Of God, burgers and animal style...

As the author of this article from the Times submits, there’s In-N-Out Burgers and then everyone else.

No franchising, no release of financial figures, quirky ordering lingo and an obsessive commitment to fresh high-quality ingredients have all added to the mystique of the Southwestern U.S. fast food icon.

Whenever we go into an In-N-Out location, we feel like we are being served by the local high school's Honors Society – this nation’s best and brightest in it's young people. We leave with our hopes buoyed with the possibility that it's these people who will be running things in this country some day. Then it’s back to reality where we realize that it’s neither the first 50 pages of Boston’s phone directory nor the Massachusetts Ave. In-N-Out staff that is calling the shots.

Anyway, article is a good read and which provides a review of the appropriately-named “In-N-Out Burger” by Business Week writer Stacy Perlman and which gives an overview of the lawsuit over control of the company between the granddaughter of the In-N-Out’s founders and a former long-time executive.

We may need 11 x 17 paper before too long (UPDATED)

(UPDATE #1): The CBO released its budget figures today and to say it's ugly would be a mild understatement.

Budget office figures released Monday would add $89 billion to the 2009 red ink -- increasing it to more than four times last year's all-time high as the government hands out billions more than expected for people who have lost jobs and takes in less tax revenue from people and companies making less money.

The unprecedented deficit figures flow from the deep recession, the Wall Street bailout and the cost of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus bill -- as well as a seemingly embedded structural imbalance between what the government spends and what it takes in.

(emphasis, ours)

embedded structural imbalance....

That about sums it up, now doesn't it?

And dig this:

Just a few days ago, Obama touted an administration plan to cut $17 billion in wasteful or duplicative programs from the budget next year. The erosion in the deficit announced Monday is five times the size of those savings.

The author of this article is just piling-on, now.

But it's not this Administration's fault and proving that bloggers don't know what the hell they are talking about...

"The deficits ... are driven in large part by the economic crisis inherited by this administration," budget director Peter Orszag wrote in a blog entry on Monday.

Good grief. Granted, Team O inherited a crappy economy but they did not inherit having to pay for porkulus and they did not inherit a $3.6 trillion budget for FY 2010. We'd also like to point out that the President certainly did his part while in the Senate voting in favor of the Bush-initiated spending.

This Administration's penchant for blaming the previous administration for this sort of stuff is both childish and misleading.

And maybe now people will start to get an idea of what these Tea Parties are all about.

(here endeth the update)


A few posts back, we linked to an article here that talked about private investors sitting out the recovery effort because of the completely schizophrenic and thuggish behavior of the Treasury Dept. and the Administration. And now because of weak demand for Treasury bonds, the government is having to offer higher interest rates on bonds in order to sell them.

Recall that both the Administration’s and the Congressional Budget Office’s deficit projections are based on the sale of bonds at set interest rates and a growing economy via the stimulus bill that hasn’t happened yet (because we all know that porkulus had nothing to do with actual stimulus… how does hiring more people to wipe the rear ends of old people in nursing homes actually stimulate the economy?).




So, with having to pay out on higher interest rates, we will have to spend even more which, of course, means it's entirely reasonable to assume that those downward projecting red and pink lines will be getting even longer.

This is bad. Very, very bad. And we think this story deserves more attention than its getting.

With investors going away, and other revenue-generating schemes getting shut down because of coordinated lobbying efforts, there remains really only one other alternative to raising the money needed to pay down the debt and fund the Great Society II. But, again, we will refrain from any dubious speculation as talking about what the President may be "planning" to do is irresponsible.

More pirate stuff

The lead ship of the class of vessels we helped design and build, the USNS LEWIS AND CLARK (T-AKE 1) was involved in a pirate incident last week.

Off the coast of Somalia and while in support of the 5th Fleet, the LEWIS AND CLARK was pursued by two pirate skiffs for more than an hour. The skiffs were as close as one mile from the ship when she sped up to leave the pirates behind.

At one point, the pirates fired small arms at the ship but didn't come close to hitting the vessel.

Recall that in addition to serving as a replenishment ship for the 5th Fleet, she is also serving as a brig as one of her cargo holds has been converted into a jail to detain captured pirates.

Some of the commenters over at Information Dissemination were taking some shots at the tactics employed by the ship. These were both unfortunate and unfair. We have it on excellent authority that though the ship did have a security detachment onboard (most likely Marines), the ship was under strict orders to make evasive manuevers, first and only if that did not succeed they were permitted to go hot.

And what could the pirates have expected once they made it onboard? We were on copy for an email the Chief Engineer sent our office and this is what he had to say:

We were kidding that if "they" got onboard and came down to the (engine control room)
they'd look in, see 4 guys with bandanas on their heads, beards, pony tails
and Cuban cigars and figure that their buddies had already captured the (engine room).

During the event I tried giving (another member of the engine department) my collar devices but he didn't want them.

Tales from Bailout Nation Pt. X (UPDATED with a question)

Crony Capitalism: A description of capitalist society as being based on the close relationships between businessmen and the state. Instead of success being determined by a free market and the rule of law, the success of a business is dependent on the favoritism that is shown to it by the ruling government in the form of tax breaks, government grants and other incentives.


And in other news today:

Banks seeking bailout money are five times more likely to get it if a top executive is also a regional Federal Reserve director, according to an analysis of the Treasury Department's decision making.

According to FinCri Advisor, 44.5 percent of banks with top executives on the board of a Federal Reserve Bank were approved for money through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, compared to 8.3 percent of all eligible U.S. banks.

Read more here from Bailout Sleuth.


(UPDATE #1):
And let's not forget about the sweetheart deal given to the UAW at the expense of the non-TARP bondholders in the Chrysler bankruptcy cram-down (GM bondholders, you suckers are next) and the favoritism Obama is playing with the unions out in California now with respect to doling out porkulus bucks?

So, which is it? Which system of governance gets the nod as our current governmental/private sector M.O.? Crony capitalism or Peronist fascism?

"Uh, about that whole 'no strings attached' thing..."

And the hits, they just keep on coming...

The Obama administration is threatening to rescind billions of dollars in federal stimulus money if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers do not restore wage cuts to unionized home healthcare workers approved in February as part of the budget.

Schwarzenegger's office was advised this week by federal health officials that the wage reduction, which will save California $74 million, violates provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Failure to revoke the scheduled wage cut before it takes effect July 1 could cost California $6.8 billion in stimulus money, according to state officials.

We were unaware that there were any such provisions for porkulus.

The wages at issue involve workers who care for some 440,000 low-income disabled and elderly Californians. The workers, who collectively contribute millions of dollars in dues each month to the influential Service Employees International Union and the United Domestic Workers, will see the state's contribution to their wages cut from a maximum of $12.10 per hour to a maximum of $10.10.

The SEIU said in a statement that it had asked the Obama administration for the ruling.

(italics, ours)

Oh, those provisions. It's all crystal clear now.

Your obligatory buxom opponent of gay marriage state of the union update

Suckers for blondes...? Sure. But it was this beauty that had our hearts a-racin'.

Picture of the Day

...as seen this afternoon on the SR 94.

The State of California would like you to know they take child abduction very seriously.




P.S. We haven't yet received a reply to our letter to the Editor regarding the San Diego Union-Tribune's omission of the physical description of the two abductors in the Briant Rodriquez kidnapping case.

Programming Alert

Tea Party Protest next Saturday, May 16th, down at Spanish Landing at 11:00 A.M. This event is specifically targeted at the 6 ballot propositions that will be voted on in a special state-wide election on May 19th.

The Beers with Demo voting guide is recommending a "No" vote on all 6. Resoundingly.

And for our LA/OC/Inland Empire friends, there will be a Tea Party later on that day (4 P.M. kickoff) at Tom's Farm, right off the Temescal Canyon Road exit off the I-15 in Corona and which will be hosted by KFI AM-640's John and Ken.

Catchin' up with Ezra

Smack of the day...

"I think I'm going to file a hate speech complaint against myself," I told her. "Who do you think would win that one?"

That from our Canadian home-boy, Ezra Levant, filling a little awkward silence while on the elevator with the Chief Commissar of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, Jennifer Lynch and which was in reference to a speaking engagement later that evening that included Mark Steyn.

It's been a while - far too long. Other posts on the free-speech champion can be found here

Embrace the hatred of hate crime laws.

Quote of the Day

... and then there were none.

"After a great deal of soul-searching and quite frankly agony, they concluded they just don’t have critical mass to withstand the enormous pressure and machinery of the U.S. government,"

That from Tom Lauria, who is representing the Chrysler bankruptcy cram-down dissidents.

The most powerful woman on the planet would like you to know just how vested she is in this nation's security

"Of the 40 CIA briefings to Congress reported recently in the press, I was only briefed once, on September 4, 2002, as I have previously stated.

In attempting refute the contention that she did not know that water boarding had been employed on terrorist detainees, Nancy Pelosi, then the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence committee resorts to the “I batted .025 in attending intelligence briefings” defense.

Yep, we’re in good hands.