Secretary of State John Kerry admonishes Putkin:  “You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext.â€
Secretary of State Kerry also told David Gregory that “Putkin had no imperial designs …”
Firenze Sage, Esq.  This is the guy  [Kerry] who, notwithstanding Iran and the new Soviet Union, says the world’s greatest threat is climate change. Tell that to the Ukranians.
[Saying that climate change ranks among the world’s most serious problems — such as disease outbreaks, poverty, terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called on all nations to respond to “the greatest challenge of our generation.”
Kerry, speaking before college students in Jakarta, Indonesia, also criticized climate-change deniers, saying “a few loud interest groups” shouldn’t be given the chance to misdirect the conversation.]
 Michelle Obama, her two daughters, Malia and Sasha, and her mother touched down Thursday in China for what’s being touted as a weeklong feel-good tourist event.Â
The nature of her visit is really quite different,†deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters ahead of the trip.
“What the first lady really brings is the power of her own story, the power of American values.”
White House officials have refused to detail how much the trip will cost taxpayers but the First Lady has been criticized many times for her lavish vacations at taxpayers’ expense.
Michelle will not be discussing the long history of human rights abuses perpetrated by the communist government, nor will she try to meet with Chinese dissidents striving for freedom in that oppressive land.
White House officials say that because politics won’t be a focus on First Lady Michelle Obama’s visit to China, no reporters will be allowed to accompany her on the trip. Officials claim that Michelle’s trip will be a “people-to-people exchange” meant to advocate for the importance of education, not politics.
Firenze Sage, Esq. Â Â This is the woman [Michelle Obama] Â who was never proud of America until Barrack became president. Before that she was raised in a middle class family and through affirmative action went to the Ivy league.
Climate wizard Reid conflates weather change with climate change
Climate wizard Reid conflates weather with climate change:
Harry Reid claims that recent bad weather is more evidence climate change exists and needs a response from the federal government. Reid’s comments today come just after the Senate’s all-night “talkathon,” during which several Democratic senators spoke back-to-back about climate change.
“Every day that goes by, every week that goes, every month that goes by, every year that goes by … there’s more evidence of the dangers of climate change,” Reid said Tuesday afternoon, in response to a question from THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
climate change?
“The more climate changes, the more extreme the weather gets, and we’ve seen that in spades, said Harry Reid.
Asked about Democrats’ inaction on climate change legislation when the party had a 60-vote supermajority in the Senate early in the Obama administration, Reid said Democrats were busy with other legislation, including Obamacare.
Fatwah  on Muslims for  way trip to Mars. Not fair!
Muslim religious authorities think trip is akin to suicide and have forbidden Muslims from going on the one way trip to Mars.
Over 200,000 persons applied for the 4 spots on a ONE-WAY trip to Mars has been whittled down to 1,000.
But Muslims can’t go.
What Mars One says about the one way tickets:
“The Mars One crews are people that want to settle on Mars. Absence of a return mission reduces the mission infrastructure radically. Earth return vehicles that can take off from Mars are currently unavailable and untested technologies and such mission designs incur far greater costs. For the astronauts, Mars will be a new home, where they will live and work. While this may seem unreasonable to some, others have no greater ambition in their life. Such dedicated settlers will be chosen by Mars One as their crews. –
 So —  where  did Obama’s  $800 BILLION  Stimulus shovel ready jobs go?
Hilary 2016 promises more of the same — repair the roads, jobs for the 93 MILLION unemployed Americans (half the work force have no job).
Why expect anything different from Hilary than the same old stuff Obama and the Democrats have done for 8 years?
Why did we never know about Obama’s waste of the $800 BILLION for shovel ready jobs?  Because the Democrats  make  it so! Â
Here it’s 2016 and Hilary makes repair of roads and highways a top priority.  What happened to all that $800 BILLION Stimulus money that was to go for “shovel ready jobs” in 2009?   Obama promised — and did not deliver.  Hilary & Democrats will  do the same.  Â
where did all the 800 BILLION stimulus money for shovel ready jobs go?
Roads and highways: Â Five years after signing the Stimulus bill which produced no shovel ready jobs our infra-structure of roads and highways continue to fall apart.
Now 2016 and Hilary promises as top priority  to repair and expand roads. Why believe that Hilary will do anything different?  Not likely.
Union teacher jobs wee protected by Obama.   The Democrat  Party coffers are full of money that came from the union dues of teachers who kept their jobs.
See below for some of the most silly spending of money.
Hilary touts same message: Â Now it’s 2016 and as election time rolls near. Obama did not create jobs nor did he fix bridges. Â There’s no reason to believe that Hilary Clinton if elected will actually do anything different.
Real way to fix bridges? Â Just as FedEx created competition for the federally run U.S. Post Office it’s time to use the private sector to bid and get contracts from the U.S. Congress to rebuild our old roads and fix our “infra-structure”.
Similar to Obama, Clinton in 2016  wants to  ignore Congress and  “fix stuff”  herself. More fraud, more government waste, more Washington running the country.  It’s time to say NO MORE.
Today marks the five-year anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Commonly known as the stimulus, the nearly $1 trillion law was hailed as an opportunity to bring America into the “21st century.â€
Just two years after the bill was signed into law, President Barack Obama admitted, “shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected.†While the law failed to create jobs as promised, it has provided plenty of examples of waste, fraud, and abuse.
Five years and at least $816.3 billion later, here are 10 ways the government wasted taxpayer money.
10) $1.3 Million for Stimulus Highway Signs
AP
$1.3 million was spent for signs on highways to advertise that infrastructure spending was paid for by the stimulus.
A spokesperson from the Ohio Department of Transportation said taxpayers want to know “where their stimulus dollars went,†after spending $1 million on the signs. Pennsylvania ($140,000), New York ($100,000), and Colorado ($55,000) also spent money on the road signs brought to you by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
9) $152K to Get Lesbians Ready for ‘Adoptive Parenthood’
AP
The law spent $152,000 on a study by Clark University, in Worcester, Mass., designed to stimulate adoption by lesbians. Trustees at the university interviewed 50 lesbian couples to “investigate the unique strengths and potential challenges of lesbian couples†as parents.
8) $600,000 to Plant Trees in Wealthy Neighborhoods
Washington Park, Denver, Colo. / AP
Government workers went door-to-door in the wealthiest neighborhoods in Denver giving away trees as part of a $600,000 stimulus project.
Costing $150 each, government workers justified the trees as potentially saving energy costs by providing shade. The program suggested the government funds would jump-start the economy by creating jobs for those who planted the trees.
7) $384,949 Study of Duck Penises
AP
A $384,949 grant was given to Yale University for a study entitled, “Sexual Conflict, Social Behavior, and the Evolution of Waterfowl Genitalia.â€
A National Science Foundation spokesperson defended the study, saying, “Government funded grants for research have assisted in creating the barcode and Google.â€
6) $1.2 Million Study of Erectile Dysfunction in Overweight Men
$1.2 million in stimulus funds went to study impotence in overweight men. The University of California-San Francisco used the funding to conduct 200 video interviews, at a cost of $6,000 each.
5) $100,000 Anti-Capitalist Puppet Shows
Performers with the Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater / AP
“In The Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre,†a Che Guevara-inspired puppet theater in Minnesota, received $100,000 in stimulus money, according to a report by Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.). The funds included $25,000 to help preserve one job, and $25,000 to produce “socially-conscious puppet shows.â€
4) $389,357 for College Students to Keep a Diary of Their Marijuana and Malt Liquor Use
AP
Coburn’s report also found that researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo were given $389,357 to pay young people to record their daily malt liquor drinking and marijuana use.
Buffalo-area residents were paid $45 each to record their daily smoking usage through an automated phone hotline.
3) $3.4 Million Turtle Tunnel
A $3.4 million underground turtle tunnel providing “eco-passage†in Florida also had its origins in the stimulus package. The funding was given to Dr. Matt Aresco, who had been on a “10-year mission to help the turtles cross the road.â€
2) $8,408 Study to See if Mice Get Drunk
AP
Florida Atlantic University received $8,408 in stimulus funding to see if mice get drunk after consuming alcohol. The researchers surmised that since “humans who consume alcohol have trouble with ‘navigation, memory, and attention,’†maybe mice would too.
1) $535 Million on Solyndra
Solyndra headquarters in Fremont, Calif. / AP
Just two years after receiving $535 million from the stimulus, Solyndra filed for bankruptcy. The company was the first to receive a federal loan guarantee from the stimulus. Solyndra’s biggest investor, George Kaiser, was a bundler for the Obama campaign.
At least four other companies received stimulus money only to later file for bankruptcy, including Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Co., which received $10 million to increase employment, and Evergreen Solar Inc., which received $5.3 million to install 11,000 photovoltaic panels.
Birds cooked  by solar plant in CA.  A 2 billion $  bird killer!  What are we doing?
Birds like heat. Guess what! Bird die after largest solar plant opens in Ca. How? Cooked to death. Good heavens!
New solar plant  covers 5  square miles. More info:
The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, the world’s largest “tower-based” solar plant, is scheduled to open this week in the Mojave Desert. According to Brightsource, one of the project’s investors, the plant covers 3,500 acres (five square miles) with “over 300,000 software-controlled mirrors [that] track the sun in three dimensions and reflect the sunlight to boilers that sit atop three 459 foot tall towers.” The Wall Street Journal puts the exact figure at 347,000 “garage door-size mirrors.”
Ivanpah cost $2.2 billion, but investors have few worries. The plant  was financed with a federal loan guarantee of $1.6 billion, and Californians are required under Renewable Portfolio Standards to purchase Ivanpah’s electricity for the next 30 years, at four times the cost of electricity generated with natural gas.
Birds seem to be attracted to the array, thinking that the shimmering mirrors are a body of water.
It turns out that when those 347,000 mirrors focus sunlight up to the 459-foot high towers, the surrounding air gets warmed up a bit — to a toasty 1,000 degrees F, hot enough to fry our feathered friends to a crisp.
Firenze Sage:  Oh and in sunny California you get to pay 4x the going rate for electricity.  This  is fine on the coast but most of  California  requires air conditioning for 4x the going rate.
 http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=four+more+obama+years
voter ID required by NAACP for protesters opposing new voter ID law. Huh?
Voter ID required for protesters of the new voter ID law in North Carolina. Huh? You heard right.
The North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP is holding a rally to protest that state’s new voter identification law. Â
In a flier entitled “Important Dos and Don’ts for Marchers!!!,” the NAACP state at the top that all protesters conduct themselves “in accordance with the historic custom of the Civil Rights Movement.” They should also listen to their “marshals at all times” and follow the “Dos” and “Don’ts” underneath the opening paragraph.
In the middle of the NCCCP list, however, is : Â “To go to the rally, you are asked to have “photo identification (driver’s license, passport or other valid photo id) with you and keep it on your person at all times.”
Whose side is Holder on? Â Racial profiling is bad, bad says Justice:
The Justice Department will significantly expand its definition of racial profiling. Why?
To prohibit federal agents from considering religion, national origin, gender and sexual orientation in their investigations, a government official said Wednesday.
The move addresses a decade of criticism from civil rights groups that say federal authorities have in particular singled out Muslims in counter terrorism investigations and Latinos for immigration investigations.
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Firenze SAge, Esq. Â Well, Â is it Arabs coming across the Tijuana border and Mexicans flying into buildings, Â or what?
Another antic by the EPA concerns lead. In an unbelievable bit of hysteria about lead pollution, the EPA has just blocked pretty much all installations/repairs of fire hydrants? Why? Because they have a small amount of lead in their composition.
Now this would be almost, almost, just barely, defensible if there was real concern of significant amounts of lead going into the primary water mains but that’s not the issue.
They’re worried that… someone might turn on the hydrant and drink from it. Ok, in a worst case scenario there might be, might be, an annoying amount (to the EPA) of lead in the water that’s been sitting in the hydrant, namely the first couple of gallons. But if anyone’s drinking from a hydrant it’s been running for hours and thousands of gallons have washed through it.
So the fire departments have to sit back and seal up any broken units, and have to waste precious minutes and resources tapping into the next one down the block. People’s lives and properties at stake, for no good reason whatsoever.
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Firenze Sage, Esq. Â Used to be that dogs contributed the only pollution near hydrants.
The press according to Feinstein does not include bloggers and  unpaid, upstart media types. Like Firenze Sage, Esq. of the Monterey Bay Forum.
California Senator Dianne Feinstein has proposed an amendment to the Media Shield Law.
Feinstein wants to  limit the law’s protection to only  “real reporters,†not bloggers and other upstart alternative media types.
A real reporter, declared Madame Feinstein during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, is “a salaried agent†of a media company.  “salaried agents” are those who  work for  like the New York Times or ABC News.  Salaried agents does  not a shoestring operation with volunteers and writers who are not paid.
This is nothing new for Feinstein, who’s (along with Sen. Dick Durbin) previously made the argument that acts of journalism can only be performed by major news agencies, cutting everyone else out of the protective loop. This is a protective move based partially on ignorance and partially on the reality that major news networks are easier to control, seeing as most aren’t willing to give up access to the Beltway by pissing off its residents.
Sadly, this sort of reactionary ignorance isn’t limited solely to government representatives. This same sort of statement has been made by published authors to demean the self-published and by old school journalists to demean bloggers, serial Tweeters and pretty much everyone not associated with a sinking masthead. Whenever someone assumes they’re capable of determining who is or isn’t a real whatever, they’re usually speaking from a position of privilege, one that can only be maintained as long as the status remains quo.
The same goes for government officials arguing over the definition of “journalist.” It’s someone who performs the act of journalism. It’s as simple as that. But if you accept this definition, then you put the government at a greater “risk” of not being able to pursue and punish those who expose its wrongdoing. Feinstein makes this governmental fear explicit …
