Retiring Guy's Digest: 2015-02-01

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Oceana Bal Harbour

Property description

28 Floors
240 oceanfront units
25 floors of mixed 1, 2, 3 & 4 bedrooms apartments, with maid quarters
1 floor with 4 Penthouse
2 floors with 4 Duplex Upper-Penthouses.

Prices start $2,000,000

Maintenance fee of $0.95 per sq. ft. (Smallest unit of 2,712 square feet = $2,576)

Anticipated completion date: 2016.

One Sotheby’s tapped to market Oceana Bal Harbour. (Miami Herald,11/24/2014)

Consultatio’s sales team already has sold 50 percent of the units at the fancy project, which boasts 400 feet of beachfront, underground parking, a private poolside restaurant, cabanas, a movie theater, and 24-hour concierge services, the developer said.

William Leonard (1950-2015) Warren Area High School Class of 1968

Warren Times Observer

1968 Dragon yearbook

"William" has always been in fashion, never falling out of the top 20.

Source: Social Security Administration Popular Baby Names

This song was finishing up a 6-week stay in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 when the class of '68 graduated.

Other class of '68 members:
Douglas Coates. (12/29/2014)
Jennifer Robinault Morell. (9/6/2014)
Jacquelyn Johnston Malone. (7/31/2014)
Janet Vavala Smith. (3/25/2014)

Van Wanggaard Toes the ALEC Line

Republican lawmakers push to repeal 48-hour waiting period for handgun purchases. (Wisconsin State Journal, 2/7/2015)

Photo credit: Wisconsin State Legislature

Text source: Wisconsin State Journal

This ALEC model resolution is from 1995.

A time when public Internet use was in its infancy.

The main point here is that gun rights advocacy groups have never been in favor of any kind of waiting period. Using modern-day technology as an excuse is an exercise in blowing smoke.

ALEC goes to Wisconsin:
Meet Scott Walker's "ideas" men. (1/29/2015)
The Koch Brothers bring you "The Big and the Bold". (1/24/2015)
Chris Kapenga, ALEC waterboy, is at it again. (12/11/2014)
Of course, Kapenga hasn't drafted a bill; it's already been done for him. (12/4/2014)
Here's an example of what happens when people don't pay attention. (10/8/2014)
Speaking of plagiarism: The Kapenga Chronicles (9/27/2014)
ALEC tools Leah Vukmir and Alberta Darling go off the deep end. (9/22/2014)
Speaking of plagiarism. (9/20/2014)
Just what the Wisconsin legislature needs: Another ALEC disciple. (8/7/2014)
Meet Chris Kapenga, R-Waterboy, representing the grate state of ALEC. (2/18/2014)
Sen. Paul Farrow throws a hissy fit (which is transcribed in this news release). (2/7/2014)
Robin Vos believes in selective transparency of the kind advanced by the American Legislative Exchange Council. (12/24/2013)
Background on the National Conference of State Legislatures for Leah. (12/12/2013)
From ALEC to Andre to us: Rep. Jacque (R-DePere) whittles model bill down to the basics. (9/1/2013)
NRA/ALEC "Docs and Glocks" law finally makes its way to Wisconsin. (6/18/2013)
Robin Vos, "an ALEC Wisconsin Foot Soldier" (SourceWatch). (6/13/2013)
ALEC'd to Death: Wisconsin Republicans Continues to Depend on the Koch Brothers' Playbook. (6/7/2013)
ALEC's State Budget Reform Toolkit: "Asset Sale and Lease Opportunities". (6/6/2013)
Selling State Properties? It's in the ALEC Playbook. (5/22/2013)
More cookie-cutter legislation from ALEC. (4/7/2013)
What the Koch Brothers left under Scott Walker's 2010 Christmas tree. (6/19/2012)

Scott Walker and the Wisconsin Idea: Go Big, Go Bold, Go Butcher

Is Scott Walker so put off by the Wisconsin Idea that he's willing to kill the golden goose?

Photo credit: State of Wisconsin

Text source: Job creation from University of Wisconsin research funds fuels budget debate. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2/6/2015)

Of course, Walker didn't actually say this. Not in these exact words, anyway. (And neither did President Ford in 1975.)

Other big and bold posts:
Go big, go bold, go base. Is Scott Walker our next Richard Nixon? (2/5/2015)
Go big, go bold, go batshit: Scott Walker and the creation of the "drafting error" fairy tale. (2/5/2015)
Scott Walker's budget strategy: Go big, Go bold, Go bash UW. (2/4/2015)
Divide and conquer: The foundation of Scott Walker's big and bold ideas. (2/4/2015)
Scott Walker's Syria strategy: Go big, go bold.....go boots, start walking! (2/2/2015)
Go big, go bold, go borrow. (1/31/2015)
Koch Brothers go big, go bold, will spend $889 million to buy 2016 elections. (1/27/2015)
The Koch Brothers bring you "The Big and the Bold". (1/24/2015)

No Friend to the Environment: Republican Representative Adrian Smith, Nebraska's 3rd Congressional District

Photo source: U.S. Congress

Text source: Center for American Progress Action Fund

Rep. Smith was re-elected to a 5th term with 75% of the vote.

Recommended reading for Rep. Smith and his "rest of the state" constituents.

Climate Change Implications for Nebraska. (University of Nebraskai-Lincoln. School of Natural Resources.)

Understanding and Assessing Climate Change: Implications for Nebraska documents many of the key challenges that Nebraska will face as a result of climate change. Commentaries from experts on Nebraska's water resources, energy supply and use, agriculture, forests, health, ecosystems, urban systems and rural communities, and infrastructure and vulnerabilities raise serious concerns about the impacts of projected changes in climate, but they also provide a starting point for discussions about the actions that we can take to overcome these challenges.

No Friend to the Environment dishonor roll.

Alabama Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives. (Their anti-environmentalism can be summed up in one word: coal. Which is odd, since Alabama contributes a mere 1.9% of U.S. production, good enough for an overall ranking of 13. The state's peak year of production: 1990)

1st District. Bradley Byrne (R). Proposed an amendment that would have cut all FY 2015 funding for the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
2nd District. Martha Roby (R). Voted YES on opening Outer Continental Shelf to oil drilling and barring EPA from regulating greenhouse gases. Signed the No Climate Tax Pledge by Americans for Prosperity.
3rd District. Mike Rogers (R). League of Conservation scorecard: 2013: 0%. Lifetime (2003-): 9%.
4th District. Robert Aderholt (R). Without bothering to fact-check, he uses a discredited petition rejecting climate change to make a point.
5th District. Mo Brooke (R). Climate Experts Testify that Climate Change Projections are Unreliable and Misleading.
6th District. Stephen Baucus (R). League of Conservation scorecard: 2013: 0% Lifetime (1993- ): 8%

Alaska Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

At-large District. Don Young (R). Ridiculed environmentalists as a “self-centered bunch of waffle-stomping, Harvard-graduating, intellectual idiots.....not Americans, never have been Americans, never will be Americans.”

Arizona Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

4th District. Paul Gosar (R). Takes his environmental cues from cattle and sheep producers.
5th District. Matt Salmon (R). This quote sums up his view: “I found the source of global warming is coming from the hot air coming out of Washington.” Signed Koch Brothers "No Climate Tax" pledge.
6th District. David Schweikert (R). Known to throw a hissy over "the Al Gores of the world". Chairs House Subcommittee on Environment.
8th District. Trent Franks (R). League of Conservation scorecard:2013: 11%. Lifetime (since 2003): 5%.

Arkansas Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

1st District. Rick Crawford (R). Vow to his constituents: "As long as the Obama EPA continues its assault on farmers, I will continue to fight senseless regulations that only serve to cripple American agriculture."
2nd District. Tim Griffin (R). Perhaps one of the few scientists in the Republican House caucus. As far as global warming is concerned, he claims "that there are a lot of shenanigans going on with the data."
3rd District. Steve Womack (R). Loves his fossil fuels.
4th District. Tom Cotton (R). Claims the earth's temperature hasn't warmed in 16 years, a climate denier meme. The reality: 9 of the 10 warmest years on record occurred since 1998.

California Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

1st District. Doug LaMalfa (R). Ask him about air conditioners, packing plants, or praying for rain.
4th District. Tom McClintock (R). Still smarting that he never received a Nobel Prize in the 3rd grade.
8th District. Paul Cook (R). ALEC shill for the Keystone pipeline.
10th District. Jeff Denham (R). Appears to think that climate skeptics are on "the right side of the issue."
21st District. David Valadao (R). Represents a portion of California's Central Valley, a hotbed of climate skepticism, as the representative's League of Conservation Voters scorecard indicates.
22nd District. Devin Nunes (R). Throws hissy fit, a Republican specialty, over what he calls Obama's extremist climate agenda.
23rd District. Kevin McCarthy (R). Bemoans those dang "harmful regulations".
25th District. Buck McKeon (R). 7% lifetime score on League of Conservation Voters' National Environment Scorecard after 24 years in House.
31st District. Gary Miller (R). 3% lifetime score on League of Conservation Voters' National Environment Scorecard after 14 years in House.
39th District. Ed Royce (R). A liberal among the California Republican caucus: a 13% lifetime score on the League of Conservation Voters' National Environment Scorecard.
42nd District. Ken Calvert (R). Although comfortably ensconced in the Republican environmental mainstream, he's not above making an heretical remark or two.
45th District. John Campbell (R). Signer of Americans for Prosperity "No Climate Tax Pledge"; 9% lifetime score from the League of Conservative Voters,
48th District. Dana Rohrabacher (R). Mouths the same climate denier meme as the newly elected U.S. Senator from Arkansas.
49th District. Darrell Issa (R). The richest member of Congress, he recently won the League of Conservation Voters "Climate Denier Award".
50th District. Duncan Hunter (R). Can you top this? "Thousands of people die every year of cold, so if we had global warming it would save lives."

Colorado Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

3rd District. Scott Tipton (R). Tree rings tell us all we need to know.
4th District. Cory Gardner (R). Another beneficiary of the 2010 Tea Party wave. And he adjusted his views accordingly.
5th District. Doug Lamborn (R). Works tirelessly to assure that climate change remains "an extremely controversial topic". (Is also a big fan of impeaching Obama.)
6th District. Mike Coffman (R). Solidly parks his butt in the the-science-is-not-quite-settled camp.

No House Republicans hail from Connecticut and Delaware.
Florida Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

1st District. Jeff Miller (R). "Flintstones, meet the Flintstones. They're the modern Stone Age fam-a-lee."
2nd District. Steve Southerland (R). Spouts the company line.
3rd District. Ted Yoho (R). "I'm not smart enough for that."
4th District. Ander Crenshaw (R). All talk, no action.
6th District. Ron DeSantis (R). As reported by ThinkProgress, a majority of Congressional Republicans are climate deniers. At this point in the exercise, we appear to have unanimity.
7th District. John Mica (R). 7% lifetime score from League of Conservation Voters after 22 years in the House.
8th District. Bill Posey (R). Sez climate change has been with us since the Earth was formed. (Pick your date.)
10th District. Daniel Webster (R). 9% score from League of Conservation Voters during his 2 terms in office.
11th District. Richard Nugent (R). 6% score from League of Conservation Voters during his 2 terms in office.
12th District. Gus Bilirakis (R). Big fan of fossil fuels.
13th District. David Jolly (R). Happy to drift along with the fossil-fuel flow.
15th District. Dennis Ross (R) It's all about personal responsibility.
16th District. Vern Buchanan (R). Proud to represent his rich waterfront property owners.
17th District. Tom Rooney (R). One of 48 Republican House members with a 0% score from the National League of Conservation Voters in 2013.
19th District. Curt Clawson (R). Suggests that climate change "may not exist".
25th District. Mario Diaz-Balart (R). Not ready to jump on the global warming bandwagon.
27th District. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R). Chicken Little, apparently, is one of her favorite folk tales.

Georgia Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

1st District. Jack Kingston (R). Ask him about climate change, and he'll give you his troglodyte views on evolution.
3rd District. Lynn Westmoreland (R). One of the Republicans who threw a hissy fit when the Defense Department announced its climate change initiative.
6th District, Tom Price (R). During 2009 floor debate on a climate-change bill, he asked colleagues for a moment of silence for lost jobs.
7th District. Rob Woodall (R). Like his colleague Lynn Westmoreland, Rob believes that climate change discussions should be, at best, marginalized, not expanded.
8th District. Austin Scott (R). "Absolutely" skeptical when it comes to climate change.
9th District. Doug Collins (R). Ranked by National Journal as the most conservative member of the state's House delegation (90.2% rating, 16th overall).
10th District. Paul Broun (R). Believes that climate change is one of the greatest hoaxes perpetrated by the scientific community. Got his butt kicked in the 2014 Georgia Republican primary for U.S. Senate.
11th District. Phil Gingrey, M.D. (R). Surgical masks for every cow.
14th District. Tom Graves (R). Has a facility for stringing cliches together.

Idaho Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

1st District. Raul Labrador (R). According to this list, one of the scariest.
2nd District. Mike Simpson (R). Tries to come across as reasonable, but his words are contradicted by his 7% lifetime score from the League of Conservative Voters. (Lifetime = 9 terms, 18 years.)

Illinois Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

6th District. Peter Roskam (R). Once referred to climate change as "junk science".

13th District. Rodney Davis (R). Content to spout the company line.
14th District. Randy Hultgren (R). Asserted in 2009 that "we're headed in to a bit of a colder time."
15th District. John Shimkus (R). "The B-I-B-L-E/yes, that's the book for me/I stand alone on the word of God/the B-I-B-L-E!!"
16th District. Adam Kinzinger (R). Gives new meaning to "all-inclusive".
18th District. Aaron Schock (R). When it comes to support of environmental issues, he's all talk and no action.

Indiana Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

2nd District. Jackie Walorski (R). “That’s My Congress” notes Rep. Walorski has followed a conservative course when voting on environmental legislation -- and everything else, for that matter. Earned a 0% rating from the League of Conservation Voters after her first year in the House.
3rd District. Martin Stutzman (R). Signed Americans for Prosperity’s “No Climate Tax Pledge” a month before being sworn in as a member of Congress in 2010.
4th District. Todd Rokita (R). This climate change denier respects "God's green earth". Anyone who thinks otherwise is arrogant.
5th District. Susan Brooks (R). The Walorski summary fits Brooks to a T.
6th District. Luke Messer (R). Considers climate change a social issue.
8th District. Larry Bucshon M.D. (R). Climatologists are only in it for the money.
9th District. Todd Young (R). Describes himself as a climate agnostic.

Iowa Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

3rd District. Tom Latham (R). Earned a 8% lifetime score from the League of Conservative Voters in his 20 years of Congressional service.
4th District. Steve King (R). Rep. King explains it all for you.

Kansas Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

1st District. Tim Huelskamp (R). A fossil fuel kinda guy, More development and utilization = jobs jobs jobs.
2nd District. Lynn Jenkins (R). Knows how to tap dance her way through a town hall forum.
3rd District. Kevin Yoder (R).http://paulsnewsline.blogspot.com/2015/01/no-friend-to-environment-republican_9.html More of the same.
4th District. Mike Pompeo (R). Uses social media to trumpet his climate skepticism.

Kentucky Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

1st District. Ed Whitfield (R). In the pocket of coal industry.
2nd District. Brett Guthrie (R). Another Corncracker Soldier fighting against the "War on Coal".

4th District. Thomas Massie (R). Not your garden-variety Republican.
5th District. Harold Rogers (R). Serves as the Supreme Commander in the fight against the War on Coal.
6th District. Andy Barr (R). A foot soldier fighting against the War on Coal.

Louisiana Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

1st District. Steve Scalise (R). The empty-headedness of GOP talking points. You can't make this stuff up.
3rd District. Charles W. Boustany, Jr., M.D. (R). From coal to oil. "All politics is local".
4th District. John Fleming (R). Like him on Facebook.
5th District. Ralph Abraham (R). Sez Keystone Pipeline will create 40,000 construction jobs.
6th District. Garret Graves (R). Possible renegade?

Maine Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

2nd District. Bruce Poliquin (R). One of the newest members of the House Republicans Climate Skeptics caucus.

Maryland Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

1st District. Andy Harris, M.D. (R). Fighting to insure clear-channel outlet for Republican climate skepticism propaganda.

No House Republicans in Massachusetts delegation.
Michigan Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

1st District. Dan Benishek, M.D. (R). Well now, here's a Republican who claims to be a scientist!
2nd District. Bill Huizegna (R). Makes no bones about where he stands on global warming, climate change.
3rd District. Justin Amash. Meet Mr. Contrarian.
4th District. John Moolenaar. For this newly elected representative, the photo at his energy issues webpage tells us all we need to know for the time being.
6th District. Fred Upton (R). Baby, it's cold outside!
7th District. Tim Walberg (R). Another Tea Party hypocrite.
8th District. Mike Bishop (R). New guy spouts the company line.
10th District. Candace Miller (R). "Just ask the dinosaurs."
11th District. Dave Trott (R). The Wolf of Oakland County.

Minnesota Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

2nd District. John Klein (R). Likes his energy dirty.
3rd District. Erik Paulsen (R). Lotsa talk on the environment, but his voting record tells the story.
6th District. Tom Emmet (R). Creator of the phrase, "Al Gore's climate porn". (All you need to know: He now serves the district Michele Bachmann represented.)

Mississippi Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

1st District. Alan Nunnelee (R). Apparently, when it comes to America's energy sources, the dirtier the better.
3rd District. Gregg Harper (R). Not a believer.
4th District. Steven Palazzo (R). Looking out for the interests of oil, natural gas, and coal

Missouri Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

2nd District. Ann Wagner (R). Puts climate science in diapers.
3rd District. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R). God forbid we should take a global approach to climate change.
4th District. Vicky Hartzler (R). Sings a duet of "Baby, It's Cold Outside!" with her Michigan colleague Fred Upton.
6th District. Sam Graves (R). Speaking of out-of-touch.
7th District. Billy Long (R). He's a coal man.
8th District. Jason Smith (R). Another coal man, holdin' on to yesterday.

Montana Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

At-Large. Ryan Zinke (R). His views on the environment undergo a transformation once he runs for Congress.

Nebraska Congressional delegation: U.S. House of Representatives

1st District. Jeff Fortenberry (R). After receiving a pat on the back from ConservAmerica, his rating from the League of Conservation Voters take a big tumble.
3rd District. Adrian Smith (R). A denier from his first day in the House.

No Friend to the Environment: Republican Representative Jeff Fortenberry, Nebraska's 1st Congressional District