United Kingdom were disappointed with the revelation, and the numbers have dropped as a result.”

Read my full story on the survey here: http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2012/08/03/minority-americans-believe-manmade-global-warming-crisis.