I Stand With You (From Way Over Here)

I fully support the nuttiness that is Occupy Oakland.

Just another good reason for companies to move out of California and other states that don't want them around (while simultaneously demanding more and more from them) to states like Texas, that provide a good business environment (and therefore a better living environment for its citizens).

Well done, Oakland.

The New Civility, continued

Al Gore to run a 24-hour "full-on assault" on climate skeptics?

My, my, what violent language.

When You Are A Hammer...

...everything looks like a nail.

Too many Travis County residents are going hungry unnecessarily. Sustainable Food Policy Board member Arthur D'Andrea says only 47% of Travis County residents who are eligible for food stamps actually participate in the program.

See, if the government says you are eligible for food stamps and you don't apply, then of course, you must be going hungry.

Or perhaps, you know, you have other means of support. Or the eligibility requirements are too lenient. Nah, that couldn't be it.

D'Andrea says the county leaves over 150-million in federal money on the table.

And this is a bad thing? I guess in some eyes (i.e. a bureaucrat's), it is. To a tax-payer's eyes, this is a good thing.

D'Andrea says the city needs to make it easier to apply for food stamps and get the word out what it takes to qualify for the assistance.

Look, I actually agree with this - I find it extremely easy to believe that federal, state and local governments have managed to come up with the most complex way possible to apply for aid, and streamlining it (and removing some of the associated bureaucracy) would be a good thing. But I don't think that it's a big problem that not enough people are living off on the behest of the government; quite the contrary, the problem is that too many people are. So efforts to get more people dependent on tax dollars get a thumbs down from me.

Morning Constitutional

On the idiot convention that is C-SPAN's Washington Journal, I've already heard two callers on the Democrat line describe themselves as poor, wondering why the evil rich guys won't pay their fair share. Putting aside the stupidity of their assertion that "the rich" aren't paying enough (when the top 1% pays over 40% of the income tax), my first thought was...if you are poor, how on earth are you watching C-SPAN?

The C in C-SPAN stands for Cable. It is a cable channel. You must pay someone - Time Warner, Comcast, AT&T, whoever - a monthly subscription fee in order to watch it. And it isn't a trivial amount, it's at least $20 a month and probably much more.

If you are spending money on cable television, you are not poor. Cable television is not a basic fundamental right, it is not a basic utility like electricity or water. It is a luxury.

Obama (and Democrats in general) want to redefine poor upwards - to have more people believe themselves to be incapable of supporting themselves without help from the government. Multiple cars, a house, cable TV, high-speed internet - these are all things that "the poor" have to have, meaning (a) if you don't have them, the government has to supply them, and (b) even if you do have them, you still should consider yourself as wards of the government. Those are both ruinous ideas for the long-term financial viability of the country.

If you call up C-SPAN and complain about being one of "the poor" that need Obama to reach into my wallet to keep you afloat....well, now I know you are full of it.

Setting Plans

Austin City Council to spend $4.1 million to convince residents to vote on yet another failed rail system. Not that it takes much to get the typical Austinite to vote to spend money on wasted efforts to look more like Portland or Seattle or San Francisco or whichever left-coast city is the current "new hotness".

I see that my next city council vote is going to look a lot like my last few - vote the incumbents out.

It Is Still Government Motors

Just heard a mind-bogglingly stupid news report on KLBJ-AM at the bottom of the hour. It was embedded in a stock market update, where it was mentioned that the new GM stock was trading up at around $35/share, compared to under $1/share when it previously went bankrupt.

Brilliant.

As if the old price could in any way be compared to the new price. This makes it sound somehow as if GM is suddenly 35 times more valuable than it was before. The crisis is over! But wait...how about a few questions, like: how many shares exist now, compared to back then? What is the market cap now, compared to back then? What assets does the company possess now, as opposed to back then?

So many morons on the Democrat line of C-SPAN's Cavalcade Of Idiots, er, Washington Journal believed somehow that because an IPO had gone out, somehow that meant that we had recouped the GM bail-out money. Misleading reports like this just serve to reinforce that incorrect belief.

The Head Office Says Jump!

I guess the new marching orders are out. While watching C-SPAN's Cavalcade of Idiots, errr, Washington Journal this morning, the first phone segment was seeking comments on last night's primary elections. I expected most of the comments from the reliably left-leaning callers to somehow find a way to bash Sarah Palin despite the apparent strong-showing of one of her endorsees in Alaska.

Instead, three of the first few Democrat callers chose to go after Koch Industries, apparently seeking to paint its owners as attempting to subjugate democracy itself by daring to fund organizations that oppose the Obama agenda. The very nerve! I mean, it certainly isn't as though any super-rich industrialists on the left have ever sought to materially affect public policy through funding advocacy organizations. That's just the kind of thing devious right-wingers do.

So we got the usual set of calls to "unleash the dogs": demanding Congressional investigations (sorry, morons, Nancy's a little busy with other investigations at the moment), demanding boycotts (apparently if you dig down far enough, you find out that the Kochs are responsible for Dixie cups, so watch out!), and the now-standard Wikipedia defacing (check out the edit wars already under way).

So beware, you 50-to-60-percenters! Your betters are watching you!

That Wraps Up The Next Election Some More

As I said - freaking morons:

The Austin City Council will formally consider limiting travel to Arizona and terminating any business contracts currently in place with the state. A resolution will be introduced at a May 13 meeting, according to a statement issued today from Councilman Mike Martinez’s office.

Yeah - how dare they enforce the law!

Ordinarily, I would say I truly can't wait to vote against each and every one of these idiots in the next municipal election - except that (a) I know there won't be anyone better to vote for either, and (b) these idiots will all easily win re-election anyway.

Sigh. All I can hope is that the state government manages the regional economy well enough to overcome the local stupidity here in Bezerkely East.

That Wraps Up The Next Election

So, the City Council votes for a (sigh) "green" energy plan that will give us 35% of our energy from green sources in exchange for a minimum 20% increase in our energy rates.

Note: this is the estimate from Austin Energy, the ones trying to sell us on this. They're saying the rates will go up 20%. I'm treating this government estimate like I do most - as a steaming pile of crap. The actual raise will be much much higher.

And what's the benefit? "There's a goal to reduce our carbon footprint by 20% below the 2005 levels by the year 2020."

That's not a benefit, that's a goal. What the heck good does this do for me as an Austin Energy customer?


This is exactly why I never vote for incumbents for Austin City Council. Because they are all freaking morons. If they want to start burning bio-mass, I can think of seven lumps of bio-mass I'm willing to feed in first - Lee Leffingwell, Sheryl Cole, Randi Shade, Laura Morrison, Bill Spelman, Mike Martinez, and Chris Riley.

Help! Help! He's Being Repressed!

Outrage at Apple yet again. Now that Mark Fiore has won a Pulitzer Prize (no doubt, for explaining how to talk "like a tea bagger"), a few have noticed that his iPhone App was rejected a few months back.

Now, Apple's rejection criteria has been, to say the least, fluid. However, Apple has started clearing the dross of the app store, rejecting apps that are just graphics collections (i.e. usually softcore porn). Their claim (and rightly so) is that those can be better viewed just as web applications by a browser.

However, a few folks have decided this is political censorship:

Are you to be the new Digital Taliban?

If you cannot understand the First Amendment, if you can’t understand it supercedes your narrow monetary interests, perhaps you might want to consider moving your Corporate headquarters to a place like Singapore or Malaysia, where you’d at least have the excuse of hiding behind their similarly-repressive governments.

Yes, clearly Apple - with board members like Al Freaking Gore - is a bastion of repressive, right-wing anger. Or maybe, they realize that releasing politically-polarizing material - on either side of the aisle - is a good way to lose customers. Oh, and comparisons of a corporation making a minor policy decision to a fundamentalist terrorist group like the Taliban are always nice - what's the matter? Afraid to go full Godwin here?

Since you suggested it, let's take a look at the First Amendment, shall we?

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

"Congress shall make no law..." Now, the Amendment's reach has been extended to other governments besides just Congress. But it hasn't been extended to Apple Inc., and as far as I know, Apple cannot pass a law.

The First Amendment means that the state cannot prevent you from speaking your mind. Indeed, this guys publishes on NPR - the state is actively supporting his speech. The Amendment does not say you get to choose how your speech is distributed. If Apple doesn't want to distribute political speech, that is their right. Just as it is your right to complain, boycott Apple, whatever you want.

Because I hope you really don't want the government forcing corporations - any corporation, not just networks or newspapers - to support any type of speech that comes down the road. That truly is fascism, not just the pretend label that gets slapped on anything politically disagreeable these days.

Morning Constitutional

I used to do a series of posts called "Morning Constitutional" where I would highlight particularly stupid callers to C-SPAN's Washington Journal program. The theory was: hearing someone so incredibly stupid would make me feel smarter by comparison, and so help motivate me for the day. I gave up on it, because the theory was wrong: hearing these moronic callers and realizing they were out there - driving, voting - was more depressing than anything else, and so Washington Journal dropped off my morning radar.

But I do still turn in from time to time. This morning made me realize why I stopped. They had a phone-in segment on the recent earthquake in Haiti. Well, that's not quite right - sure, they could have done a segment with an on-site reporter, to give us more in-depth info. Or they could have highlighted relief efforts. Or even had a discussion on what the U.S. policy on Haiti should be going forward.

But instead, they decided to have discussion on Pat Robertson's latest moronic declaration - that the earthquake hit Haiti because it was "cursed" after making a "deal with the devil".

Pat Robertson is insane. He is a nutbag. He is off of the tracks. This is clear, and has been for years. The only possible reason for anyone, let alone C-SPAN, to give him any time on air that he didn't already buy is to prop him up yet again as an easy target to skewer Christians in general, and evangelicals in particular.

These are the same people that insist that the terrorist-supporting Muslims are just a tiny minority (which isn't always true) and that we shouldn't paint with such a broad brush. But in keeping with their multicultural "principles", the same standards don't apply to the predominant religion here in America.

To see C-SPAN continue to sink to the low end of the pool with stunts like this is sad, but predicable.

I'll Proudly Serve...

...as the new Congressman representing the proud folks in the 91st Congressional District of the Great State of Texas.

What? There aren't that many districts in Texas?

Better let Obama know.

Not only that, but these geniuses are claiming that $57000 of stimulus money managed to create - sorry, save or create - thirty jobs? Wow - glad we aren't still complaining about the "Bush Recovery" only creating low paying "McJobs".

And these are the brain surgeons some want to put in charge of health care?

Thanks For Nothing, Kay

Here I was actually looking forward to voting for governor next year. Not so much that I would be (likely) voting for Rick Perry, but I would get a chance to help send Kay Bailey Hutchinson back into private life. And hopefully get an actual conservative into that seat.

Instead, it looks like she's already decided that she's toast in the primary race, because she isn't going to resign her senate seat during the campaign after all.

Just wonderful. Now I get to vote for Rick Perry for nothing.

They Have That On Computers Now?

From a news article about how the debate over health care reform has crashed the House of Representatives email system:

[A spokesman] said new technology called "load balancing" is in place to try to handle spikes in volume.

Wow, that newfangled "load balancing" technology! What will they think of next?

(And these are the guys we want in charge of health care? Right....)

Another One Goes Under The Bus

Via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

All terrific press for Orion, except that Obama kept pronouncing the company’s name wrong, calling it OAR-ee-on.

After finishing his remarks and talking with a few people, the president returned to the microphone and said his prepared remarks led him to pronounce the firm's name wrong.

“I suspect this is Or-EYE-on as opposed to OAR-ee-on. Just wanted to make sure that when I’m giving you a plug, that we’ve got the right plug. It’s Or-EYE-on.”

Now, I'm not posting to point out that had Bush done this, it would be lead-off material for Leno, Letterman, Stewart, et. al. for about a week. That boat left Port Obvious several weeks ago. No, the real surprise here is that Obama blamed this on his "prepared remarks".

That is, on his teleprompter.

I guess it wasn't the TOTUS that we thought it was....

Thank You, W

You didn't always look like you were enjoying your presidency, but I hope your retirement is enjoyable and productive. You've earned it, perhaps more than any other president in decades.

I didn't always agree with your policies or actions, but there were far more positives than negatives in my opinion. In the end, although the media and historians will never admit it, yours will have been a successful presidency.

Thank you.

Really Really?

Hot Air features a clip from CNN where a reporter takes a leap from one nutbag "journalist" to the U.S. being "loathed" throughout the Arab world during an interview with Condi Rice.

Frankly, Captain Ed got a lot further in that interview than I did when I came across it this morning. I only got as far as the first two questions I saw:

QUESTION: Do you regret your role in the Iraq war?

SECRETARY RICE: I absolutely am so proud that we liberated Iraq.

QUESTION: Really?

No, not really, you freaking idiot - obviously, she was just putting you on with that first response, and under the intensity of your insightful line of questioning, she was going to break down and admit that she really does regret everything.

Is it any wonder that CNN is rarely accessed at my house anymore?

It Was Nice While It Lasted

"The avalanche has begun; it is too late for the pebbles to vote."

$700 billion bailout of the financial industry.
$25 billion bailout (so far) of the auto industry.

Next in line, Detroit, Atlanta and California.

Hell, why don't we just forget about capitalism and federalism altogether?
I mean, what good have they done anyone?

Jesus H. on a pogo-stick.

Doorknob Of Fate

Not sure what to make of this. I just got doorknobbed with a flier encouraging me to vote Democrat "not just at the top of the ticket".

Now I live in Austin. Obama is going to carry Travis County easily.

Austin is in Texas. McCain is going to carry Texas easily.

As a result, I largely get bypassed by most of the direct political crap, at least at the national level. So I'm not really sure what this flier implies about the state races.

Are the Dems feeling their oats, hoping to ride The Chosen One's coattails to some statewide gains here in Texas, a state that hasn't had a Democrat in statewide office for a long time now (probably since Ann Richards' time, and she's in the grave by now)? (BTW I don't think that will change this year either - Cornyn is a shoe-in to retain his seat, most other statewide seats don't change this year, and even the Austin Comicle thinks a change in the state legislature balance is a longshot.)

Or are the Obamalots worried about complacency setting in among the disciples, expecting a lower turnout than expected in an area he is going to win regardless? I wouldn't think they would need a good old, Chicago-style bus-in-the-ignorant-masses type GOTV effort here in The People's Republic of Texas.

As I said, it won't have any real effect here in Texas, but it's curious nonetheless.

Rock Bottom (I Hope)

Her [Sarah Palin] greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that she is a woman.

Wow, could have fooled me. I've seen some pretty amazingly hateful stuff over the last couple of weeks. But I really didn't think anything could top Bush Derangement Syndrome until I started seeing Palin Derangement Syndrome. The above sentence was written for a column not on politics but on religion and faith.

In case anyone out there thought the level of vitriol and hatred coming from the left in the U.S. might subside after Bush leaves office - think again. Even if Obama wins, this is the kind of reasoning and discourse we can expect to see. Only now, it'll be backed by the White House in addition to Congress and the media.

Any wonder why I will never again vote for a Democrat?

Via Hot Air.