The explosion Barack Obama may have just heard was the broadside opened up in one statement by West Virginia's governor, Joe Manchin.
“This country wasn’t built on handouts. We didn’t become leader of the free world by waiting on someone to give us a handout.”
That is a powerful statement by the Democratic governor of West Virginia about the bailout package that, as of this writing, Obama has continually tried to ram through the Senate using threats and nightmare scenarios. It ballooned to almost one trillion dollars, helping the Republican Party in their efforts to educate the public on what that will do to our economic future. Either Governor Manchin put his finger to the wind or he is giving vent to his free market beliefs, but this looks like an extremely critical statement.
How much will this register? Probably not much. If during the Bush years, a Republican governor from a small state criticized a key part of presidential policy, we would have heard about it for days. I doubt the media will give this a peep of coverage. However, it gives us some indication of Manchin's core beliefs. He did not have to criticize the president and it probably gained him very little to do so.
Good gosh, if you removed the name, I'd swear that the guy who said that was named "Ronald Reagan!"
This shows how deeply troubling this bailout package has become even to thoughtful Democrats.
Let’s face it we need jobs in our community.The economy is turning down and many in the area have been laid off and people are looking for new job creation.Many see the Windfarm on GreenMountain as a potential job creator.Both sides of the issue are putting their spin on what will happen with job creation.
The anti-windmill faction has been sending out the following information on jobs, “one maintenance employee for every 12-15 turbines. A 20 turbine windplant in Meyersdale, Pennsylvania now employs only two maintenance employees.”I was e@mailed that information again by the anti-windmill faction after yesterday’s blog, but I have seen it before.I can not attest to its accuracy, because no source was quoted.As for US Windforce’s position, they have made no official claim as to the number of jobs created.
From my own research I believe that the claim of one employee for every 12-15 turbines is probably in the ball park.Wind energy production is not very labor intensive, but how does it compare to coal electrical generation?Dominions Mt. Storm Power plant has 3 units.Unit 1 and 2 are rated at 551 Megawatts each and unit 3 at 553. (1)That gives the plant a total capacity of 1,656 MW.With 270 employees (1) that is about 6 MW generated for each employee.
The name plate capacity on the US Windforce project is 55.2 Megawatts (2).Typically a windfarm can only operate on an annual basis of about 30% of rated name plate capacity. So if we believe that the US Windforce project is only going to employ two people, then that works out to about 8 MW generated for each employee.
This means from a labor stand point that wind energy generation is slightly more efficient, but real close to what the nearest coal fire plant achieves.This begs the question; is the anti-windmill faction advocating that the Windfarm is too efficient? Efficiency leads to lower cost electricity and for most people that is a good thing.
But the permanent employment numbers are only part of the story.The anti-windmill faction provided the following information, again from an unnamed source, “of the 200 total construction jobs, only 20 were local—and all disappeared within six months.”Most construction workers don’t hang around after the job is complete.That is the nature of construction jobs; they are there until the job is complete.It doesn’t make them any less important to the community.
At the last public windmill meeting on Feb 2nd, 2009, Mr. Shirley a local construction worker working on the Mt.Storm project indicated he had been employed for 2 years on that project.Many other workers that have been employed on that project were in attendance and expect to move to the GreenMountain project.Our area is developing a skilled work force of wind turbine erectors and these workers may begin to travel with their new skills.They will still be bringing those paychecks home.That fact is completely discounted by the anti-windmill faction.In claiming that only 20 construction jobs are local, they fail to take into consideration that the local concrete plants, lumber yards, earth movers will all be local subcontractors.
But the local economic impact is not limited to those employed by the project.The landowners will receive lease payments for the use of their land.While the lease agreements with the specific landowners on the GreenMountain project are private, typically $5,000 per windmill is what is seen in the industry for our area.That will pump around $115,000 annually into the local economy.An additional $373,000 in property taxes (2) will be paid to MineralCounty.
The average wage of a MineralCounty resident is $26,645 per year (3). That $488,000 in new money being brought into Mineral is the equivalent of 18 new wage earners being brought to MineralCounty.We also know that each dollar brought into the local economy has a multiplier effect as it is spent.
The real effect on the economy is much more than the information being disseminated by the anti-windmill faction.In this case we are finding that even the numbers presented by US Windforce under estimate the true economic impact of the project.
Reference:
(1)May 2005, Power Engineering Magazine, “Dominion Mt.Storm”
Remember two years ago, the mantra of "Bush's Failed Iraq War?" A mantra technically is a phrase that is repeated over and over because it has religious significance. It is something taken very much on faith. Journalists, academics, comedians, and others repeated it so often that conservatives even started to agree. President Bush withstood a lot of pressure to stay the course.
Look at 2009. Terrorist groups do not even bother to issue major threats anymore. The people voted and less violence took place than in some countries with decades more experience at voting. One shooting occurred in a nation of over 20 million people.
What happened to the civil war? What happened to government collapse?
US troops patrolled not in Humvees or armored troops carriers, but lightly on foot. They stayed mostly in the background as Iraqi police took center stage. Even as the US and Iraq discuss withdrawals, violence has not risen to dangerous levels.
President George W. Bush gets the credit for this one. When he left office, Iraq was more stable and more peaceful than Mexico. It also has a stronger chance at this moment in history for long term success. Democrats succeeded in making the Iraq War the defining issue of his presidency. Now they have to deal with the fact that it ended up an overwhelming success, a factor that will cement Bush's historical legacy as a positive and constructive force in US and world affairs.
If Iraq does fall from its current state into chaos, this falls at the feet of an Obama presidency that is sending mixed signals in the Middle East.
By the way, we need to be worried about global cooling. Ever since Obama took office, we have seen devastating storms and colder than normal temperatures.
Obama causes bad winters. The correlation is there. What more proof do we need?
Of course this is ridiculous, but it is the same logic that underpins global warming assertions.
I received the following e@mail from Kolin Jan on yesterdays blog. It had many attachments with it, some were from unknown sources and some known, but all left out vital information on making an informed decision on the proposed windmills. I thought I would share Kolin's letter with you and my response.
Gary, From something you wrote today it appears you have bought into the US WindForce propaganda....especially the part about jobs. Here are several emails that might help you discover the rest of the story on this issue. The jobs are very temporary.....check out what has happened at other locations....and the advertised permanent jobs are inaccurate. Industry-wide you can expect one permanent job per 10-13 turbines (ask Jim and Joe to prove to you otherwise). I care about the environmental impacts, but what I care more about is the science behind the turbines, and how ineffective and expensive they are. I don't blame US WindForce for taking advantage of what an uninformed Congress has allowed; after all, we're a capitalistic society. I'd just like these guys to tell the whole truth for a change and answer some basic questions in a public arena. r/ Kolin
You don’t know me very well. I have been a student of Wind Energy most of my life. In grade school and high school I did science fair projects in generating electricity from the wind and won many awards up to national levels, including awards from Fortune 500 companies for my research. I have personally visited the large windfarms on the west coast and stood beneath those at Tehachapi Pass. My family generated electricity from the wind as far back as the 1930’s on their farm. I’m not some Johnny Come Lately to wind energy. I have done my own research both literal and empirical.
The information that you forwarded to me is mostly propaganda and misleading. It is not independent information you are disseminating as the truth, it comes from the anti-windmill, anti-growth faction. That being said the information coming from US Windforce is going to be favorable to their side of the issue. That is why I do not rely on the information from either source, but do my own research. My 30 years of study and experience with wind energy does tell me that US Windforce’s information is much closer to the truth than the true propaganda you just forwarded to me.
Sir, it is you relying on propaganda from only one side and distributing it to an uninformed public. I am not uninformed on this issue and I am not a NIMBY. I want to see growth in my community. I want to see jobs brought to my community. I know that you are not from here, but I think you have been here long enough to realize we are not bunch of Hillbillies. The stereotypes of West Virginia are not real. We are an educated people that can think for ourselves.
You state you want to see US Windforce answer questions in a public arena; they do the first Monday of every month. In the forum they answer most of the questions on the spot, if it is something that needs detail and cannot be answered off the cuff, then they defer it to a later meeting. They are hiding nothing as you imply with your statement. Those meetings are public and open to those that wish to attend.
I suggest you do some research of your own instead of relying only on information from the anti-wind, anti-growth loons.
Monday night I had the opportunity to attend one of the monthly Windmill meetings that are open to the public and designed to keep the community informed and give the opportunity for the public to ask questions. The format is quiet simple, a presentation is made, questions are ask of the permanent panel of local leaders, then the public in attendance is allowed to ask questions.If it is something that can’t be answered immediately, then it is put on the agenda for the next meeting or a reference for that information is given.It works quite well.
Last night there were some anti-jobs people there disrupting the meeting, I’m all for exercising freedom of speech, but you don’t purposely disrupt a meeting and make accusations you can’t back up.Several times during the meeting the anti-jobs people had to be ask to be respectful to the other speakers.It was mainly a tactic to get the attention of the media present and judging by Tuesday’s paper they succeeded, as the article doesn’t accurately reflect the events of the meeting.
I especially like the quote by Greg Trainor in the newspaper, “This is more of monologue.”While it was true that Mr. Trainor said that, it fails to point out it was during Dave Friend’s presentation.The presentation was supposed to be a monologue, the question and answer session came after is presentation, not in the middle of it.Mr. Trainor didn’t want to play by the rules like the rest of the people in attendance were willing to do, and when the question and answer session came Mr. Trainor didn’t really ask questions as much as he made accusations. Mr. Trainor needs to understand you learn by listening and not shouting over the people that are trying to answer your questions.
Trainor did ask a question that is impossible to answer.“I want to know how many houses will be powered, what you really think?”But it was his point to ask a question that couldn’t be answered correctly.You can take average estimated output of the windfarm and average home electrical usage, but beyond that the question can’t be answered.Mr. Trainor knew that. He wanted an exact number that doesn’t exist, because then he could use that number to say look under these conditions that it is wrong.
Well most people are quick to understand that in the middle of the night in the fall when there is a strong wind and people are asleep using very little electric the project may meet the needs of 100,000 homes.The average person is also smart enough to understand that on a 100 degree summer day a noon and no wind is blowing that the project can’t supply work to a single electric fan.The people are smarter than Mr. Trainor believes.
In 30-days the project is filing its papers with the Public Service Commission.99% of the questions asked by the anti-jobs group will be answered in that public filing.The Windmill project is operating releasing its information as prescribed by the laws of the state of West Virginia, but the anti-jobs group is demanding information be released in a matter not in accordance with the law.US Windforce is complying with the law as they should and when the follow the law the anti-jobs group accuses them of trying to hide something.The anti-jobs group is using deceit to stop the positive change coming to our community.
For four years West Virginia has enjoyed the vigilance of an aggressive secretary of state. Betty Ireland's zeal for following the laws laid out by the state legislature even led to some GOP criticism. It also meant that groups like ACORN would find no easy way to violate state and federal election laws. However we would much rather have a person in this office who is dedicated to the law than see what is about to happen now.
Natalie Tennant initiated step one in turning the secretary of state office into her own left wing feudal domain. When Ireland took over four years ago, she kept the capable Elections Division head hired originally by Joe Manchin. No one ever said that Ireland did not aspire to a higher office, but she was willing to irritate her own party to do the job right.
Tennant hired as chief of the Elections Division Dave Nichols. Nichols runs a leftist blog and formerly headed Progressive Democrats of America/West Virginia. Anytime you see the word "progressive" it means Communist. Vic Sprouse's blog compares this hire to the hypothetical scenario of Betty Ireland hiring Gary Abernathy for the same job. The difference is that Abernathy generally uses wry humor and rarely crosses the respect line. Nichols is a firebrand bombthrower with a burning hatred for all things Republican. Sounds like the bad old days with a Marxist twist. West Virginia elections, at least in some regions, may once again descend into the septic tank of Democratic corruption.
Welcome to West Virginia ACORN. Feel free to violate any law you want. Natalie's too busy running for governor to care.
Why oh why didn't someone, somewhere pump a little money into Charles Minimah's campaign?
Sometimes you just have to love story placement. Yahoo News this morning listed about five or six headlines. One headline proclaimed that an ice and snow storm had covered much of the country and killed I think seven. The one right below said that global warming is irreversible for a thousand years.
Global warming chicken littles are really pulling out the stops now. Sure this winter was the coldest in forty years and last summer was, except for a few weeks, not really hot. But don't you worry, disaster is just 'round the corner!
Truth be told, many world scientists (now that the hated Bush is gone!) are coming out and saying what the Old Farmer's Almanac has always told us. It's the sunspots. This past year saw the complete disappearance of sunspots for the first time since the Little Ice Age. It led to a predicted colder winter.
I guess my sedan and my neighbor's SUV made the sunsports come and go. Or maybe it was the Cheney Weather Machine.
Despite the outcry during the last campaign over the fact that Osama Bin Laden has not been captured yet, consider this.
What is the absolute best thing that could happen to that man right now?
Since 2001 American action and policy forced Bin Laden deep underground. New laws froze his assets and intelligence dogged him relentlessly for years. US action brought his organization into an Iraq war that sapped away its manpower and resources while breaking down its command structure.
Al Qua'ida, much like the Ku Klux Klan in the 20th century, went from being terrifying to near punch line status. Bin Laden's "I'm still alive guys!" tapes do not command the attention of anyone anymore. Basically the group has been reduced to firing tired old race insults at Obama.
So what is the best thing that could happen to Bin Laden?
Actually if he made his way into the United States and turned himself in at One Police Plaza, New York City, that would be about it. Imagine the attention he would bring to himself. Dying with his boots on, so to speak, would be the second best fate, capture the third.
Right now, Bush's War on Terror consigned Bin Laden to what he might consider hell. His hell is irrelevancy. No one cares what he says anymore. He has grown into another high profile fugitive who must spend more time hiding than planning his next great act of terror.
Should he turn himself in or get captured, he goes on public trial. Remember that putting Hitler on trial was one of the biggest jump starts Germany gave the National Socialist movement. Kill Bin Laden and he becomes a martyr.
Also, remember when the Democrats made a huge deal over the disbanding of the CIA unit dedicated to Bin Laden. In retrospect, this put Bin Laden on the public road to irrelevancy. Of course it also made good sense. The organization was the threat more than the man.
Let's hope that Bush's good work here does not get undone by the new administration.
