Obama’s World? — Fines for Bio fuel that does not exist is stupid, says… The New York Times?!?!

When the Obama lead Government loses the New York Times, something is horribly wrong:

WASHINGTON — When the companies that supply motor fuel close the books on 2011, they will pay about $6.8 million in penalties to the Treasury because they failed to mix a special type of biofuel into their gasoline and diesel as required by law.

But there was none to be had. Outside a handful of laboratories and workshops, the ingredient, cellulosic biofuel, does not exist.

In 2012, the oil companies expect to pay even higher penalties for failing to blend in the fuel, which is made from wood chips or the inedible parts of plants like corncobs. Refiners were required to blend 6.6 million gallons into gasoline and diesel in 2011 and face a quota of 8.65 million gallons this year.

“It belies logic,” Charles T. Drevna, the president of the National Petrochemicals and Refiners Association, said of the 2011 quota. And raising the quota for 2012 when there is no production makes even less sense, he said.

Penalizing the fuel suppliers demonstrates what happens when the federal government really, really wants something that technology is not ready to provide. In fact, while it may seem harsh that the Environmental Protection Agency is penalizing them for failing to do the impossible, the agency is being lenient by the standards of the law, the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act.

The law, aimed at reducing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, its reliance on oil imported from hostile places and the export of dollars to pay for it, includes provisions to increase the efficiency of vehicles as well as incorporate renewable energy sources into gasoline and diesel.

It requires the use of three alternative fuels: car and truck fuel made from cellulose, diesel fuel made from biomass and fuel made from biological materials but with a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gases. Only the cellulosic fuel is commercially unavailable. As for meeting the quotas in the other categories, the refiners will not close their books until February and are not sure what will happen.

The goal set by the law for vehicle fuel from cellulose was 250 million gallons for 2011 and 500 million gallons for 2012. (These are small numbers relative to the American fuel market; the E.P.A. estimates that gasoline sales in 2012 will amount to about 135 billion gallons, and highway diesel, about 51 billion gallons.)

Even advocates of renewable fuel acknowledge that the refiners are at least partly correct in complaining about the penalties — Via NYT: Companies Face Fines for Not Using Unavailable Biofuel – NYTimes.com

It is very obvious that the attempt to inject politics into our economy has failed. This means vote different in 2012.

Others: National Review, The Enterprise Blog, Weasel Zippers, The Volokh Conspiracy, Doug Ross and The Jawa Report

Humble request to ZeroHedge

I really hate having to criticize other bloggers. Because I happen to know that Blogging is a tough thing to do without some idiot outsider criticizing your work. It sucks and I know I do not like it when people do it to me. However, I believe this one is highly warranted.

I posted here last night about a possible pop in China’s economy. So, this morning, I happen to go over to ZeroHedge’s site and see the following headline:

“China Is Proud To Announce It Is Reflating The Bubble – Will “Actively Push” Investors Into Stocks”

Here is the little problem with the above story. There is NO reference link to the story at Bloomberg. The nearest thing I could find was a story similar in nature, but included nothing that was referenced in the story above. I am not accusing Zerohedge of lying. But, something is quite fishy here. Either Bloomberg reedited the story, because maybe part of it was fished out as bogus or someone at Zerohedge took some editorial liberties.

Either way, the story got bounced around the Alex Jones crowd a bit and I wanted to fish it out and see if it were true or not. However it is quite hard to do that, when there is no reference link to it. So, to the guys over Zerohedge; guys, please, links to stories or they’re not true, is that too much to ask?

Thanks,

-Pat

Is China’s Economy about to collapse?

This is not the first time I have heard this, but:

Which does China face? A popped real estate bubble could exert a big drag. Housing construction exceeds 10 percent of GDP. That’s historically high, says Lardy. At a similar stage of economic development, Taiwan’s housing investment was 4.3 percent of GDP. In the recent U.S. real estate boom, housing peaked at 6 percent of GDP. In China, housing stimulates much consumer spending (furniture, appliances) and accounts for 40 percent of steel production, notes Lardy. Land sales are also a big revenue source for local governments. All would suffer from a housing bust.

There are mitigating factors. Outside Beijing and Shanghai, it’s unclear that housing prices are “out of line with household income growth,” says economist Eswar Prasad of Cornell University. Chinese buyers also typically make large cash payments for their properties. Compared to United States, a housing bust is less likely to become a banking crisis as mortgages sour.

Whatever happens, China’s economic model is reaching its limits, as Lardy argues. It has relied on exports, promoted through the controlled exchange rate, and investment, including housing, subsidized by cheap credit. Meanwhile, Chinese savers have been punished by the low returns on deposits. This dampens their incomes and consumption spending. The trouble is that the global slowdown threatens exports and housing’s excesses threaten investment. Unless China can switch to stronger consumption spending, its economy will slow — or it will achieve growth by becoming even more predatory toward other countries. — Is a Chinese economic slump on the horizon? – The Washington Post

Go read that whole thing, because this is the best case for this belief. The funny thing, the people over a GoldSilver.com have been saying this for a while:

Go check them out and get into Gold and Silver; before you lose it all.

Unemployment down to 8.5 percent

Good, but not great:

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 200,000 in December, and the unemployment rate, at 8.5 percent, continued to trend down, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in transportation and warehousing, retail trade, manufacturing, health care, and mining. — Via Employment Situation Summary

Ed Morrissey Notes:

There are a few interesting points to note. Even though the rate of initial weekly jobless claims has declined over the last few weeks, ther has been an increase of 150,000 people unemployed for five weeks or less. The numbers declined slightly in all other time frames, but that’s something to watch. The civilian population participation rate hasn’t changed at all from the 64.0% of last month, which remains the lowest level since the Reagan years and which keeps the jobless rate artificially low. The civilian labor force — all the employed and all those seeking employment — actually declined by 50,000 people since November. However, the U-6 measure of “real” unemployment dropped from 15.6% in November to 15.2% in December, which is the lowest in three years.

It’s a pretty good but not spectacular result. In order to gain jobs, we have to net more than 125,000 jobs added each month. At this rate, it would take 40 months to add 3 million jobs over and above population growth. I’d rather go in that direction than the opposite, but we need a lot more robust job creation than this to get people back to work.

Before I give my thoughts, you must remember this; I live here in Michigan, just outside of Detroit. The Detroit area, along with the rest of the State has suffered under a one-State recession that started much before the big recession that hit the rest of America. Now having said all of that, I say this. All of these numbers mean nothing. It is nothing more than window dressing; at least to me anyhow. I have not had a job now in six years — other than the meager Ad profit that I managed to squeeze out of my old blog. I hope that I will be able to continue that here with this blog. Yes, I have a “small Business“the emphases on small! 😛 😉 😀 😆

What happened was this; I took $120.00 out of my Christmas money and I bought a nice reseller-hosting package. I hope that I can sell some shared hosting to some people. If I sell a few packages and whip out a couple design jobs for a few guys over on Blogger, who want to get off there; and I happen to make my $120.00 back, I will be happy. The rest is just happy profit. I am not looking to become rich on this little venture. I just would like to make a little money. If it gets insanely busy — I will do my duty and go file the paperwork for a business. (Yes, Liberals, I will pay my taxes, if I make enough warrant paying any!)

It is not that I really do not want to work for someone else — I would love to. However, as any small business owner knows, it is somewhat hard to hire anyone at all. When you have an idiot Government breathing down your shirt collar and keeping you from making any profit.

Another little side note; as the son of a UAW member and GM retiree and a member of a middle class family — it feels so weird to be writing from the standpoint of an actual small business owner. I mean, I am not in an office and wearing a suit. However, I am offering a service to people. I do not know how good I will do in the business. However, that is the beauty of a business; it is a real risk. Sometimes, between you and I — risk can be a bit scary. Worried

I think this is a bit of a stretch

First off, let me say that I have never ever supported the #OWS movement at all. However, I think that accusing the people that put this float on of Antisemitism is a bit of a stretch.

Here’s the video of the float: (Via Weasel Zippers) (I love the name of that blog… 😛 )

Now Donald Douglas, who I happen to think is a pretty nice guy; he likes Hendrix, he can’t be that bad! Anyhow, says that this float was essentially this:

I respect Douglas opinion, and he could very well be right about this; but he could be wrong too. I did not see any Israeli flag on the float. My point is this, as I have written around here before; we, as Conservatives, need to be real careful about tossing the Jew-hater flag out at the political football game. I mean, pinning the thoughts of a few people on an entire crowd is collectivism and this Conservative writer despises that mindset. This is what separates me from the “Neo-Conservative” wing of the Conservative movement; because I happen to reject the “group think” mentality that goes on in those circles. Further, I reject the entire notion of collectivism as a Conservative way of thinking. Sorry, that’s a page from the leftist playbook and I want no part of it.

Again, I reject what the #OWS is all about, they’re anti-capitalists, that is a given — But I won’t place them all in the “Jew-Hater” corner. As someone who’s been accused of such tripe, I will not fire off that accusation at a group of people — at a individual, maybe. But at a group? No. Sorry, that is just not how I roll. (as the young people like to say today. 😀 )

You might disagree, and that’s okay — stupidity is not illegal. 😉

Others: Daily Mail, The Informer, Atlas Shrugs, Doug Ross, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and Scared Monkeys

Rich White Honkey Michael Moore lives it up

While the “99%” Blacks, Latinos — and yes, poor white people protest in the streets.

Photos via Andrew Breitbart’s Big Hollywood:

Big Hollywood says:

The fact is that Moore is so wealthy that he does not need to worry about his income. According to public tax records, Moore owns a massive vacation home on Torch Lake, Michigan–one of the most elite communities in the United States–in addition to his posh Manhattan residence.

Through an independent source, Big Hollywood has obtained exclusive photographs of the house matching the address of Moore’s waterfront mansion. It is the kind of luxurious summer home that 99 percent of Americans can only dream of owning.

[…]

Property values on Torch Lake, according to one real estate website, range “from $400,000 to plus $3 million.”

Moore’s property has been officially assessed at close to $1 million (see below; we have redacted Moore’s addresses and parcel number). That is likely a gross underestimate, but nevertheless places Moore’s vacation home near the top one percent of home values in affluent Forest Home Township, and among the upper crust of residential properties in the state of Michigan. (Update 11/11/11: Several readers have pointed out that in Michigan, the S.E.V. is half the estimated fair market value of the home, so Moore’s Torch Lake vacation home is likely worth close to $2 million.)

In addition, according to statistics from 2009, Forest Home Township has no black residents. The township is roughly 98 percent white. Call that 99 percent, and Moore’s claim to be among “the 99 percent” begins to have some basis in reality.

No one begrudges Moore his wealth, but it is deceitful for him to claim poverty while encouraging class warfare among other Americans. It is also purely narcissistic and selfish for Moore to back radical and destructive socialist policies that would deny other Americans the opportunity to become as rich as he is.

More photos on Moore’s home:

Below are some additional photographs of Moore’s vacation home in Torch Lake. The first shows the front entrance to the property; we have decided not to include a photograph of Moore’s mailbox, which features an address matching the one on the property assessment. The second and third photographs show alternate perspectives of Moore’s home and property when viewed from Torch Lake.

I can really see what Andrew is driving at here; why claim to be of the 99%, when you are not even in the same ballpark as them. Besides all that; and I think I’ll share this, it comes via Wikipedia:

After dropping out of the University of Michigan–Flint following his freshman year (where he wrote for the student newspaper The Michigan Times), Moore worked at the local Buick plant.[18] At 22 he founded the alternative weekly magazine The Flint Voice, which soon changed its name to The Michigan Voice as it expanded to cover the entire state. In 1986, when Moore became the editor of Mother Jones, a liberal political magazine, he moved to California and The Michigan Voice was shut down.

After four months at Mother Jones, Moore was fired. Matt Labash of The Weekly Standard reported this was for refusing to print an article by Paul Berman that was critical of the Sandinista human rights record in Nicaragua.[19] Moore refused to run the article, believing it to be inaccurate. “The article was flatly wrong and the worst kind of patronizing bullshit. You would scarcely know from it that the United States had been at war with Nicaragua for the last five years.”[20] Moore believes that Mother Jones fired him because of the publisher’s refusal to allow him to cover a story on the GM plant closings in his hometown of Flint, Michigan. He responded by putting laid-off GM worker Ben Hamper (who was also writing for the same magazine at the time) on the magazine’s cover, leading to his termination. Moore sued for wrongful dismissal, and settled out of court for $58,000, providing him with seed money for his first film, Roger & Me.[21]

That is right kiddies, Michael Moore started making movies and got famous for disobeying his bosses and suing his employer.

I will also tell you this; I am in constant contact with and am friends with a retired UAW President from Flint, I will not publish his name, but every time he speaks of Michael Moore, he does not have much good to say about him at all.

So, to the liberals who read this blog, remember this, when you are out there protesting against all that wealth; better yet, find out where Michael Moore lives, and go protest at his house. Shifty

Others: Don Surber, Weasel Zippers, nation.foxnews.com and Michelle Malkin

Detroit is going broke

This is not a story that I enjoy writing; in fact it saddens me to even have to write it.

Via Reuters:

(Reuters) – Detroit is in “extremely serious financial condition,” as it is projected to run out of cash next year and must take action to avoid a state takeover, Mayor Dave Bing said on Thursday.
Michigan’s largest city is facing a projected cash shortage of about $150 million by the end of March, a statement from his office said.

To avoid having a state-appointed emergency financial manager, the city needs to address pension and healthcare costs and “inefficient services” such as transportation and lighting, while labor union contracts need to be renegotiated before their expiration next June, the statement said.

“City government has to live within its means,” Bing said in the statement. “Continuing to do business the same way is not an option, given our extremely serious financial condition. The last thing I want is for Detroit to be run by an emergency financial manager, whether it’s me or someone else.”

The question that everyone wants to know the answer to is this; what happened to Detroit?

The answer to that question is not an easy answer. The troubles in Detroit, Michigan were decades in the making and will most likely take decades to fix. Detroit troubles are plenty and they are complex. I will try to rattle off a few:

Detroit’s troubles were brought on by the flight of the white population from the city after the riots in 1967 — A riot that was sparked by the way, by a rumor, which turned out to be a bald-faced lie. The police in Detroit, who happened to be white, where simply doing their jobs, when they raided a “Blind-Pig,” that was being operated by group of black criminals within the city. The rumor was that the Detroit Police shot and killed a man, while he was handcuffed, face down on the pavement; again, this was a complete lie, that was started by leftist radicals in the city, who resented the white police and the White Democratic Party Government in the city of Detroit. This sparked a riot, which targeted business owners; which caused the White, Jewish and other non-black minority residents to seek housing elsewhere — namely in the southern and northern suburbs of Detroit. This event was referred to as the “White Flight” of Detroit. What was Detroit’s mentality about this massive exodus — This: “We don’t want them crackers and diamond dealers living around us no way” and thus the decline of Detroit in the form of loss of tax dollars in the city of Detroit.

Detroit’s troubles were brought on by the onset of the globalists who wished to make a quick buck at the expense of the American Worker and more specifically the Detroit Automotive Worker.

Detroit’s troubles were brought on by the North American Free Trade Agreement that was passed by the Clinton Administration in the 1990’s. This not only weakened the Unions ability to collectively bargain with any sort of force; but it also put the American Auto Companies at a disadvantage too. Detroit auto companies just cannot build autos as cheap as foreign companies can; this is because we have labor laws here in America that prevents the exploitation of workers.

Detroit’s troubles were brought on by the private sector unions who fought for more and more of the piece of the pie, which rendered the American auto companies unable to compete with the foreign auto companies.

Detroit’s troubles were brought on by the public sector unions which demands grew more and more unreasonable by the year; which drank the city dry of any ability to maintain any sort of profitability.

Detroit’s troubles are the result of a progressive mentality, which says, “I am entitled” to this and that, and a mentality of anti-white hatred; that somehow the White man, which founded Detroit was somehow inherently evil and must be destroyed. What I just described to you is the core belief system of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton — and maybe President Obama — But I digress.

All of that up there is a whole bunch to unpack, it is a mental conditioning, that starts when one is very young, and it is not something that can be ripped out overnight, not without riots breaking out. However, it can be done reasonably and without a lot of pain and suffering; but it can be done.

The important question to ask is; will Detroit be able to survive long enough for these things to be unpacked?

On these occupy protests

I said this on my old blog quite a bit and I feel that it isvery important to say this as often as one can. These occupy protests are not pro-American, anti-big government,protests like the tea party protests were; but these are anti-capitalistic,anti-American, anti-everything protests that have been ginned up by the radicalfar left in this Country. There arebeing supported and even funded by progressive groups and even supported byradical communist groups in this Country.

These protests were supposed to be peaceful, but it nowseems that they have become violent in nature; this is because anarchists have become involvedin the protests as well — not to mention Neo-Nazis. Even in my home city here in Detroit, theoccupy movement has spurred arrests. It has become such an issue that themainstream left has begun dismissing the movement as a radical movement; casein point, TheNew Republic had a series articles dismissing the movement and warningDemocrats to keep their distance.

Again, this is from someone who has been out of work for avery long time. I can, and do empathize with these people; however, the solution totheir troubles is getting Government out of private industry and lettingbusiness work, so that jobs can be created, rather than the bigger Governmentand a tearing down of the capitalistic society that we live in; which is whatthese people believe. Because the polaropposite to the free capitalistic society is a tightly regulated Governmentsystem, as they had in communist Russia and we see how well that worked out. Because in that sort of a system, the freedom ofthe people is suppressed, ask anyone who has happened to live in North Korea,there is no freedom in communism at all, not matter what these progressivebuffoons tell you.