Rule 5 Saturday - Z is for Zelyaeva

This week's Rule 5 special is dedicated to a Russian model (I won't blame her for Ukraine). Valentina Zelyaeva has a nice short Wikipedia entry:

Valentina Zelyaeva (Zeliaeva) (b. October 11, 1982 in Moscow, Soviet Union) is a Russian model who has appeared on the cover of Spanish, Chinese, Greek, and Mexican editions of Vogue.

She's conquered more territory than Putin, if magazine covers count.

Valentina has been featured in print advertisements for Tommy Hilfiger, Coach, Calvin Klein, and Ralph Lauren, with whom she signed a seven-year deal, appearing in several high-profile campaigns for the designer. In addition to her Vogue covers, she has appeared on the covers of Elle, Harper's Bazaar, W, and Glamour, among others. Her runway credits include Balenciaga, Christian Dior, Lanvin, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Gucci and Valentino.

Basically, anybody who want a skinny chick to wear their clothes. Speaking of skinny chicks, Valentina is a strong advocate of skinny chicks rights:

On the controversial issue of banning underweight models from Milan Fashion Week, she said, "I think it's discrimination. We are skinny, this is our work. There are lots of overweight people working in offices but I'm not going to say, 'This girl is fat, she can't work in an office'."

Hooray for skinny chicks! They have feelings too. I guess.

GOODSTUFF seems to be commenting from the bowels of an alien spacecraft, after being abducted. I'm sure he'll be back in business shortly, after they realize who they're dealing with. Pirate's Cove linked it in the weekly "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup" and links. Wombat-socho has the grand round up of Rule 5s "Rule 5 Sunday: Mind The Gap" up at The Other McCain. Also linked at Balckmailers Don't Shoot in "Rule 5 in Honor of Comic-Con 2014."

Just a Bit Close

This would raise my blood pressure a little.



I'm sure the whale is just having a little fun.

Git 'er Done

Stacy McCain on the "Botched" Execution of Joseph Rudolf Wood III:

Yesterday, reacting to the botched lethal-injection execution of an Arizona murderer, I said: “Bring Back the Firing Squad. . . . It was good enough for Gary Gilmore.” And most people probably thought, “Hahaha. Stacy’s just being sarcastic again.” Well, guess what? A federal appeals court judge had made basically the same argument:

“Using drugs meant for individuals with medical needs to carry out executions is a misguided effort to mask the brutality of executions by making them look serene and beautiful — like something any one of us might experience in our final moments,” U.S. 9th Circuit Court Chief Judge Alex Kozinski wrote in a dissent in the Arizona death penalty case of Joseph Rudolph Wood III.
“But executions are, in fact, brutal, savage events, and nothing the state tries to do can mask that reality. Nor should we. If we as a society want to carry out executions, we should be willing to face the fact that the state is committing a horrendous brutality on our behalf.” . . .

Read the whole thing. My attitude about the death penalty is basically the same as my attitude about war: Git ‘er done.

A hard war makes for a long peace. War by half-measures, hemmed in by political concerns and fears of offending delicate sensibilities, can never accomplish war’s purpose, i.e., to defeat the enemy and force his submission. We ought not deceive ourselves about what war is.

Executions, like abortions, should be safe (for the bystanders and mothers), legal and rare. They should only be used where guilt has been established to a near statistical certainty (let's say p < 0.0001), since nothing is absolute, and after extensive review of the evidence. And only for certain especially heinous murders.

The recent rash of "botched" executions I lay at the feet of death penalty opponents. Humans are, if nothing else, remarkably able to kill other human beings.  The experimental drug cocktails being used now and producing the "botched" executions are being used because opponents of the death penalty put pressure on drug manufacturers and doctors not to participate, forcing states to go to untried cocktails.

I don't consider this execution "botched". A bit drawn out, perhaps, but there is no credible evidence of any pain or even awareness on the part of Joseph Rudolf Wood III. Inconvenient for the participants and bystander, perhaps, but not botched.

Want a killing drug that causes no pain?  Heroin.  Lot's of people die of heroin overdoses, and more than a few have been saved by interventions, and as far as I know no one has ever complained about how painful it is. Feel good, nod off, the end.

Beach Report 7/25/14

After a couple of wet days we were due for some better weather, but this was amazing for the hottest part of our year. Low to mid 70s, no humidity, cloudless skies, and a moderate breeze. What happened to our summer; not that I'm complaining?

We did pretty good for sharks teeth today, 38, almost evenly split between the two of us, although none were especially noteworthy.

Sometimes we had to walk around obstacles, though.

A message in the sand.

Obamacare Schadenfreude - Halbig Hangover Hangs On

Discussion of the Halbig and the 4th Circuit Court's competing decisions on subsidies for the federal exchanges continues:

Watch Obamacare Architect Jonathan Gruber Admit in 2012 That Subsidies Were Limited to State-Run Exchanges

Earlier this week, a three-judge panel in the D.C. Circuit Court ruled that, contrary to the Obama administration’s implementation and an Internal Revenue Service rule, Obamacare’s subsidies for private health insurance were limited to state-run health exchanges. The reasoning for this ruling was simple: That’s what the law says. The section dealing with the creation of state exchanges and the provision of subsidies states, quite clearly, that subsidies are only available in exchanges "established by a State," which the law expressly defines as the 50 states plus the District of Columbia.

Obamacare’s defenders have responded by saying that this is obviously ridiculous. It doesn’t make any sense in the larger context of the law, and what’s more, no one who supported the law or voted for it ever talked about this. It’s a theory concocted entirely by the law’s opponents, the health law's backers argue, and never once mentioned by people who crafted or backed the law.
. . .

Jonathan Gruber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist who helped design the Massachusetts health law that was the model for Obamacare, was a key influence on the creation of the federal health law. He was widely quoted in the media. During the crafting of the law, the Obama administration brought him on for consultation because of his expertise. He was paid almost $400,000 to consult with the administration on the law. And he has claimed to have written part of the legislation, the section dealing with small business tax credits.

After the law passed, in 2011 and throughout 2012, multiple states sought his expertise to help them understand their options regarding the choice to set up their own exchanges. During that period of time, in January of 2012, Gruber told an audience at Noblis, a technical management support organization, that tax credits—the subsidies available for health insurance—were only available in states that set up their own exchanges. . .
Here’s the video, which according to YouTube's date stamp was uploaded by Noblis on January 20, 2012. The relevant passage starts around minute 31.

And now on to the present day:

Why the DC Circuit’s interpretation of the ACA in Halbig v. Burwell is far from “absurd”

. . .Today, few liberals would say that any of the supposed benefits of federal-state cooperation are worth the potential cost of having many states where Obamacare tax credits are unavailable. But back in 2010, most ACA supporters expected that the law would be much more popular and more effective than has actually turned out to be the case. They thus expected that most states would set up their own exchanges. States that initially refused would eventually fall into line, as the ACA became even more popular and their citizens, insurers, and health care providers all suffered financial losses due to the states’ recalcitrance.

Such expectations were far from completely unreasonable. But, so far at least, things have not gone the way ACA supporters hoped. Only 14 states have fully established exchanges. Due to the law’s numerous flaws and continuing unpopularity, the ACA’s scheme of cooperative federalism has turned into a prime example of what Jessica Bulman-Pozen and Heather Gerken call “uncooperative federalism”: when state governments are given a major role in a federal program they oppose, they can sometimes undermine it by refusing to play ball.

This state of affairs is not what ACA supporters wanted. But that doesn’t change the reality that the cooperative federalism approach reflected in the text of the statute and the DC Circuit opinion is neither nonsensical nor absurd. Indeed, if things had gone according to plan, many of those who today decry Halbig would be hailing the ACA’s reliance on state-run exchanges as a shining example of cooperative federalism in action.

I recognize, of course, that the “absurdity” issue is not the only legal argument against the result in Halbig. But the absurdity claim is often put forward by critics of the decision, and has become an important part of the debate over the ruling. . . .

It certainly seems like the people who wrote the law were trying to coerce the states into buying in. But that failed, so now they're back to the "drafting error" and "absurd result" defenses. One court bought it, the other didn't.

Muslim Conductor Insults Dutch Queen, Orchestra Walks Out

From Theo's

Queen Beatrix of Holland attends an Orchestral Concert. The Conductor, who just happens to be Muslim, proceeds to give the Queen a lecture on the "beauty" of Islam.

Just shut up and sing conduct.

Midnite Music - Northern Lights

I saw her in an ad from the Rams Head Tavern.  Looks amusing. She has quite an impressive set of tats.

Lights Bokan (born Valerie Anne Poxleitner on April 11, 1987) is a Canadian electropop musician, singer, and songwriter. . .

Lights was born Valerie Anne Poxleitner in Timmins, Ontario. As the daughter of missionary parents she spent her childhood in many parts of the world, including the Philippines, Jamaica, Ontario, and British Columbia. She moved to Toronto at the age of 18 when she legally changed her name to Lights. She got the nickname "Lights" from her last name Poxleitner. She got her name legally changed, because there was already a signed band named "Lights", so the only way she could keep her stage name was to get it legally changed to her name.

Pirate's Cove linked this post in the weekly "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup" and links.

I'm Sure the State Dept. Will Issue an Especially Forceful Tweet

HORROR IN IRAQ: Islamists Order Genital Mutilation for All Females

#YesAllWomen are targeted by Muslims for savage butchery:

Militant group Islamic State has ordered all girls and women in and around Iraq’s northern city of Mosul to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM), the United Nations said today.
The “fatwa” issued by the Sunni Muslim fighters would potentially affect 4 million women and girls, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Iraq Jacqueline Badcock told reporters in Geneva by videolink from Arbil. . .
FGM, the partial or total removal of external female genitalia, is a tradition practised widely in many African and Muslim countries and often justified as a means of suppressing a woman’s sexual desire to prevent “immoral” behaviour. Worldwide, more than 130 million girls and women have undergone FGM.
Will American feminists take time away from their servile partisan duties to the Democrat Party to notice this? Probably not.

Feminists don’t care if Muslims amputate little girls’ clitorises. No, feminists save their hate for the real enemy: Republicans.

UPDATE: Now a Memeorandum thread with reports by the BBC and theUK Guardian. Strange to say, the feminist blog Jezebel has actually taken notice of this Muslim atrocity.

Perhaps the feminist will form a Women's Crusade to rescue the women of Syria. Well, at least most of the Christians have already left Mosul. Ain't ethnic diversity grand?

Dominion Gas Docks Gets Wetlands Permit

Board OKs Wetlands License For Cove Point

The Maryland Board of Public Works approved a wetlands license on Wednesday for Dominion Resources to build a pier that is needed to construct a liquefied natural gas export facility in Calvert County. The board, which includes Gov. Martin O’Malley, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy Kopp, voted 3-0 for the license to enable Dominion Resources to build a pier on the Patuxent River to bring in equipment to build the facility. Richmond, Virginia-based Dominion wants to construct the $3.8 billion project at its existing Cove Point terminal on the Chesapeake Bay.

I'm sure the Phragmites appreciate the effort.

“We need the work. There’s a lot of guys that could use the work. It’s gonna be good for the locals and for our nation as a whole,” said Tom Stewart.

Franchot said the project already has received favorable reports from state and federal agencies on environmental and safety matters. He said that “the cumulative economic benefits for the state and for the nation, I believe, are enormous,” adding that the project marks a step to reducing carbon emissions.

The company says the project will generate an additional $40 million in annual property taxes for Calvert County.

In an annual budget of approximately $240 million (2015 estimated), that's a pretty substantial chunk. I'm pretty sure the liberals will find something to spend it on if it ever arrives.

O’Malley said he believes natural gas can be a bridge to a better energy future.

However, he said it’s important to protect the environment through all the stages of production, from gas extraction to pipeline and export.

Yes, and so far, gas is a far superior fuel compared to coal from every possible point of view, worker safety, cost, cleanliness and environmental consequences.

Residents of Lusby expressed concerns about the proximity of the planned facility to their homes. They called on O’Malley to demand a risk assessment be conducted for the proposal.

“If there’s some sort of gas leak, if there’s some sort of explosion. We know very little about this and we’re scared,” said Rachel Heinhorst. “Accidents could easily escalate and affect residents.”

Tracy Eno, who represents a group of concerned residents in Calvert County, said they are worried about an accident.

“This is relatively experimental,” Eno said. “It hasn’t been done before. We are the guinea pigs.”

Of course it has; natural gas has been shipped all over the world for years. When was the last time you heard of a natural gas disaster?

Notice, that almost none of this discussion is about the wetlands permit.  The wetlands permits (and requirement for) is entirely a weapon in an ongoing battle over energy.

BTW, from the appearance of facts on the ground, the expansion is going forward. Dominion is spending big dollars improving the road down to Cove Point in anticipation of the improvements to convert this facility from import to export.

Post-Halbig Obamacare Schadenfreude

The Halbig and 4th Circuit decisions have Obamacare back in the news.

No, Halbig Did Not Gut Obamacare Because Of A “Drafting Error”

The panel that issued yesterday’s Halbigdecision ruled that the text of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, was unambiguous: subsidies in the form of tax credits could only be provided to offset the costs of plans purchased via a state exchange. Obamacare’s supporters immediately reacted with outrage, but they couldn’t quite settle on what, exactly, was outrageous. Some argued that the text of the law clearly permitted subsidies to flow to those who purchased plans on the federal exchange—this was the argument offered by the government in court. Others argued that while the text didn’t technically permit those subsidies, that was clearly the intent of the the law, and any textual omission was surely due to a “drafting error.”

[Numerous tweets of liberals calling the passage in question a "drafting error" snipped]

That’s right: a drafting error.

Let’s take a step back to see how plausible that explanation is. There are two types of exchanges: state-established, and federally established. The statutory authority for state-based exchanges comes in section 1311 of Obamacare. The statutory authority for a federal exchange in the event that a state chose not to establish one comes from section 1321(c) of Obamacare. Right off the bat, we have two discrete sections pertaining to two discrete types of health exchange. Was that a “drafting error”?

Then we have the specific construction of section 1321(c), which allows for the creation of a federal exchange. Nowhere does this section say that an exchange created under its authority will have the same treatment as a state-based exchange created under section 1311. At no point does it say that section 1321 plans are equivalent. Why, it’s almost as though the exchanges and the plans offered by them were not intended to receive the same treatment. Was that another “drafting error”?

Most important, we have the sections of the law providing for tax credits to help offset the cost of Obamacare’s health care plans: sections 1401, 1402, 1411, 1412, 1413, 1414, and 1415. And how do those sections establish authority to provide those tax credits? Why, they specifically state ten separate times that tax credits are available to offset the costs of state health exchange plans authorized by section 1311. And how many times are section 1321 federal exchange plans mentioned? Zero. Was that yet another “drafting error”?

The specific phrase “established by the State under section 1311″ can be found twice in the tax credit title of Obamacare. The first instances relates to the size and the second to the scope of the tax credit subsidy. How many times is the phrase “established by the Federal government/Secretary under section 1321″ found? Zero. Was that also a “drafting error”? . . .

Please don't confuse the liberals with facts. It just makes them angrier. Especially the judges.

A Tale of Two Circuits: Obamacare is either on life support or in robust health

. . . At the heart of the conflict is a fundamentally different view of the role not just of federal courts but also of federal agencies. I have long been a critic of the rise of a type of fourth branch within our system. The Framers created a tripartite system based on three equal branches. The interrelation of the branches guarantees that no branch could govern alone and protects individual liberty by from the concentration of power in any one branch.

We now have a massive system of 15 departments, 69 agencies and 383 nonmilitary sub-agencies with almost three million employees. Citizens today are ten times more likely to be the subject of an agency court ruling than a federal court ruling. The vast majority of “laws” in this country are actually regulations promulgated by agencies, which tend to be practically insulated and removed from most citizens
. . .
Regardless of the merits of the statutory debate over the ACA, the question comes down to who should make such decisions. For my part, I agree with the change but I disagree with the unilateral means that the President used to secure it. President Obama has pledged to “go it alone” in circumventing opposition in Congress. The Fourth Circuit decision will certainly help him fulfill that pledge. The result is that our model of governance is changing not by any vote of the public but by these insular acts of institutional acquiescence.

Patterico: Halbig: Exemption of Territories from Coverage Requirements Now Understandable As a Litigation Strategy

Remember this odd story from the other day?

Looking for a place where Obamacare doesn’t exist? Try moving to the U.S. Territories, where the Obama administration just provided a pretty big waiver from the law’s major coverage provisions.

The Affordable Care Act’s design dealt a pretty big problem to the territories. It required insurers there to comply with the law’s major market reforms — guaranteed coverage, mandated benefits, limits on profits, etc. — without requiring residents to get coverage or providing subsidies to help them afford coverage. The territories — Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands — have been warning for years that would destroy their insurance markets. The individual mandate and the subsidies are the major ways the ACA tries to bring healthy people into the individual insurance market to balance out sick patients who can no longer be denied coverage.
That was until Wednesday, when the Obama administration told the territories that the coverage requirements actually don’t apply to them. The exemption was posted on a Health and Human Services Web site on Thursday.

This seemed a little puzzling . . . until you read the Halbig decision. Then everything comes into focus: they were sacrificing coverage in the territories to establish a litigation position ahead of the decision.

Here it is in a nutshell. The government argued that the law provided a “three-legged stool” — and the three legs were: (1) “guaranteed issue” (where insurance companies must issue coverage to those with pre-existing conditions); (2) the mandate; and (3) subsidies. The government said that you can’t remove any of these legs without the stool collapsing; therefore the intent to have broad-based subsidies is clear. So, for example, you can’t possibly have a situation where you have “guaranteed issue” unless you have an individual mandate, which establishes a broad base of customers, which makes the economics work for the insurance companies.

The Halbig court replies: sure you can, apparently — because that’s what you do in the territories:

Yet the supposedly unthinkable scenario the government and dissent describe—one in which insurers in states with federal Exchanges remain subject to the community rating and guaranteed issue requirements but lack a broad base of healthy customers to stabilize prices and avoid adverse selection—is exactly what the ACA enacts in such federal territories as the Northern Mariana Islands, where the Act imposes guaranteed issue and community rating requirements without an individual mandate. . . . This combination, predictably, has thrown individual insurance markets in the territories into turmoil. . . . But HHS has nevertheless refused to exempt the territories from the guaranteed issue and community rating requirements, recognizing that, “[h]owever meritorious” the reasons for doing so might be, “HHS is not authorized to choose which provisions of the [ACA] might apply to the territories.”

My guess is that the Government knew that the court was going to be making this argument, somehow — and the Government wanted to be able to tell the Supreme Court (or en banc D.C. Circuit) that it had, in fact, exempted the territories. They wanted not to seem reactive to the Halbig decision — so they made sure to make the announcement before the decision came out.

My favorite part is the quote from HHS: “HHS is not authorized to choose which provisions of the [ACA] might apply to the territories.” Right before they did exactly that.

When the Government trumpets that exemption before future courts, the lawyer for Halbig et al. had better be ready with that quote.

Are lawyers really that devious? Does a bear shit in the woods?

When you've lost Ted Turner... CNN Poll: Twice As Many Americans Were Hurt By Obamacare Than Helped

Obamacare's overall approval rating remains upside-down by nearly 20 points (40/59), virtually unchanged from its March "rebound." Democrats' self-congratulatory convulsions over "eight million new enrollees" failed to move the needle. (Reasons for scare quotes here, here, here, and -- new today! -- here). Asked whether the law has helped or hurt their families, respondents shared the bad news:

As we've seen in the other polling linked above, a plurality of Americans say they haven't been impacted too much by the new law -- yet, at least. As I've said in the past, I generally fall into this category, as the "only" effect I've felt is a monthly premium increase of nearly $100. But of those consumer who have been affected, they break two-to-one into the "worse off" camp. Obamacare is helping some people; mostly Americans with preexisting conditions and those who are eligible for very generous subsidies. But it's hurting far more people. And a substantial majority oppose the law. Obamacare was pitched as a win/win for everyone, with no trade-offs and no losers. That has not been the case. Indeed, Politico isshowcasing one class of Obamacare losers, who've encountered "access shock" -- a phenomenon we've been tracking for quite some time. . .

Obamacare Official Gets Ethics Waiver as Former Company Faces Scrutiny

Andrew Slavitt, a former executive at the technology company tasked with saving HealthCare.gov and current second-in-command at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, was granted an ethics waiver by the Department of Health and Human Services to begin working with his former company immediately.

The waiver was granted despite Republican lawmakers’ concerns about Slavitt’s potential conflict of interest. The Daily Signal revealed those concerns in a story yesterday.

Slavitt, a former OptumInsight/QSSI group vice president, left the company last month to work as the principal deputy administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which runs Obamacare and HealthCare.gov. His post makes him the No. 2 at the agency under CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner.

Secret of Happy Marriage Revealed at Long Last

Yet another 6 AM Eye Opener (TM) inspired by Wombat-sochos "Live at Five" meme:

Jessica Alba (an early Rule 5 special, to whom I did not dedicate nearly enough digits) has revealed the route to domestic bliss as she sees it. Having Girls' Nights Out to Complain About Your Husband

She's telling it like it is! Jessica Alba reveals the secret to a harmonious family life in the latest issue of Self Magazine—making sure you make time to go out with your girlfriends and moan about your husband!

Yeah, that probably works.  Goodness knows men bitch about their wives to other men, and find it a lot less pleasant when they do it to their wives. At least that's my experience. Just don't take it too seriously.

She also reveals diet secrets:

“I have the same food philosophy for myself as I do for my kids," she explained. "We eat mostly lean protein and fresh fruit and vegetables, nothing processed or from a box, if we can. For me, when I don’t eat a ton of carbs, I have more energy. But I’ll for sure have a piece of chocolate. I will mow through a bowl of guacamole. If I’m not going to have dessert, I’ll have a martini.”

Not too bad, looks like a workable scheme, but how much guacamole can you eat without chips? I also see my problem is combining my ice cream bar with my bourbon and diet coke. But no, I'm not giving that up. I don't aspire to Jessica Alba's figure:

NGOs Come Out as Commies

130 Environmental Groups Call For An End To Capitalism

Environmentalists have declared that global warming can’t be stopped without ending the “hegemonic capitalist system,” saying that cap-and-trade systems and conservation efforts are “false solutions.”

“The structural causes of climate change are linked to the current capitalist hegemonic system,” reads the final draft of the Margarita Declaration, presented at a conference including about 130 environmental groups.

“To combat climate change it is necessary to change the system,” the declaration adds.
Environmental activists met in the oil producing, socialist country of Venezuela as part of a United Nations-backed event to increase civil engagement in the lead up to a major climate conference.

Sounds to me like they've had too many Margaritas.

Say, what did socialists use before they had candles?
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Electricity

Mouse over to see answer.

Bull Shark Prompts Closure of Bay Beach

Bull shark spotted at Sandy Point

A sighting of a bull shark off Sandy Point State Park Monday prompted a brief closure of one of the swimming areas, but the park's manager said the popular Chesapeake Bay beach returned to "business as usual" on Tuesday after seeing no more of the wide-ranging predator.

Ranger Steve McCoy, Sandy Point's manager, said a fisherman reported seeing a small bull shark around 5:30 p.m. Monday near the east beach. A ranger walked out on the rock jetty jutting into the water and confirmed seeing some type of shark, McCoy said, so park personnel moved "a handful of people" to the lifeguard-monitored main beach in another area of the park and kept a close watch on the shark.

On Tuesday, with Sandy Point lifeguards on the lookout and no further sighting of the shark, McCoy said the park "went back to business as usual."

Bull shark sightings are not uncommon in the bay, McCoy said, but "that one was a little closer than we've seen for a while." A large pair was caught last year in a net near Point Lookout in the mouth of the Potomac River. Though bull sharks are reputed to be aggressive, there have been no attacks reported on humans in state waters. . . .

 . . .yet.

FWIW, although Bull Sharks are well up there in the ranks of shark attacks, shark attacks are very rare given the fact that sharks are relatively common. But they are unpredictable:

Baltimore Waterways Improve, Still Suck

Despite higher score, Baltimore waterways still get failing grade

Baltimore’s harbor and the streams that feed into it again merited a failing grade on their 2013 annual report card, indicating the waters around the metro area suffer from continued loads of nitrogen, phosphorus, sediment and garbage.

The report card, which is part of the Healthy Harbor initiative of Blue Water Baltimore and the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, looks at multiple indicators of human health and pollution, and maps where they are, before giving its grade. Factors include dissolved oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, chlorophyll a and water clarity. It also looks at conductivity from chemicals, particularly those laden with salt, and fecal coliform bacteria, which is coming from sewage and septic systems.

Baltimore’s waterways scored poorly in all categories except dissolved oxygen and water clarity. Baltimore’s streams actually scored an A in turbidity/clarity, in part because the cloudiness of a stream is a localized and temporary condition.

Even with the grade of F, the state of Baltimore’s water was better in 2013 than it had been in 2012, which was the first year that the group began monitoring the waterways. In 2012, the harbor scored a 42 percent, compared with 2013’s 51 percent. The tidal Patapsco River improved from 40 percent to 55 percent. Last year, the group did not sample streams; in 2013, they scored 57 percent — indicating they are heading into D territory.

This year, some of the streams in the Gywnns Falls watershed earned a C-minus, but many in both the Gwynns and the Jones Falls still scored an F.

So they went from an F-- to and F-?  That's real progress. No wonder the urbanite liberals who populate the environmental movement are trying to make up for it by screwing the agricultural community.


But they should be careful, you don't want your streams to become too clean or they might be invaded by the Giant Dobson Fly:

According to the Insect Museum of West China, local villagers in the outskirts of Chengdu handed over "weird insects that resemble giant dragonflies with long teeth" earlier this month. Several of these odd critters were examined by the museum and found to be unusually large specimens of the giant dobsonfly, which is native to China and Vietnam.

The largest one measured 21 centimeters (8.27 inches) when its wings were open, according to the museum, busting the original record for largest aquatic insect held by a South American helicopter damselfly, which had a wingspan of 19.1 centimeters (7.5 inches).

Large enough to cover the face of a human adult, this scary-looking insect is also known among entomologists as an indicator of water quality, says the museum.
The giant dobsonfly makes its home in bodies of clean water and is highly sensitive to any changes in the water's pH as well as the presence of trace elements of pollutants. If the water is slightly contaminated, the giant dobsonfly will move on to seek cleaner waters.

The insect can be found in other provinces in China, India's Assam state, and in northern Vietnam. This is the first time it has appeared in Sichuan province.

It wouldn't be our first invasive species from China.  FYI, we have Dobson flies in the US too, although not as large.  The ominous looking pincers are present only in the males and are reported to be sex toys and not weapons.

Beretta to Leave Maryland for Gun Friendly Tennessee

Beretta USA Announces Decision to Move Its Entire Maryland Manufacturing Capabilities to Tennessee

Beretta U.S.A. Corp., located in Accokeek, Maryland, announced today that it has decided to move its manufacturing capabilities from its existing location to a new production facility that it is building in Gallatin, Tennessee. The Gallatin facility is scheduled to be opened in mid-2015. Beretta U.S.A. had previously planned to use the new Gallatin, Tennessee facility for new machinery and production of new products only.

“During the legislative session in Maryland that resulted in passage of the Firearm Safety Act of 2013, the version of the statute that passed the Maryland Senate would have prohibited Beretta U.S.A. from being able to manufacture, store or even import into the State products that we sell to customers throughout the United States and around the world. While we were able in the Maryland House of Delegates to reverse some of those obstructive provisions, the possibility that such restrictions might be reinstated in the future leaves us very worried about the wisdom of maintaining a firearm manufacturing factory in the State,” stated Jeff Cooper, General Manager for Beretta U.S.A. Corp.

“While we had originally planned to use the Tennessee facility for new equipment and for production of new product lines only, we have decided that it is more prudent from the point of view of our future welfare to move the Maryland production lines in their entirety to the new Tennessee facility,” Cooper added.

The transition of production from Beretta U.S.A.’s Maryland facility to the Tennessee facility will not occur until 2015 and will be managed so as not to disrupt deliveries to Beretta customers. Beretta U.S.A.’s production of the U.S. Armed Forces M9 9mm pistol will continue at the Accokeek, Maryland facility until all current orders from the U.S. Armed Forces have been filled.

O'Malley spokesperson:

"We're disappointed with this decision, but the common-sense gun safety law we passed, which includes licenses for handgun purchases, is keeping schools, communities and law enforcement personnel safe," said Nina Smith, an O'Malley spokeswoman.

Right, Baltimore and PG counties are soooo safe.

Schadenfreude: Split Decisions on Obamacare

Two different appeals courts came down with decisions on the legality of subsidies being given to people who sign up on Obamacare through the federal exchanges. As conservatives thought they might, and liberals feared, in Halbig vs. Sebelius Burwell the D.C. Circuit Court decided that the law meant what it said, and that only people who signed up for Obamacare through state exchanges were eligible for subsides:

Obamacare supporters are enraged. The decision in Halbig v. Burwell, which invalidated the federal government’s ability to provide subsidies for those Americans who purchased insurance through a federal health insurance exchange, could mean a major increase in premium rates for more than half of the 8 million who enrolled in ACA plans.

The appeals court ruled that, as written, only those who purchased insurance through state-level exchanges can access federal financial support. “That would invalidate an Internal Revenue Service regulation that tried to sort out confusing wording in the law by concluding that Congress intended for consumers in all 50 states to have subsidized coverage,” the Associated Press reported. 36 states declined to establish their own exchanges, preferring instead to use the federal exchange.

The law’s design was no accident. The ACA was constructed with the aim of encouraging states to establish their own exchanges. Even Vox.com accurately describes the incentive structure in place: “If a state set up its own exchange, its citizens would receive subsidies. If the state didn’t, its citizens wouldn’t.”

Up to 5 million subsidized plans are at risk.

Au contraire, decided the 4th Circuit court, the same day. They couldn't make head nor tails out of the same words themselves, and so decided the tie goes to the IRS, who wrote the regulations that govern Obamacare:

Sen. Reid say nuclear option necessary to protect legitimate drafting errors by the Senate.

Senate Democrats are hoping their use of the “nuclear option” to end a Republican blockade of circuit court nominees last year will help overturn a 2-1 appeals court ruling with the potential to gut Obamacare tax subsidies for millions.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., blasted the court’s ruling that Congress only wanted to provide tax subsidies in states with their own exchanges an “absurd” move by “two activist Republican judges.”

The administration plans to appeal the ruling to the full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which now has more Democrat-appointed judges after the nuclear option blew up GOP attempts to filibuster Obama’s nominees.

Asked by reporters if his decision to employ the nuclear option to fill the circuit was vindicated, Reid said based on “simple math, you bet.”

Needless to say, the matter is not settled, and decisions by the full courts before proceeding to the Supreme Court are likely. Stay tuned.

In other Obamacare Schadenfreude news, the ungrateful plebes are still whining about the lousy Obamacare coverage:

Anger over limited choice of doctors and hospitals in Obamacare plans is prompting some states to require broader networks — and boiling up as yet another election year headache for the health law.

Americans for Prosperity is hitting on these “narrow networks” against Democrats such as Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, whose GOP opponent Scott Brown has made the health law a centerpiece of his campaign to unseat her. And Republicans have highlighted access challenges as another broken promise from a president who assured Americans they could keep their doctor.

It’s not just a political problem. It’s a policy conundrum. Narrow networks help contain health care costs. If state or federal regulators — or politicians — force insurers to expand the range of providers, premiums could spike. And that could create a whole new wave of political and affordability problems that can shape perceptions of Obamacare.

Here’s the dilemma: People hate being told they can’t go to the doctor of their choice. But many hate higher premiums more. Tightening up the network is one of insurers’ best tools to keep costs down.

To paraphrase Michelle Obama, "Just shut up and eat your vegetables. It's for your own good."

But what if you do want an Obamacare plan, and think you might not be eligible for a subsidized plan? Don't worry, it's easy to fake an application:

In undercover tests of the new federal health insurance marketplace, government investigators have been able to procure health plans and federal subsidies for fake applicants with fictitious documents, according to findings that will be disclosed to lawmakers Wednesday.

The results of the inquiry by the Government Accountability Office are evidence of still-imperfect work by specialists intended to assist new insurance customers as well as government contractors hired to verify that coverage and subsidies are legitimate. The GAO also pointed to flaws that linger in the marketplace’s Web site, HealthCare.gov.

According to testimony to be delivered before a House Ways and Means subcommittee, undercover GAO investigators tried to obtain health plans for a dozen fictitious applicants online or by phone, using invalid or missing Social Security numbers or inaccurate citizenship information.

All but one of the fake applicants ended up getting subsidized coverage — and have kept it. In one instance, an application was denied but then approved on a second try. In six other attempts to sign up fake applicants via in-person assisters, just one assister accurately told an investigator that the applicant’s income was too high for a subsidy.

Midnite Music - Well, Sort of -

Wombat-socho has the grand round up of Rule 5s "Rule 5 Sunday: Mind The Gap" up at The Other McCain.

Farmers Continue to Fight Bay Models

Farm lobby refutes pollution study; debate points to problems with data

The Maryland Farm Bureau attacked studies released last week that showed less progress on phosphorus pollution cuts in Eastern Shore rivers and took aim at the models and formulas used to measure bay pollution.

Like the Environmental Integrity Project studies it took to task, the farm lobby also called for more precise monitoring of practices used by farmers to cut nutrients, and changes to the models used to estimate progress, but for a different reason.

I have deep suspicions of anyone who gives a project the Orwellian title "Environmental Integrity Project." How can you even be allowed to question something that calls for "environmental integrity?"

It claims bay models short change pollution reductions while the Integrity Project found the models could be over-estimating the results — especially on phosphorus reduction.

The arguments on both sides shed light on the fact that the models used to estimate pollution reductions, while tested and honed by experts, remain a work in progress.

As they say, "All models are wrong; some models are useful." The trick is to know which ones are useful, and what they're limitations are.

The Environmental Protection Agency last month released an assessment of bay restoration progress which said Maryland had reached its targets on nutrient pollution. The positive report is based, in part, on Maryland implementing new phosphorus rules for farms. It also seeks better monitoring of agricultural pollution techniques.

The farm bureau said it was proof the state’s agricultural sector is doing its job and said last week’s studies short change farmers.

I won't pretend to know who's right here; my gut tells me both sides are shading the truth in their favor.

Drained! (Again)

On the way home from Annapolis this afternoon, we stopped in Prince Frederick.  Georgia had some errands, and I dropped in on the Red Cross blood drive in the converted RV in the Wawa parking lot. I had tried to give blood a couple weeks ago, but flunked the iron test (after two tries).  This time I squeaked by (time to eat more steaks).  Unlike most blood drives I've been at, one phlebotomist took care of one person from start to finish. I drew a humorous, pleasantly plump, elderly black woman, who turned out to be an old pro.  A painless stick, and a quick draw, a couple snacks and a juice, and I was out in less than 45 minutes. She didn't even need to draw an "X" on my vein.

You may or may not like the Red Cross (like all massive organizations they have their idiosyncrasies), but if you qualify to give blood, do so. The life you may save maybe be someone you love.

Wombat-socho has the grand round up of Rule 5s "Rule 5 Sunday: Mind The Gap" up at The Other McCain.

Catch Up Obamacare Schadenfreude

Obamacare has been largely out of the news for sometime, as no deadline looms yet, and as immigrants rush the borders, the Mideast explodes (again, ho hum), and planes unexpectedly fall out of the sky. Nevertheless, Obamacare Schadenfreude continues to creep along inside the body politic, like a case of septicemia or necrotizing fasciitis.

The next time some democrat tells you Obamacare is working, send him this to show how flexible "working" really is: Obamacare Misses Its Target on the Uninsured by Half

In March 2010, Obamacare was about to be voted upon by the House of Representatives, and the Democrats were in the process of deciding whether to ignore public opinion at their peril. At that time, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that Obamacare would cost $938 billion over a decade and would reduce the number of uninsured people by 19 million as of 2014 (with a reduction of 1 million prior to 2014 and 18 million in 2014 alone). Unimpressed, the American people overwhelmingly opposed the intrusive overhaul — with 20 of 21 polls taken that month showing it to be unpopular, most of them by double digits. The Democrats willfully passed Obamacare anyway and lost 63 House seats that November.
. . .
In February of this year, the CBO projected that Obamacare would reduce the number of uninsured by 13 million as of 2014. In April, the CBO had seen enough of the Obama administration’s skillful rollout of Obamacare to reduce that estimate to 12 million.

Now the Urban Institute finds that Obamacare has actually reduced the number of uninsured adults by 8 million since the rollout began last fall. (Gallup shows a similar number.) That’s far short of the number of newly insured that the CBO projected in April of this year, in February of this year, or in 2012 — and it’s less than half the tally the American people were told Obamacare would hit when they opposed it in 2010.

Yet Paul Krugman says that “health reform is — gasp! — working.” Only in Washington could something that fails to hit even half of its original target be considered a gasp-inducing success. No wonder Obamacare is every bit as unpopular now as it was before the party that passed it took its initial Obamacare-induced “shellacking” four years ago.

Unless by "working" you mean destroying the previous health care system. If that was the goal, and there's plenty of evidence it was, it working.

And now, the Sun King allows another exception to his signature achievement, because it's working too well: The Obama Admin Just Exempted US Territories From Obamacare

The Obama administration issued yet another waiver to get out of Obamacare — for all the U.S. territories.

The exemption, posted Thursday on a Department of Health and Human Services website, frees U.S. territories from a host of Obamacare regulations on health insurance markets. The territories already weren’t subject to much of the health care law — the individual mandate doesn’t apply to the territories and premium subsidies aren’t available.

What did apply were a host of regulations on the health insurance markets operating in the territories. Obamacare’s rules for insurance companies — providing mandated health benefits to all customers, limits on insurer profits, and guaranteed coverage for those with pre-existing conditions — all force insurers to take a hit, but in the territories, the sweeteners that make Obamacare a great deal for insurance companies in the states don’t apply.

The individual mandate and premium subsidies were supposed to bring healthy and young customers into the insurance market. Even in the states, that’s not working nearly as well as the Obama administration had hoped. But without either provisions, the insurance markets in the territories were tanking due to the influx of sick patients and the new benefits insurers were required to provide.

The U.S. territories have been pleading with the Obama administration to exempt them from the regulations, but HHS officials had refused until now. “HHS is not authorized to choose which provisions…might apply to the territories,” top HHS official Gary Cohen wrote last year, The Washington Post reported.

Now HHS believes it has the authority after all. The Public Health Service Act’s definition of the term “state” has led HHS to belatedly determine that most of Obamacare’s regulations don’t apply to the territories.

And I'm sure this will shock you: Company That ‘Saved’ HealthCare.gov Faces Questions of Cronyism

Jarred by the defect-riddled rollout of the Obamacare website, Obama administration officials signed up a technology company to rid HealthCare.gov of its bugs.

Now, though, congressional Republicans are scrutinizing that outfit for a potential conflict of interest because its sister company, UnitedHealthcare, is among insurance companies selling plans to Americans through online marketplaces, or “exchanges.”
“If I was a competitor, I would be extremely concerned about this company having access to confidential information that we’ve had to give to the government,” Heritage Foundation legal scholar Hans von Spakovsky told The Daily Signal.

Quality Software Systems Inc., or QSSI, is the tech firm the Department of Health and Human Services picked in October 2013 to straighten out HealthCare.gov.
. . .
In September 2012, two months before President Obama’s re-election, UnitedHealth Group acquired QSSI through a subsidiary, OptumInsight, in a deal consummated with little fanfare. UnitedHealth Group is also the parent of UnitedHealthcare, which offers plans on the exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act.

As The Washington Post noted, neither UnitedHealth nor OptumInsight put out press releases announcing the purchase—and because the deal was relatively small, it didn’t require a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The only public evidence of the acquisition appeared on the website for Jenner & Block, the law firm that represented QSSI in the deal.

Afterward, a group of Republican lawmakers sent letters to UnitedHealth and HHS asking for further information on why QSSI got the $84.5 million government contract to work on the federal data hub.

I guess an additional sign that it's working is that it is supporting the administration's supporters.