Author Archives: Admin

Warming stopped 16 years ago

Staff Report

The world stopped getting warmer almost 16 years ago, according to new data released last week and as reported by the UK’s Daily Mail.

The figures, which have triggered debate among climate scientists,
reveal that from the beginning of 1997 until August 2012, there was no
discernible rise in aggregate global temperatures.

This means that the ‘plateau’ or ‘pause’ in global warming has now lasted for about the same time as the previous period when temperatures rose, 1980 to 1996. Before that, temperatures had been stable or declining for about 40 years.

The new data, compiled from more than 3,000 measuring points on land and sea, was issued  quietly on the internet without any media fanfare.  Until The Daily Mail story; it had not been reported.

This stands in sharp contrast  to the release of the previous  figures six months ago, which went only to the end of 2010 – a very warm year.

Ending the data then means it is possible to show a slight warming trend since 1997, but 2011 and the first eight months of 2012 were much cooler, and thus this trend is erased.

 

Click here to read more from The Daily Mail.

Yes, Senator James M. Inhofe from Oklahoma was right on the facts from the beginning. 

Auditor to investigate OKC corruption, cover-up

Staff Report

The Oklahoman is reporting that the state auditor and inspector’s office is preparing an investigation into an Oklahoma City police captain’s whistle-blower complaint that a city employee misappropriated funds for personal gain and his superiors sought to keep it quiet, but top city officials flatly deny any corruption or cover-up took place.

At a meeting earlier this month, the Oklahoma City Council voted unanimously with no discussion to request a state audit of “certain city contracts regarding implementation of various public safety systems.” Mayor Mick Cornett formally requested the audit in a letter received Oct. 4 by State Auditor and Inspector Gary Jones.

City Manager Jim Couch and Assistant City Manager M.T. Berry acknowledged that a complaint filed by a city employee was related to the audit request, but said they couldn’t comment on the complaint or the investigation because it was a personnel matter. City attorneys cited state laws protecting the release of information “part of a confidential personnel investigation” in refusing to release the complaint.

The Oklahoman later obtained the complaint through a source who provided it on condition of anonymity. In it, Oklahoma City police Capt. Bradd Brown alleges a city employee misappropriated funds related to a project to create a new public safety communications and records system, and efforts to “hide or minimize information given to” the city council about the problems reached as high as Couch’s office.

Brown declined to comment when reached by telephone.

Couch had a simple answer, “No,” when asked whether there was any financial impropriety related to the project or whether anyone participated in an effort to hide information from the city council.

“Why would I do that? What purpose would there be for me to do that?” Couch asked rhetorically and with exasperation in his voice. He went on to note instances when his staff had to present an unforeseen problem that required more city spending, and a full report was made to the council for their consideration and approval.

Click here to read more from the Oklahoman. 

Mullin to message America

Staff Report

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) today announced that Oklahoma small businessman and rancher Markwayne Mullin will deliver the Weekly Republican Address on Saturday, October 13.   

“Small businesses continue to struggle in this weak economy, and all the taxing, spending and red tape coming from the Obama administration is only making things worse,” Speaker Boehner said.  “Markwayne Mullin has run a business and created jobs, and he understands the need to shut down the jobs-destroying red tape factory in Washington, DC. I’m looking forward to hearing Markwayne’s address, and, if elected, I know he’ll be a strong voice in the House for a smaller, more accountable, and less costly government.”

“People in Oklahoma know our economy doesn’t need more regulations– it needs more certainty,” Mullin said.  “If we’re serious about keeping jobs here and bringing jobs home, we need to stop burdening small businesses with excessive and unnecessary regulations.  I’m honored to deliver this week’s Republican address, and will use this time to discuss how running a small business drives my campaign for solutions to restrain the government bureaucracy and promote long-term economic growth.”

Markwayne Mullin is an eastern Oklahoma native, successful businessman, and rancher, running to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Dan Boren in Oklahoma’s Second Congressional District.  Shortly after Markwayne graduated from Stilwell High School, his dad fell ill and the family’s small plumbing company encountered financial troubles. Markwayne was only 20 years old but he and his wife, Christie, took over with only six employees.  Through hard work and discipline, Markwayne and Christie not only stabilized Mullin Plumbing, but grew it into the largest plumbing service company in Oklahoma.

The Second Congressional District, which includes the eastern Oklahoma towns of Muskogee and McAlester, is one of 25 pickup opportunities Republicans are targeting across the country this November.  The Cook Political Report rates Markwayne’s race as “likely Republican.”

Fleeing failure

Michael Obernodorf

Editorial:  Over the past few weeks, it has become undeniably clear that those supposedly in charge of our government: a) are totally unqualified to be in charge; b) have hidden policy agendas that most Americans would call treasonous; c) have instituted policies that have resulted in the deaths of at least one ambassador, two government agents, three embassy staff, hundreds of Mexican citizens, and hundreds of American soldiers in Afghanistan and elsewhere; and d) have brought the nation to the brink of economic and perhaps social collapse. Moreover, they have consistently and repeatedly lied, and attempted to cover up all of it. It has also become despicably clear that those supposedly in charge of our government have no intention of taking responsibility for their actions.

With both Fast and Furious and the disaster in the Middle East, particularly Libya and Egypt, investigations and indictments for at a minimum negligent manslaughter are warranted. However, given the make-up of Congress, especially the Senate, the Injustice Department, and the historically leftist and nearly always inept State Department, I doubt we will see anyone other than a few low-level scapegoats held accountable. Indeed, other than a few of us out here on the “extreme right fringe,” not one serious call has been made for Holder or Clinton to resign, much less for the Marxist Fraud in the White House to be impeached.

Add to this the largely hushed up military debacle that Afghanistan has degenerated into, under the direction of Leon Pinetta at the Surrender Department, and the aforementioned Marxist Fraud. If I recall, this is the only military action that the “winner” of the Nobel Peace Prize thought worthy of pursuing when he was running for the office many believe he usurped. The Ministry of Propaganda, aka the “mainstream” media, has aided and abetted in hiding this growing military disaster, apparently fearful of adding losing a war to the already lo-o-o-o-ng list of Barack Hussein Obama’s failures. News of the death toll of brave American sons and daughters reaching 2000 passed without a whisper. Were it not for the Internet and “alternative” media like talk radio, these heroes would have just been more of B. Hussein’s “bumps in the road.”

It turns out, too, that the pro-Muslim Obama administration has been lying about the military destruction of al Qaeda. With the long overdue look into actual intelligence reports from the Middle East and Muslim ruled countries, we find that not only has Obama failed to defeat al Qaeda, but al Qaeda is alive, active, and has grown and spread itself and its influence into new, hitherto uninfected areas.   

On the economic front, too, failure is the name of the game. The destruction of the American economy was intentional. In spite of their lies and protestations of being defenders of the middle class, a major goal of both Marxism and fascism is the elimination of the middle class and its replacement with a permanent underclass, a lumpen proletariat, dependent on the government for all its needs. From the looting of the treasury to the government take-over of large chunks of the private sector, Saul Alinskyite Marxist Obama and neo-fascists Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi wreaked havoc on the middle class, but, ultimately, failed to destroy it.

Which brings us to the Sock Puppet’s latest failure: his complete and utter defeat in the presidential debate. His absolute inability to function without a script flashing on his teleprompters stunned his self-deluded leftist supporters. One was prompted to suggest that Obozo the Brilliant has become bored with being president, and therefore didn’t even try. Close, but not quite.

Now that Obama is finally being confronted directly with his massive string of failures, he appears to be reacting the way pathological liars and people with a narcissist personality disorder typically do. He is quitting. If he doesn’t try, then he can’t fail. If he backs out, people will shift their focus to the winner, and away from him, and he will never have to take responsibility for the death and destruction that have resulted from his absolute inability to do anything right.

People with mental afflictions like his rarely finish anything. We have seen this throughout Obama’s career. He gave up his law license and never got it back. His community organizer career was short, dumped as soon as his radical, big money contacts created a political career for him. However, he was only in the Illinois Senate for a short time, and did very little of note. He served in the U.S. Senate only 146 days, again producing little of note. And as President of the United States, his record is one half-baked policies leading to destruction and death, and pandering to the enemies of his country.

Let us, then, grant this traitorous fool one last wish, and with a landslide vote, relegate him to the garbage dump of history, to become a forgotten footnote, a bump in the road leading us back to the Shining City on the Hill that we were before he was thrust upon us.

Small-Business hiring plans plunge

Staff Report

OKLAHOMA CITY – September was another month of low expectations and pessimism for small businesses, with the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index losing 0.1 points and falling to 92.8.

The recession-level reading was pulled down by a deterioration in labor market indicators, with job creation plans plunging 6 points, job openings falling one point and more firms reporting decreases in employment than those reporting increases in employment. Since the commencement of NFIB’s monthly surveys in 1986,  the Index has been below 93.0 a total of 56 times; 32 of which have occurred since the recovery began in June 2009.

State-specific data isn’t available, but Jerrod Shouse, state director of NFIB/Oklahoma, said small businesses here and across the country are reluctant to hire or expand until after the election.

"Small-business owners are telling us they’re more concerned about the election than they are the economy right now," he said. "They don’t want to spent any money unless it’s absolutely necessary. They aren’t hiring, expanding or ordering more inventories until the future becomes more certain.” NFIB/Oklahoma is the state’s leading small-business association.
 
“The election is just weeks away and essentially a horse-race, and its outcomes would have vastly divergent policy implications," said William Dunkelberg, NFIB’s chief economist.

“Everyone is waiting to see what happens, especially small-business owners who have a lot at stake in the outcome—which could mean higher marginal tax rates and more deficits, OR lower marginal tax rates and less government," he said.

The outlook for expansion did improve slightly; those who view the current period as a “good time to expand” gained 3 points, and the number of owners expecting business conditions to be better in six months gained 4 points, landing at a net two percent. While the readings are improved, they are still below historical averages.        

There was almost no news for credit markets, where most owners reported no interest in a loan. Only eight percent complained that they didn’t get all the credit they wanted. Two percent say credit is their top business problem compared to 21 percent each citing taxes, regulations and red tape, and poor sales. Sales and profit trends were negative with little sign of improvement in the third quarter.

Some other highlights of September’s Optimism Index include:

Capital expenditures: Small-business owners are still in “maintenance mode,” with the frequency of reported capital outlays over the past six months falling 4 points to 51 percent. Of those making expenditures, 34 percent reported spending on new equipment (down 7 points from the previous month), 16 percent acquired vehicles (down 5 points), and 14 percent improved or expanded facilities (unchanged). Four (4) percent of owners acquired new buildings or land for expansion (down 2 points) and 12 percent spent money for new fixtures and furniture (unchanged). Overall, there was a substantial reduction in capital spending activity. The percent of owners planning capital outlays in the next three to six months fell 3 points to 21 percent. While the number of owners who characterized the current period as a good time to expand facilities went up 3 points (seasonally adjusted) to seven percent, this is only half of the 14 percent of owners who said the same in September 2007. The net percent of owners expecting better business conditions in six months rose 4 points to two percent after posting a 6 point improvement last month, albeit still registering a pessimistic collective view. Not seasonally adjusted, 15 percent expect an improvement in business conditions (up 1 point), and 20 percent expect deterioration (down 4 points). A net one percent of all owners expect improved real sales volumes.

Sales: Weak sales continue to be an albatross for the small-business community. The net percent of all owners (seasonally adjusted) reporting higher nominal sales over the past three months was unchanged at a negative 13 percent, cementing the 17 point decline since April and affirming weak GDP growth for the second quarter. Twenty-one (21) percent still cite weak sales as their top business problem—historically high, but down from the record 34 percent reached in March 2010. Seasonally unadjusted, 23 percent of all owners reported higher sales (last three months compared to prior three months, down 1 point) and 30 percent reported lower sales (up 1 point). Consumer spending remains weak and high energy costs continue to “tax” consumer disposable income. The net percent of owners expecting higher real sales was unchanged at one percent of all owners (seasonally adjusted), down 11 points from the year high of net 12 percent in February. The weak reading is unlikely to trigger orders for new inventory or business expansion. Not seasonally adjusted, 24 percent expect improvement over the next three months (down 4 points) and 31 percent expect declines (up 3 points).

Job creation: Job creation plans showed that small-business owners created fewer jobs in September than in the two previous months. Not seasonally adjusted, 10 percent plan to increase employment at their firm (down 3 points), and 11 percent plan reductions (up 2 points). Seasonally adjusted, the net percent of owners planning to create new jobs fell 6 points to four percent, a historically weak reading, especially in a recovery. Essentially, hiring is keeping up with population growth, but not exceeding it. Seasonally adjusted, 10 percent of the owners reported adding an average of 2.2 workers per firm over the past few months, and 13 percent reduced employment an average of 3 workers. The remaining 77 percent of owners made no net change in employment. Fifty-one (51) percent of the owners hired or tried to hire in the last three months and 41 percent (80 percent of those trying to hire or hiring) reported few or no qualified applicants for open positions. The percent of owners reporting hard to fill job openings fell 1 point to 17 percent of all owners. The only region of the country that saw any positive job growth was the West North Central states, largely because of energy production.

The report is based on the responses of 691 randomly sampled small businesses in NFIB’s membership, surveyed throughout the month of September. Download the complete study at http://www.nfib.com/sbetindex.

NFIB’s Small Business Economic Trends is a monthly survey of small-business owners’ plans and opinions. Decision makers at the federal, state and local levels actively monitor these reports, ensuring that the voice of small business is heard. The NFIB Research Foundation conducts some of the most comprehensive research of small-business issues in the nation. The National Federation of Independent Business is the nation’s leading small-business association. A nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded in 1943, NFIB represents the consensus views of its members in Washington, D.C., and all 50 state capitals.