Energy efficiency “standards” exposed

Fed light bulb mandates get temporary reprieve

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) questions the Department of Energy’s commitment to protecting consumer choice during consideration of Appliance/Light Bulb Energy-Efficiency legislation. Although not recent, it is well worth watching the doubletalk from Obama’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency, Kathleen Hogan.

Seeing Red AZ wrote about this scam and that of under performing low-flush toilets, in December 2007. It’s worth reviewing since government mandates implementing the use of compact fluorescent bulbs, while effecting a ban on incandescents was scheduled for implementation in 2012. The green game has been responsible for putting many Americans out of work. The last American light bulb factory closed last year.

This past October, with the Winchester Lamp Plant closure, the last 200 factory workers making General Electric light bulbs in the United States lost their jobs. GE which backed the job-killing government regulations, will still be manufacturing traditional incandescents — but in Monterrey, Mexico. The bulbs will be available in the emerging markets inIndia andChina, where more people use electricity every day, and no such restrictions exist.

With no money budgeted to implement this federal overreach in last week’s passage of the  massive $1 trillion, 1,200-page spending bill that funds the government through the rest of this fiscal year, the measure has a temporary reprieve.

The spending bill doesn’t actually amend the 2007 law, but does prohibit the administration from spending any money to carry out the light bulb standards — for the time being

Obama uses honor system to secure border

Work on unmanned passageway already underway

Fox News reports on the Obama administration’s disturbing scheme to supplant U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents with National Park Service employees at the Big Bend National Park in West Texas. “Improved conservation efforts” take precedence over bloody border drug wars and illegal traffic flooding into the United States, as Obama approves this unmanned border entry with Mexico.

Kiosks are expected to be in place by spring which will allow Mexican nationals and others desiring unfettered access into our country, to scan their identity documents and talk to a customs officer in another location — at least 100 miles away. As CIS reports, there is already a massive business in forged, stolen and counterfeit identification that aids illegal traffic.  Look for this foolish risk-taking on the part of our own government to intensify it.

Congressman Michael McCaul, (R-TX CD10) is a member of the House Homeland Security committee. He has strong credentials in this arena, having previously served as Chief of Counter Terrorism and National Security in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Texas, and led the Joint Terrorism Task Force charged with detecting, deterring and preventing terrorist activity.

U. S. Rep. McCaul questioned the wisdom of using taxpayer paid, federal funds to expand access to unauthorized border crossers.

“We need to use our resources to secure the border rather than making it easier to enter in locations where we already have problems with illegal crossings,” McCaul said. “There is more to the oversight of legal entry than checking documents. U.S. Customs and Border Protection needs to be physically present at every point of entry in order to inspect for contraband, detect suspicious behavior and, if necessary, act on what they encounter.”

McCaul’s background also includes service as Texas Deputy Attorney General and as a federal prosecutor in the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section in Washington, D.C.

News reports state a “public comment” period cuts off December 27, although there is no link to any such site.  The estimated $2.3 million project has support at the highest levels of government from both Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

What a surprise.

McCain gets something right — Liberals ablaze

Readers of this site know full well we are not McFans.  For decades, John McCain has been a consistent aisle crosser, partnering with the most liberal of Democrats. He has built a career on being a “maverick,” reveling in his leftist leanings while running as a Republican.

But today we report that he has been vindicated for his comments regarding the cause of countless and massive wildfires plaguing Arizona’s southern border. He was unjustly targeted by open-border Hispanic activists and maligned as an irresponsible racist for attributing many of the raging fires that devastated hundreds of thousands of acres and property to illegal aliens crossing into Arizona.

Arizona sheriffs, U.S. Forest Service officials, and federal and local investigators have long detailed credible evidence supporting myriad devastation caused by illegals.

After the Wallow Fire, Associate Deputy Chief Jim Pena of the U.S. Forest Service acknowledged as much in testimony before a U.S. House Government Committee.  ”We have been asked specifically if the fires are related to cross border activities. What I can tell you is that from 2002-2011 457 fires have been determined to be human caused in the SW border area of the Coronado National Forest.”

“To date [July] in Fiscal Year 2011 approximately 7,000 undocumented aliens have been apprehended and 76,000 pounds of marijuana have been seized on or around the CoronadoNational Forest. Wildfires occur near the U.S./Mexico border where there is heavy cross border traffic.”  Read the transcript here.

Yet Randy Parraz, the professional agitator who is behind the baseless recall of Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce, called McCain’s comments “careless and reckless,” saying “it’s easier to fan the flames of intolerance, especially in Arizona.”  McCain “should know better than to make unsupported claims about the state’s most vulnerable populations.”

Amazingly, the left-leaning daily newspaper takes a rare cogent view in today’s editorial saying “In fact, McCain told the truth.”  It appears in the same edition with coverage of Arizona LaRaza cronies seeking an apology from McCain.

The editorial begins with these words: In a way, it is helpful that Democratic state Sen. Steve Gallardo and other Hispanic leaders have raised, once again, the entirely mythical belief that Arizona Sen. John McCain had no factual evidence for raising concerns about illegal immigrants causing wildfires near the Mexican border. It is helpful to set the record straight. The senator was justified in observing that fact because, simply, it is a fact.

Read it.

Newt Gingrich’s Achilles’ heel

 

Would you do it again, Newt?  Here’s his presidential campaign killer, equivocal response.

Newt Gingrich, 67, is a brilliant man. A prolific author and former university history professor who taught classes in Renewing American Civilization. Gingrich served as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and was instrumental in crafting the 1994 Contract with America, which restored Republican control of Congress based on a ten-point pledge to the American people.

Unfortunately, his personal baggage and videos like the one above — present him as compromised — rendering him as damaged as Greek mythological hero Achilles was when he fell victim to Trojan King Paris’ well-placed arrow.

In this case the arrow carries the names “climate change” and  Pelosi.

Shocking photos of Japanese tragedy

ABC News has before and after aerial photos revealing the scale of devastation across dozens of suburbs and tens of thousands of homes and businesses.

Hover over each satellite photo to view the devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami.

The death toll is now at an estimated 10,000, but expected to climb far higher.

The daily’s gaseous toll roads sermonizing

Just days ago, with the threat of $5 a gallon gas looming, the newspaper blithely tossed out the idea of toll roads. It was headlined, Study looks at opening HOV lanes to toll payers. The two-pronged hook was easing congestion on Valley freeways and, of course, raising revenues. Following the departure of the liberal newspaper’s beloved and free-spending Governor Janet Napolitano, Arizona was facing an unprecedented fiscal crisis. To be sure, the debt was exacerbated by the national economic downturn, but Napolitano never saw a spending program she was willing to turn down.

The solution to her hemorrhaging trail of debt? Tax the fools who elected her.  The problem is, others who used some sense at the ballot box find themselves caught in that pricey net.

The sucker punch came a day later via the editorial, titled: To ease traffic, try to think outside the box. The editorialist contemptuously reprimands Arizonans to “keep an open mind” regarding paying tolls, since “we don’t know nearly enough to make a decision.” It’s time, we are told, to “put that knee jerk reaction aside and do a reality check.”

We are being force-fed public transportation as we brace for ever increasing gas prices. But it is the liberal Democrats, so attuned they remind us, to the problems of the American’s working families, who have long advocated higher fuel prices to curtail consumption.

These do-as-we-say, not as-we-do hypocrites and their grandiose ecological sermonizing have an agenda. Never be fooled into thinking American taxpayer consumers are the intended beneficiaries.

Last year we posted Looks like the fix is in for toll roads. This is one curve we didn’t want to be ahead of.

AZ border violence incidental to Napolitano’s actual mission

As the hunt for the fifth killer of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry enters its third day, Arizona sheriffs expressed irritation that Homeland INsecurity chieftain Janet Napolitano did not bother to schedule meetings with them or include them in a Tuesday conference call on the issue of border security. The lackluster Napolitano, over her head and unwilling to exert any meaningful border enforcement, visited the area yesterday, as part of a previously scheduled trip. She met only with Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada.

Last March 27 Cochise County rancher Robert Krentz was murdered on his family ranch by Mexican nationals.

While chaos reigns on the US./Mexico border, the former Arizona governor, famous for her quip “You show me a 50-foot wall and I’ll show you a 51-foot ladder at the border. That’s the way the border works” makes “Environmental Justice,” including obscene land grabs and backdoor amnesty her priorities.

Syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin, who “gets it,” congratulates Napolitano with these well chosen words: “Heckuva job, J-Nap. Heckuva job.”

With liberal Napolitano, who as a former border governor should know the severity of these issues, at the helm of border enforcement, is it any wonder we are Seeing Red [in] Arizona?

The Arizona 2012 Project is organizing a Tea Party delegation to attend   Agent Terry’s memorial service, during the week of Dec. 20. Click here for updated information.

Al Gore’s environmental extremism at play in Cancun

The United Nations Climate Change Conference is meeting in Cancun, Mexico from November 29 – December 10 2010; and Americans for Prosperity  takes its Hot Air Tour live webcast there for a meet-up this evening, 7PM CST — December 2nd.

Obama administration bureaucrats have been flocking to Cancun this week, with American taxpayers once again picking up the tab, just as we did last year when they met in Copenhagen.

Obamanites will join other radical environmentalists at the United Nations Climate Change conference to plot their next moves to kill jobs, intrude on our freedoms and dictate the way we live our lives – all in the name of Al Gore’s radical global warming agenda.

Last year, Seeing Red AZ wrote about Cap-and-Trade, the most sweeping environmental bill in U.S. history — an expansive measure intended to undercut American industry by placing severe restrictions and exorbitant penalties on carbon-emitting fuels which liberals blame for the questionable science of global warming.

Although Democrats pulled members out of alcohol rehab to cast their ballots for the measure, AZ Congressman Jeff Flake missed the 219 – 212 vote, contributing to its passage.

Watch this video for an idea of the excesses in Cancun:

Nearly two years later, Calif. Dems still blame Bush for economy

Rasmussen Reports clearly illustrates that skewed facts still rate an audience.

A new survey of likely California voters finds that after nearly two years in office, only 35% feel the poor economy is due to the policies of President Obama — a full 13-points lower than the national average.

Still, only 27% of those same California voters say the current policies of the federal government have put the U.S. economy on the right course. About half (49%) disagree and feel the government’s policies have derailed the economy from the correct path. Another 24% are in the never-never land of uncertainty.

Most Democrats, (91%), taking their marching orders from the left‘s talking points, blame former President George W. Bush for the bad economy, while 70% of Republicans and 64% of voters not affiliated with either political party blame Obama.

And the failed stimulus scheme? Forty-one percent (41%) of California voters say the $787 billion stimulus package helped the economy, while 32% say the plan hurt the United States. Twenty percent (27%) feel the stimulus plan had no impact on the economy

George Bush the Convenient has become the reliable whipping boy for the disastrous results of $1 trillion health care debacle, Cap and Trade, the stimulus package, government interference in the running of banks and insurance companies, and taking over major aspects of the auto industry, or suing the state of Arizona over our illegal immigration law, as the Obama regime continues pushing its anti-capitalist agenda.

Why the people of California are oblivious to the harsh realities defined by Barack Obama is anyone’s guess.

Wondering what the old Maverick McCain is up to lately?

In an article Senators support illegal immigration super highway published in the Las Cruces Sun-News, Marita Noon discloses shenanigans in the U.S. Senate that we haven’t been reading about here in Arizona.

Twenty-three Senators have recently thrown their support behind an innocent looking bill — S1689 — introduced by Democrat Sen. Jeff Bingaman and his lone co-sponsor and fellow Democrat Tom Udall last September. The bill will, among other things, create an illegal immigration superhighway, remove access to “natural resources,” and ultimately strip ranchers of their grazing rights, all under the mega-deception of “preserving” approximately 250,000 acres as wilderness.

As other issues such as stimulus spending, health care, and cap-and-trade have taken the spotlight, this harmless sounding bill, which makes land in New Mexico part of the National Wilderness Preservation System and the National Landscape Conversation System, received virtually no attention. However, it has percolated to the top as the markup of the bill has been approved (23-0) and is headed to the Senate floor — with the support of the Obama administration, given in testimony before the Energy Committee.

As numerous non-border states mimic Arizona’s immigration law, polls show that the majority of the public wants to stem the tide of illegal immigrants. S1689 will disappoint that majority.

Unless people speak up, this New Mexico bill will sail through on a professional courtesy to Sens. Bingaman and Udall.

And as John McCain gave electioneering lip service to citizen’s demands to close the border, he joined with 23 others who voted to move S1689 to the floor. Supporters including McCain and his Senate Democrat cohorts Mary Landrieu (LA), and Blanche Lincoln (AR), need to be held accountable.

Now that he has, for all intents and purposes, been reelected for another six-year term, don’t look for John McCain to be making the rounds or answering questions.  Just figure we’ve been snookered again.

But what the heck — give him a call, anyway.