This and That...

[Ross]

Global Warming is Hell !

[Ross]

Yet another stupid idea from the Elite Highly Educated Idiots trying to make a dollar out of nothing, actually our of thin air. Will Elk County continue to listen to the same wild ideas floating around about the school building, from the so called Elite? Just asking ! 

The Great Collapse of the Chicago Climate Exchange

August 27, 2010 By 21wire

Patrick Henningsen
21st Century Wire

Plagued by a free fall in carbon emissions prices and the perennial failure of Washington to pass any binding Cap and Trade Bill, it seems that the Chicago Climate Exchange is on its last leg, announcing that it will be scaling back its operations.

Chicago Climate Exchange or CCX, is North America's sole voluntary, legally binding greenhouse gas trading and carbon "offset" projects in North America and Brazil. Rueters reported on Aug 11th that Intercontinental Exchange Inc, the operating body who purchased the struggling CCX in May this year, will be scaling back major operations this month, a move that includes massive layoffs. This is likely due to the complete market free-fall of their only product... carbon emissions.

Anthony Watts from the climate watchdog website Watts Up With That posts a graph from the CCX which shows carbon prices dropping like a stone, bottoming out this week at the embarrassingly low figure of 10 cents per tonne. Compare this to trading prices during its brief hay day in May and June 2008 where market highs reached $5.85 and $7.40 respectively, and you can say that most investors will be evaluating carbon as one of today's more worthless commodities. What a difference a year makes.

It's been nine months since the world watched the bottom drop out of a much-hyped UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen back in Dec 2009, with its neo-colonial and UN Global Government taxation agenda exposed within the first days of the summit. One of the keystones of the Climate Change alarmist movement was its audacious attempt to create a functioning market by monetizing the atmospheric trace gas known as CO2. Since last year, a number of scandals like Climategate have penetrated mainstream conversation, putting a rather awkward limp in the once nimble Man-Made Global Warming movement. Hence, apocalyptic frenzies and fears have dissipated and carbon prices around the world have continued to be pummelled by the market.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/08/13/chicago-climate-exchange-still-flatlining-employee-cuts/
==================================================================

Chicago Climate Exchange still flatlining – employee cuts

Posted on August 13, 2010   by Anthony Watts    


From the "unsustainable business" department, who wants carbon at 10 cents a ton? Apparently, nobody. Data below as of August 8 2010:

LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters) – Market operator Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE.N) is laying off staff at newly acquired U.S. environmental bourse the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), industry sources told Reuters, citing a lack of U.S. action on climate change.

They said the first round of layoffs began on July 23 and, although the total number of jobs to be cut was unknown, one said around 25 employees, or roughly half CCX's headcount at the time of ICE's acquisition, had already been or were being let go.

ICE would not confirm or comment on the layoffs.

"ICE just came in one day and started hacking away ... We were told the company was restructuring," said one source, who declined to be named.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/08/13/chicago-climate-exchange-still-flatlining-employee-cuts/
\

[Warph]

New Record: Instead of Passing Laws, The Obama Regime
Issued 3,659 Economy-Crushing Regulations In 2013

(And they've picked up where they left off, issuing 141 new regs during the first three days of 2014. http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/03/happy-new-year-feds-list-141-new-regulations-in-only-3-days/#! )

Via Washington Examiner:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/red-tape-feds-issued-3659-rules-and-regs-in-2013-56-for-every-new-law/article/2541685

The Obama administration made up for the lack of laws passed in Congress last year, issuing a whopping 3,659 rules regulations, crushing claims that Washington isn't doing anything.

Only 65 public laws were signed by President Obama in 2013, meaning that his government issued an average of 56 new regulations for every one, a record high ratio, according to the annual analysis by the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

The surge in regulations has led critics to charge that Congress is now a bystander to federal regulatory agencies.

[Warph]

Winter Storm 2014: On The Coldest Day In America In 20 Years,
Here Are Al Gore's Stupidest Global Warming Quotes

by Michael Snyder
http://freedomoutpost.com/#SwDXjpD3hL1UrbQB.99

America could actually use some global warming right about now. It is being projected that low temperatures across the Midwest could be 30 to 50 degrees below average on Monday morning. On Sunday, fans that attempted to tailgate before the playoff game between the 49ers and the Packers at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin were discovering that their beers were actually turning to ice before they could drink them. That is cold. But things are going to get really chilly when nightfall arrives. In fact, it is being projected that much of the nation will experience wind chill temperatures of more than 40 degrees below zero, and wind chill temperatures of more than 50 degrees below zero are expected in parts of North Dakota and Minnesota. The weather is expected to be so cold that the governor of Minnesota has actually decided to close public schools statewide on Monday. The last time that happened was back in 1997. The reason why the governor of Minnesota did this is because when temperatures get this low they can literally be life threatening. When wind chill temperatures get down to about 50 below zero, if your skin is exposed you can literally develop frostbite in about five minutes. This is being called the coldest day in America in 20 years, and these cold temperatures have many Americans wondering what ever happened to all of that "global warming" that Al Gore and other "climate scientists" have been warning us about for so many years.

If the planet really is getting significantly warmer, our winters should not be like this. Back in the year 2000, one prominent "climate scientist" boldly declared that future generations of children "just aren't going to know what snow is."

Oh really?

The truth is that you don't have to be a "climate scientist" to understand what is happening to the weather. All you need is a little common sense.

Back in September, I warned that this was going to be "an extremely bitterly cold winter". I wrote another article that warned about how cold this winter would be in early December.

Right now we are witnessing cold temperatures that we have not seen in decades. The following is the way that one meteorologist put it...

"If you're under 40 (years old), you've not seen this stuff before."

Another meteorologist wanted people to understand just how dangerous this kind of cold weather can be...

"A person not properly dressed could die easily in those conditions."

To get an idea of just how cold it is up in Minnesota today, just check out the following anecdote that was reported by the BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25587336

Firemen tackling a blaze in Minneapolis, where temperatures have been below -20C, saw the spray from their hoses turn to ice as it hit the building.

And it is even colder up in Canada. Things are so cold up in Ontario that "frost quakes" have become very common...

While America collectively freaks out over their impending 'polar vortex', Canada is changing the game when it comes to cold weather phenomenon as reports of 'frost quakes' emerge from around Toronto and Ontario.

Indeed, as temperatures drop overnight to around -4f around the city hundreds of people are being startled by hearing large booms – causing them to think their homes are being broken into or gunshots are being fired.

In fact, they are merely hearing the after-effects of the frost quakes – or cryoseism – which are more commonly found on a glacier in the polar regions.

So are we really experiencing "global warming"?

Of course not.

If anything, things are actually getting colder.

What the United States and Canada are experiencing right now is making global warming alarmists such as Al Gore look quite foolish. The following are 10 of Al Gore's stupidest global warming quotes:

#1 In 2008, Al Gore boldly declared to a German audience that "the entire North 'polarized' cap will disappear in 5 years." (Needless to say, that did not happen. In fact, the ice cap in the Arctic actually got larger this year.)

#2 "CO2 is the exhaling breath of our civilization, literally. ... Changing that pattern requires a scope, a scale, a speed of change that is beyond what we have done in the past." (Actually, without carbon dioxide life on earth would not exist.)

#3 "The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that told me it's not a problem.' If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame retardant. You take action." (It sounds like what Al Gore really needs is more cowbell.)

#4 During a speech at NYU Law School in 2006, Al Gore made the following statement: "Many scientists are now warning that we are moving closer to several "tipping points" that could — within as little as 10 years — make it impossible for us to avoid irretrievable damage to the planet's habitability for human civilization."

#5 "Here is the truth: The Earth is round; Saddam Hussein did not attack us on 9/11; Elvis is dead; Obama was born in the United States; and the climate crisis is real."

#6 "The interior of the earth is extremely hot – several million degrees." (It actually peaks out at about 11,000 degrees.)

#7 "There is an air of unreality in debating these arcane points when the world is changing in such dramatic ways right in front of our eyes because of global warming."

#8 "It would be an enormous relief if the recent attacks on the science of global warming actually indicated that we do not face an unimaginable calamity requiring large-scale, preventive measures to protect human civilization as we know it."

#9 "The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk. And even more — if more should be required — the future of human civilization is at stake."

#10 "We ought to approach this challenge [of global warming] with a sense of profound joy and gratitude: that we are the generation about which, a thousand years from now, philharmonic orchestras and poets and singers will celebrate by saying, they were the ones that found it within themselves to solve this crisis and lay the basis for a bright and optimistic human future."
As time goes by, the scientific evidence continues to mount. It is becoming painfully evident that the theory of man-made global warming simply is not true. The following is from a recent New American article...

Well, 2013 is over, and contrary to the alarmist "predictions" by Gore and what critics refer to as his "doomsday cult," the latest satellite data show that Arctic ice cover has actually expanded 50 percent over 2012 levels. In fact, during October, sea-ice levels grew at the fastest pace since records began in 1979. Experts predict the expansion to continue in the years to come, leaving global-warming alarmists scrambling fiendishly for explanations to save face — and to revive the rapidly melting climate hysteria.

In September, meanwhile, data also showed that sea ice levels in Antarctica had expanded to record levels for the second year in a row. Of course, by now, virtually everyone who has been following news about "global warming" — now more often referred to as "climate change" owing to public-relations concerns — also knows that global temperatures have not risen for some 17 years. The spectacular lack of warming demolished all 73 of the "climate models" used by the United Nations to push its controversial theories.

Sadly, most of the governments of the planet still consider "man-made global warming" to be one of the greatest threats facing us, and the U.S. government is leading the charge. In fact, the U.S. government has been giving other nations billions of dollars to help them cope with "climate change"...

American taxpayers spent $7.45 billion to help developing countries cope with climate change in fiscal years 2010 through 2012, according to a federal government report submitted to the United Nations on a subject that Secretary of State John Kerry described as "a truly life-and-death challenge."

And it appears that Barack Obama plans to make the fight against global warming a major point of emphasis for the rest of his time in office...

When President Obama leaves office three years from now, the major policy story of his second term — barring some kind of unforeseen invasion — is likely to be climate change. I made this argument at feature length last year, and the evidence continues to mount. Coral Davenport reports today about Secretary of State John Kerry's "systematic, top-down push to create an agencywide focus on global warming."

Considering the host of other major problems that this country is facing, it truly is ironic that the federal government is spending so much time and energy fighting a problem that doesn't even exist.

Speaking of ironic, a team of "climate change scientists" that had recently gone down to the Antarctic to study "global warming" had to be rescued by helicopter when their ship got stranded in the ice...

A group of climate change scientists were rescued by helicopter Jan. 2, after being stranded in the ice since Christmas morning. But the majority of the broadcast networks' reports about the ice-locked climate researchers never mentioned climate change.

The Russian ship, Akademic Shokalskiy, was stranded in the ice while on a climate change research expedition, yet nearly 98 percent of network news reports about the stranded researchers failed to mention their mission at all. Forty out of 41 stories (97.5 percent) on the network morning and evening news shows since Dec. 25 failed to mention climate change had anything to do with the expedition.

In fact, rather than point out the mission was to find evidence of climate change, the networks often referred to the stranded people as "passengers," "trackers" and even "tourists," without a word about climate change or global warming.

Yes, the climate of the earth is changing. Throughout history it has always been changing. Most of that change is due to fluctuations in the gigantic ball of fire that our planet is revolving around.

But the idea that carbon dioxide is going to "destroy the planet" is ludicrous. Without carbon dioxide we would all die.

And the notion that "man-made global warming" is the "greatest threat" that humanity is facing is absolutely laughable.

Sadly, nothing seems to dissuade the true believers. Not even days like today.

[Warph]

Robert Gates, former defense secretary, offers harsh critique
of Obuma's leadership in 'Duty'

Gates: Obama's Advisers Were Talking About Military Options In Libya
Without Consulting . . . The Military

According to Gates the decision to move militarily was given to far-left adviser Samantha Power.

Via WaPo
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/robert-gates-former-defense-secretary-offers-harsh-critique-of-obamas-leadership-in-duty/2014/01/07/6a6915b2-77cb-11e3-b1c5-739e63e9c9a7_story.html?tid=ts_carousel

Similarly, in a battle over defense spending, "I was extremely angry with President Obama," Gates writes. "I felt he had breached faith with me . . . on the budget numbers." As with "don't ask, don't tell," "I felt that agreements with the Obama White House were good for only as long as they were politically convenient."

Gates acknowledges forthrightly in "Duty" that he did not reveal his dismay. "I never confronted Obama directly over what I (as well as [Hillary] Clinton, [then-CIA Director Leon] Panetta, and others) saw as the president's determination that the White House tightly control every aspect of national security policy and even operations. His White House was by far the most centralized and controlling in national security of any I had seen since Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger ruled the roost."

It got so bad during internal debates over whether to intervene in Libya in 2011 that Gates says he felt compelled to deliver a "rant" because the White House staff was "talking about military options with the president without Defense being involved."

Gates says his instructions to the Pentagon were: "Don't give the White House staff and [national security staff] too much information on the military options. They don't understand it, and 'experts' like Samantha Power will decide when we should move militarily." Power, then on the national security staff and now U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has been a strong advocate for humanitarian intervention.

Another time, after Donilon and Biden tried to pass orders to Gates, he told the two, "The last time I checked, neither of you are in the chain of command," and said he expected to get orders directly from Obama.

[Ross]

Really?

[Warph]

The Unbelievable High Cost of Maintaining
Michelle "The Mooch" Obuma's Dignity as First Lady

Posted By Richard Anthony on Jan 7, 2014

http://freedomoutpost.com/2014/01/unbelievable-high-cost-maintaining-michelle-obamas-dignity-first-lady/


So here we are over five years into the presidency of Barack Hussein Obama, with record unemployment and over 46,000,000 Americans on food stamps, one would think the Obama's would set an example for others to follow. If you thought that, you'd be very wrong. Barack Obama has more than doubled our national debt since being elected and Michelle has spent massive amounts of money on many lavish trips and vacations. When Jimmy Carter was president, even though history has proven him to be inept at his job, for all his faults, at least he was an honest man. But not so with the occupation of the Obama family in the peoples house. Even though we are (according to president Obama) in the midst of a "recession greater than that of the Great Depression," our First Lady has spent tax-payer money on her own comfort and amusement like it's free.



In times past, Mary Lincoln was taken to task and endured harsh criticism for purchasing china for the White House during the Civil War. Mamie Eisenhower had to shell out the salary for her personal secretary. But not so for our current First Lady; not by a long shot! She has racked-up quite a large tab since she moved in to the White House, but what the hell, she's not paying, you are.

"In my own life, in my own small way, I have tried to give back to this country that has given me so much," she said. "See, that's why I left a job at a big law firm for a career in public service," says Michelle Obama.

***Huh??

Mrs. Obama's license to practice law was rendered "voluntarily inactive" due to a court order in a Insurance malpractice case. (http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/o/Obama-Law-License.htm )

Since the First Lady holds no official "public office" nor does she receive any kind of salary, I find her statement quite puzzling.


Here is a list of staff members to help the First Lady in "maintaining the dignity of her office" and their salaries:

•Natalie F. Bookey Baker, executive assistant to the chief of staff to the first lady, $45,000;
•Alan O. Fitts, deputy director of advance and trip director for the first lady, $61,200;
•Jocelyn C. Frey, deputy assistant to the president and director of policy and projects for the first lady, $140,000;
•Jennifer Goodman, deputy director of scheduling and events coordinator for the first lady, $63,240;
•Deilia A.L. Jackson, deputy associate director of correspondence for the first lady, $42,000;
•Kristen E. Jarvis, special assistant for scheduling and traveling aide to the first lady, $51,000;
•Camille Y. Johnston, special assistant to the president and director of communications for the first lady, $102,000;
•Tyler A. Lechtenberg, director of correspondence for the first lady, $50,000;
•Catherine M. Lelyveld, director and press secretary to the first lady, $85,680;
•Dana M. Lewis, special assistant and personal aide to the first lady, $66,000;
•Trooper Sanders, deputy director of policy and projects for the first lady, $85,000;
•Susan S. Sher, assistant to the president and chief of staff and counsel to the first lady, $172,200;
•Frances M. Starkey, director of scheduling and advance for the first lady, $80,000;
•Semonti M. Stevens, associate director and deputy press secretary to the first lady, $53,550;
•Melissa Winter, special assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff to the first lady, $102,000.

The White House social secretary works for the first lady and serves as head of the White House Social Office, which plans everything from the casual and educational student workshops to elegant and sophisticated state dinners welcoming world leaders.

In the Office of White House Social Secretary were the following staffers:

•Erinn J. Burnough, deputy director and deputy social secretary, $66,300;
•Joseph B. Reinstein, deputy director and deputy social secretary, $66,300;
•Julianna S. Smoot, deputy assistant to the president and White House social secretary, $150,000.

And this list does not include Michelle Obama's immense cost for her to travel. When she does, she also lists her two daughters as "Senior Staff Members" so they will get paid (courtesy of you and me). I'll bet you didn't know that you were paying the two girls "allowance," did you?

Given the current state of our economy and given the fact that our nation's veterans are having their benefits decreased or cut-off all together, I think the "First Lady" could "down-size" just a little and cut a few corners, wouldn't you say? On my trusty little old 45 year old MONROE 3140 calculator that total comes to $1,415,170.00 per year in salaries for her 17 personal staff members. I wonder how many disabled veterans who lost limbs just in the last 5 years that amount of money would take care of.

So, to sum it all up, let's imagine just for a moment that you had in your possession, an EBT card, one with no spending limit, and whatever you did spend, you'd never have to pay back. Then you'd know what it was like to walk a mile in Michelle Obama's designer shoes.

***You might remember this one...

After Barack Obuma became an Illinois state legislator, his wife moved up as well, scoring a job as 'vice president of community relations' at the University Of Chicago Hospital for a very generous salary of $121,910.  When Obuma became a senator in 2005, her 'salary' leapfrogged to $$316,962 for the same job... and one of Senator Obuma's first acts in office was to see to it that the hospital received over a million dollars of your tax dollars as an earmark.

Well, Michelle has moved on,and guess what... that vital job of hers, worth a salary of over $300 K has been quietly eliminated.

It's the Chicago Way, cushy no-show jobs in exchange for political patronage... fist bump.

Of course, she had to work twice as hard to get half as far.  She said so, so it must be true.

But I wonder, is this so very different that what Rod Blagojevich was popped for? Except that Blagojevich got caught and embarrassed everybody?

[Warph]

The Wall Street Journal Reviews "Duty" – The Robert Gates Memoir

Posted on January 8, 2014

It appears the strategy to deflect away from the brutal outlines in Robert Gates' book is to frame Gates as an angry man with an axe to grind. 

Top Ten Takeaways from "Duty"

1. Contempt for Congress - Mr. Gates expresses open disdain for Congress and the way lawmakers treated him when he testified at hearings. "I saw most of Congress as uncivil, incompetent at fulfilling their basic constitutional responsibilities (such as timely appropriations), micromanagerial, parochial, hypocritical, egotistical, thin-skinned and prone to put self (and re-election) before country." Mr. Gates said he fantasized about storming out of hearings and quitting. "There is no son of a bitch in the world who can talk to me like that," he writes of his fantasy.

2. Contempt for Vice President Biden - Mr. Gates expresses particular dissatisfaction with Vice President Joe Biden. He describes Mr. Biden as a "man of integrity" who "has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades." Specifically, Mr. Gates said he opposed Mr. Biden's proposed limited strategy in Afghanistan to focus on counter-terrorism: "Whac-A-Mole hits on Taliban leaders weren't a long term strategy," he writes.


3. Suspicion of White House Control - Mr. Gates described the White House and its national security team as too controlling and says that he found himself at odds with Mr. Obama's inner circle. At one meeting in the Oval Office in 2011, Mr. Gates said he considered resigning because of the White House micromanagement and strategy. "I never confronted Obama directly over what I (as well as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, then-CIA Director Leon Panetta and others) saw as his determination that the White House tightly control every aspect of national security policy and even operations," Mr. Gates writes. "His White House was by far the most centralized and controlling in national security of any I had seen since Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger ruled the roost" in the 1970s.

4. Friction with the National Security Staff - In particular, Mr. Gates said he was incensed by the National Security Staff and their controlling nature. "Much of my conflicts with the Obama administration during the first two years weren't over policy initiatives from the White House but rather the NSS's micromanagement and operational meddling," he writes. "For an NSS staff member to call a four-star combatant commander or field commander would have been unthinkable when I worked at the White House – and probably cause for dismissal. It became routine under Obama."

5. White House vs. Pentagon - "The controlling nature of the Obama White House, and its determination to take credit for every good thing that happened while giving none to the career folks in the trenches who had actually done the work, offended Secretary Clinton as much as it did me," Mr Gates writes. In one meeting, Mr. Gates says that he challenged Mr. Biden and Thomas Donilon, then Mr. Obama's deputy national security adviser, when they tried to pass orders to him on behalf of the president. "The last time I checked, neither of you are in the chain of command," Mr. Gates says he told the two men. Mr. Gates said he expected to deal directly with the president on such orders.

6. Mr. Gates as Peacemaker - Mr. Gates writes that "presidents confronted with tough policy problems abroad have too often been too quick to reach for a gun. Our foreign policy has become too militarized, the use of force too easy for presidents." For too many people, he writes, "war has become a kind of videogame or action movie: bloodless, painless and odorless."

7. The War in Iraq - On Iraq, Mr. Gates writes that he hoped to "stabilize the country so that when U.S. forces departed, the war wouldn't be viewed as a strategic defeat for the U.S. or a failure with global consequences... Fortunately, I believe my minimalist goals were achieved in Iraq." The book is coming out as al Qaeda forces have seized control of key Iraqi cities and the Iraqi government is struggling to uproot the militants.

8. The War in Afghanistan - Mr. Gates writes that Mr. Obama had early doubts about his decision in late 2009 to send 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. "I never doubted Obama's support for the troops, only his support for the mission," he writes. Mr. Gates says that Mr. Obama was taken aback by a 2009 request from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, then commander of U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, for a major military surge. "I think Obama and his advisers were incensed that the Department of Defense – specifically uniformed military – had taken control of the policy process from them and threatened to run away with it."

9. Obama's Domestic Politics - Mr. Gates says that domestic politics factored into "virtually every major national security problem" the Obama White House faced. At one point, Mr. Gates writes, he witnessed a conversation between Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton in which the president "conceded vaguely" that his opposition to the 2007 military surge in Iraq was a political calculation. Mr. Gates called the exchange "remarkable."

10. Hatred for D.C. - Mr. Gates writes that his reputation for having an even temper often masked his outrage and contempt. "I did not enjoy being secretary of defense," he writes.

[Warph]

Chris Christie's Staff Coordinated Traffic Snarl To Punish New Jersey Mayor – The Political Left is Outraged

Posted on January 9, 2014

I'm shocked, SHOCKED I tell ya, shocked !!   It's hilarious to watch the left scream how petty Governor Chris Christie's office was after an explosive controversy surrounding the George Washington Bridge, yet simultaneously forget the pettiness of President Obama closing "Open Air" monuments and attempts to stop people from looking at Mount Rushmore – Both of which were petty, ridiculous and politically motivated.

"Brother, how'd ya like me now?....  You don't even live in New Jersey and yet the sheeple elected you as our Senator.  Meanwhile my staff closed a few lanes on a bridge and all hell breaks loose.....  fughetaboutit" !!

NEW JERSEY - New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) has acknowledged that the New Jersey bridge closing scandal has reached his office.

In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, Christie responded to the revelation that one of his close aides discussed plans to close lanes on the George Washington Bridge last year.

"What I've seen today for the first time is unacceptable," Christie said. "I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge."

The lane closures led to a massive, multi-day traffic jam in the town of Fort Lee, N.J. — a traffic jam Democrats have argued was intended as a form of retaliation against Fort Lee's Democratic mayor. Officials with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the bridge, have maintained that the lanes were closed as a result of a traffic study.

Christie, meanwhile, had in recent weeks dismissed the suggestion that the lane closures were a scandal, and made jokes about the idea that his office was involved. He adopted a very different tone in his statement on Wednesday, promising that "people will be held responsible for their actions."

"One thing is clear: this type of behavior is unacceptable and I will not tolerate it because the people of New Jersey deserve better," Christie said.

Christie's statement was prompted by documents obtained Wednesday by TPM and other media outlets. One of the documents showed Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie's deputy chief of staff for legislative and intergovernmental affairs, emailing in August with David Wildstein, one of Christie's appointees to the Port Authority. (Wildstein announced his resignation from the Port Authority late last year.)

"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," Kelly wrote to Wildstein in an Aug. 13 email.

"Got it," Wildstein replied.

The documents are heavily redacted in parts, making it hard to tell if Kelly meant the traffic problems were the motivation for the closure, or whether she was anticipating the traffic as an effect of the order.   (READ

[...]

Top Christie Ally Resigns as Bridge Controversy Grows

Via WSJ
http://live.wsj.com/video/top-christie-ally-resigns-as-bridge-controversy-grows/767E134F-5035-4D50-B834-F71C8C59FC8F.html?mod=WSJ_article_outbrain&obref=obnetwork#!767E134F-5035-4D50-B834-F71C8C59FC8F

A top aide to New Jersey Gov.Chris Christie resigns [12/13/2013] over the controversial decision to close some lanes of the George Washington Bridge. Democratic lawmakers in New Jersey are accusing Christie appointees of closing the lanes for political reasons. Ted Mann reports on the News Hub.

(Christie HAD to know about it in December)

[Ross]

I don't buy it !
Quote a persons remark to this article, "So why are the bats out and about when it's 109 degrees during the day? I thought they were nocturnal. I thought they hung upside-down in their caves during the day. That's what they do here in Carlsbad, New Mexico, during the day, where it can easily reach 109 degrees in the summer. "

100K Dead Bats Drop From Sky in Australia

Heat overtakes 'flying foxes'
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 9, 2014 1:06 PM CST

(Newser)  – As the US emerges from that whole "polar vortex," Australia saw an intense heatwave over the weekend—leading to the deaths of 100,000 bats, many of which reportedly dropped from the sky. In one video that went viral, a man filmed what he estimated to be more than 1,000 bat carcasses in his backyard, the Guardian reports. "The heatwave was basically a catastrophe for all the bat colonies in southeast Queensland," a rep for the RSPCA tells Australia's ABC News, noting that mass deaths were reported at 25 colonies. Bats are fragile and can't withstand temperatures above 109 degrees, a conservation worker explains. (Queensland's Brisbane got as hot as 106 on Saturday, notes ABC News.)

"They just fall," she says. "It's a horrible, cruel way to die." Another problem: The stench from the bodies is bothering locals. In one area, residents say they've had to live with the smell for days; in others, teams of trash collectors have been put together by regional councils to clean up the carcasses. In addition to those that fell to the ground, hundreds of bodies are still in trees and bushes, and maggots have already set in. As if all that isn't enough, at least 16 people have had to undergo anti-viral treatment after getting scratched or otherwise coming into close contact with a bat.

http://www.newser.com/story/180439/100k-dead-bats-drop-from-sky-in-australia.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=united&utm_campaign=rss_topnews