News item of the day

Why bother having a Congress?

Also, file this under what could possibly go wrong?

This afternoon, in yet another executive action intended to boost the economy, President Obama signs an executive order that addresses prescription drug shortages.

The signing marks yet another move in the president’s “we can’t wait” campaign to grow the economy through unilateral actions while his $447 jobs bill remains stalled in Congress.

The president will direct the Food and Drug Administration to take steps to further reduce and prevent drug shortages, and price gouging. Obama will also reiterate his support for bipartisan legislation that will give the FDA new tools to avoid drug shortages.

Hmmm... price gouging. Let's see: the FDA will prevent this alleged gouging by capping prices thus exacerbating this drug shortage. Count on it. It's what they do.

Quickies

A round-up of news items, columns, articles and blog posts that caught our eye this past week or so.





You think Congress is "gridlocked" and/or "dysfunctional"? Occupy Wall Street (the Zuccotti Park chapter) has 79 different working groups. What could possibly go wrong?






We've seen how the housing bubble set up. How about an impending education bubble...

... which the President, in shameless pandering to the OWS set, is intent on worsening by, uh, exectutive order. Here's how it works under the Obama plan:

If Suzy Creamcheese gets into George Washington University and borrows from the government the requisite $212,000 to obtain an undergraduate degree, her repayment schedule will be based on what she earns. If Suzy opts to heed the president’s call for public service, and takes a job as a city social worker earning $25,000, her payments would be limited to $1,411 a year after the $10,890 of poverty-level income is subtracted from her total exposure.

Twenty years at that rate would have taxpayers recoup only $28,220 of their $212,000 loan to Suzy.

The president will also allow student debtors to refinance and consolidate loans on more favorable terms, further decreasing the payoff for taxpayers.

B-Daddy breaks it all down, here.

As holders of a Bachelor of Science degree (mechanical engineering) and being gainfully employed because of it, we're big believers in the advantages of higher education but we're beginning to think that we, as a nation, are becoming absolutely obsessed with higher education.

Related anecdotal side note: On the occasion we have to call in our plumber, it always seems like he's just getting back from or about to leave to Cancun or Hawai'i... like how is it that we ever get a hold of this guy?

Related anecdotal side note Pt. II: Given that much of the political class of this country of late possesses Ivy League degrees, please give us some good reasons as to why we should give so much deference to that Harvard law or business degree? How has that been working out?






Here's some more of that new civility we've been hearing a lot about...

MSNBC analyst on Herman Cain's appeal with conservatives with the GOP:

"One of the things about Herman Cain is, I think that he makes that white Republican base of the party feel okay, feel like they are not racist because they can like this guy," Finney said. "I think he giving that base a free pass. And I think they like him because they think he's a black man who knows his place. I know that's harsh, but that's how it sure seems to me."

Know his place? As in, the President of the United States of America, the most powerful position on the planet... that place?

It's blatantly obvious that Beltway libs-types are absolutely horrified that a black man, wildly successful in private industry and who is running for President, has strode off the plantation, resoundingly rejecting the paternalism of standard Great Society Democratic party policy.




How do you know that a tax payer-funded government operation is of no longer any benefit to the country? When it will take 6 months to look into the following:

The Washington, D.C. Office of Human Rights confirmed that it is investigating allegations that Catholic University violated the human rights of Muslim students by not allowing them to form a Muslim student group and by not providing them rooms without Christian symbols for their daily prayers.

The investigation alleges that Muslim students “must perform their prayers surrounded by symbols of Catholicism – e.g., a wooden crucifix, paintings of Jesus, pictures of priests and theologians which many Muslim students find inappropriate.”

A spokesperson for the Office of Human Rights told Fox News they had received a 60-page complaint against the private university. The investigation, they said, could take as long a six months.

Catholic University is a private... catholic institution. If the Muslims there feel offended by the pervasive and omni-present catholic imagery and iconography, perhaps they should decamp Catholic University and locate a destination more to their liking.

We don't like putting words into anybody's mouth but we feel as we have just done a service to the American public free of charge that will apparently take this Office of Human Rights 6 months to perform.

By the by, the Office of Human Rights falls under the watch of the Justice Department and of course, that miserable hack that runs Justice. Just sayin'.





Here's some more of that tea party civility we've been hearing so much about:

Flyer at Occupy Phoenix rally asks: When Should You Shoot a Cop?

An Olympics without black athletes?

Go here for an excerpt from Olympian John Carlos' book, The John Carlos Story and of a boycott of the '68 Olympics by American black athletes that almost was.

And finally, from the Hygiene Department of BwD: News you can use:

The germiest place in America

Take a guess before going to the link. It may surprise you.

Constitutional republics are, like, hard

Do you remember when they told us that if we voted for McCain it would mean at least 4 more years of a Constitution-shredding, separation of powers-ignoring, imperial-style Presidency? Well, they were right.

New York Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel told The Daily Caller that “gridlock” in Congress has made it “necessary” for President Barack Obama to unilaterally implement mortgage refinancing and student loan programs without congressional authorization.

“I do, but I don’t want it to be interpreted that I welcome the executive branch using their powers instead of having the legislative branch do it. It’s necessary now because it’s a gridlock between the president and the United States. I hope that is just so very, very unusual,” Rangel told TheDC after a rally on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

“All these things as a veteran of the House are very, very painful, very painful; so while the president’s doing the best he can by executive order, I don’t have my list for him to go down,” he said.

In other words, it's cool if it's our guy doing it.

And this notion of "gridlock" is, of course, entirely politically-motivated if not entirely false as there have been 15 jobs-related bills that have been passed in the Republican-held House but have been left to languish in the Democratic-held Senate in addition to 3 separate free trade agreements with Columbia, South Korea and Panama that have been signed into law by the President in recent weeks.

The Democrats are attempting to pawn off on the Republicans the two years where they held both chambers of Congress and the White House and which resulted only in failed statist policies which stagnated economic growth and killed jobs. November of 2010 was a referendum on these policies and America spoke-out strongly against them giving the opposition party control of the House so in a sense who Rangel is really blaming for this "gridlock" is the American voting public.

Nice strategy, Chuck. Let's see how that works.

Don't fall for the "gridlock" or "dysfunctional" schtick. The system is working as intended and cries to the contrary are merely political whining.

Video clip of the day

Peter Schiff, radio host, financier and unabashed capitalist and proud member of the 1% went down to the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan to chat up the Occupiers.

Touring the Occupy Wall Street scene in New York with a sign that read "I Am the 1%, Let's Talk," Schiff spent more than three hours on the scene, explaining the difference between cronyism and capitalism, bailouts and balance sheets, and more.

"The regulation we want is the market," said Schiff. "That's what works."

Schiff describes himself as "sympathetic" to the plight of the OWS protesters, but thinks their anger is misdirected at legitimate business interests and should be better at the White House, Congress, the Federal Reserve, and the crony capitalists they've bailed out.

We'll play and break down the full 20 minute video within the next couple of day.

College football Saturday round-up and open thread

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Jonesy's back with some thoughts on today's games.

Finally! Finally we have some 2011 College Football signature moments that don’t involve a punter taunting or, for me personally, a PSU QB throwing up a duck that is intercepted in the end zone. Great games last Saturday, between Michigan State’s Hail Mary, Texas Tech’s shocking upset of the over-rated Oklahoma, and Notre Dame perfecting the fumbled snap return for a defensive touchdown play, it was a fantastic weekend of watching ball games. Let’s hope that this weekend keeps the momentum going. C’mon Georgia Tech! Let’s go Baylor! USC, USC, USC.



Look, we all know that the BCS Standings have replaced the AP & Coaches Polls. The BCS rankings are king when deciding who plays where in the post season. But let’s get real. In college football there are the top programs. These are the Power Teams. Therefore I've created “The Real Top 20[i]”.

These are teams that over the last 25+ years consistently had good to great teams, compete regularly for conference and/or national titles, have large passionate fan bases are a national TV draw and MOST IMPROTATNLY will be good over the next 25 years.

Teams not included on this list don't really matter. (General rule of thumb, if you are playing your biggest games on Thursday or Friday nights to be seen on TV, you are NOT big time.)

Without further ado:


The Real Top 20

ACC: Florida State & Miami

Big East: None (Sorry, West Virginia)

Big 10+2: Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State & Nebraska

Big 12: Oklahoma & Texas

Pac 12: USC

SEC: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, LSU & Tennessee

Independent: Notre Dame

**


The team most likely to fall-out of prominence over the next decade: Notre Dame. Yes, I know this is almost sacrilegious but really, have they been relevant since 1988. While the college football landscape is radically changing, Golden Domer's still think (1) Rockne & Parseghian are walking the sidelines, (2) you can win with big plodding Midwesterners (i.e. slow white boys) and (3) all Catholic high school players must attend their school or risk the hell fires of eternal damnation. As Brian Kelly (their best hire in 20 years) is failing to make progress, the school must radically adapt or die. Not that there is anything wrong with that!

As you might notice, there are only 15 teams listed above. I couldn't, in good conscious add any other teams. Some really good programs that missed the cut include the following. (Ranked in order of prominence):

Georgia: They belong on the list above. Why didn’t they make it? Because I'm pissed off at them. I first fell in love with college football in 1980, the year Hershel Walker led Georgia to a National Championship. That was also the last time the Bulldogs won a big game. If you never win your conference, you don't make the list. Beat someone of note this year and I’ll reconsider your status.[ii]

***


VaTech: Outside of Mike Vick, name another player. An ESPN Thursday night staple.

Utah: Let's see you do it in the PAC 12 first.

Iowa/Wisconsin/Michigan State: Despite last weekend’s great game, these are solid Big 10+2 programs that will never win a national title.

Oregon: Great program that no one, and I mean no one, south of Oregon or east of the Oregon Trail cares about. Yes, they made it to the Championship game last year. They have cool uniforms and Nike’s money. But, they are the Clemson of the West Coast[iii].

BYU: A proud program that is mistaken if they think forming their own network will help their team. Their religion, yes. Their football team, not so much[iv].

Boston College: An under-rated team that even bores all the Mass-holes.

Georgia Tech: An afterthought in their own city and state.

Boise State: Love the Blue turf but after the 1st month of the season play nobody.

West Virginia: They do a lot with a little. Is that a compliment? I'm not sure.

Texas A&M: Great fans, tradition and stadium. Sadly, an afterthought in their own state. Good luck becoming relevant in the SEC.

Pittsburgh: Eff'em. They screwed JoePa 25 years ago and neither he nor I will ever forgive them. You suck.

UCLA: Basketball school.



I might be missing some other contender but does it even matter? Some other team might have a good year or two but, over time, are not relevant.



Games I’ll Be Watching[v]

Stanford @ USC: It’s rare that I’d root for the idiot Lane Kiffen two weeks in a row. Or rot against a Stanford program that I really admire. I just want an upset. Besides, Andrew Luck has to get used to losing some time to prepare him for his life with the Colts or Dolphins.

Navy @ Notre Dame: Would this really be an upset. Navy has won the last 3 of 4. The Domers are sloppy and the Academy teams usually play with discipline. I do wish Navy had better health coming in.

Clemson @ Georgia Tech: Now we have a wishbone team with true BCS talent at the skill positions. Clemson is good but GT can be tough when you only have a week to get ready for their unique offence.

Illinois @ PSU: Each week PSU gets a little better on offense and still plays lights out defense. But the reeling Illini are tough. They are probably the toughest team for PSU to face since Alabama in week two.

Michigan State @ Nebraska: In past years, MSU was guaranteed to choke this game away. Coming off that big win and fantastic finish would be hard for most teams. But this is a very good and they have a chance to prove themselves once again against good competition.



Non Football Football Comment

PSU is about to have its lowest attendance figure since they expanded the stadium back in 2000. Already there have been two crowds of less than 100,000. (Yes I know that still is a lot, but PSU used to average 109,000 a game) This year’s homecoming was the smallest in a decade. Why the change. The school screwed over its longtime, diehard fan base by implementing a new tiered ticketing program. And, at least these days, the fans reacted with their wallets. Instead of sellouts and screaming passionate fans, we are stuck with more and more empty seats and fans sitting on their hands.

So that’s all I’ve got. Please feel free to comment, praise, or argue as you wish. And enjoy this week’s game.

[i] Trade mark pending.

[ii] C’mon Georgia, get off the porch and run with the big dogs. Hunker down you hairy dog!

[iii] Except without the surprisingly good academic reputation.

[iv] Bold move going independent. BYU was never a good fit for any conference and was really screwed when Utah switched conferences.

[v] These are not necessarily the best games, only the games I care about most. Obviously the PSU-Illinois game is only of interest to us Blue & White diehards and other masochist out there.

* Stanford quarterback, Andrew Luck

** USC quarterback, Matt Barkley

*** "Between the Hedges" at Georgia's Sanford Stadium

Radio KBwD is on the air

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Who's in the mood for some blue-eyed soul? Some British blue-eyed soul, perhaps?

But, of course.


Ladies and Gentelmen, from London, England, it's Declan Patrick MacManus, aka Elvis Costello performing "I Wanna Be Loved".

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If you read nothing else today...

... make sure you check out the WaPo interview of Eric Schmidt, Executive chairman of Google in the wake of his testimony before Congress.


On the nature of his testimony:

So we get hauled in front of the Congress for developing a product that’s free, that serves a billion people. Okay? I mean, I don’t know how to say it any clearer. I mean, it’s fine. It’s their job. But it’s not like we raised prices. We could lower prices from free to…lower than free? You see what I’m saying?

On regulation:

Washington—having spent a lot of time there, I grew up there and have spent a lot of time there recently—is largely defined by detailed analytical views and policy choices that are not very good. You know, each policy choice has a winner and a loser, right? Somebody’s ox is getting gored. They’re complex arguments: They’re economic and political and social, and everyone has an opinion on those. Here, the arguments are, how do we make something that affects a million people? How do we change the economics of an industry?

And one of the consequences of regulation is regulation prohibits real innovation, because the regulation essentially defines a path to follow—which by definition has a bias to the current outcome, because it’s a path for the current outcome.

And the answer to regulation with respect to Washington not screwing things up:

You’re asking it the way an engineer asks. It’s not an answer, it’s a journey. If it were an answer, then after we had done our thing and told everyone to leave us alone, they would have left us alone. That’s not how Washington works. That’s not how government works. It’s naïve, on our part. So the modern model is that we spend a lot of time trying to make sure the government understands how large the contribution is that technology has made to the GDP of the country. One of our quotes: Fifteen percent of the GDP growth has been due to the two-and-a-half percent of the economy that’s IT. In other words, don’t screw that up.

On rent seeking:

Let me give you a counter example. Now there are startups in Washington. And these startups have the interesting property that they’re founded by people who were policymakers, let’s say in telecommunications. They’re very clever people, and they’ve figured out a way in regulation to discriminate, to find a new satellite spectrum or a new frequency or whatever. They immediately hired a whole bunch of lobbyists. They raised some money to do that. And they’re trying to innovate through the regulation. So that’s what passes for innovation in Washington. And again, God bless them. But they have a political strategy to get their particular legislation and niche approved. That’s unheard of here.

And the counter concept to that:

The conclusion that we came to [as far back as when I was at Sun Microsystems] is that there are two kinds of lobbying. And this, I think, is grossly unfair but kind of true. There’s the kind of lobbying where you pay an ex-senator to get the current senator to write a sentence into a bill, and there’s no confusion as to what this is about. You are representing your corporate interest. It’s specific to your company. In Washington, for example, you can pay an ex-person $50,000 to arrange a meeting to get that process, to get those five sentences written in this bill, and so forth and so on.

The punch line is, we concluded that we didn’t want to do that as industry, and certainly not at Sun. We wanted to lobby based on ideas. And as far as I know, every company that I’ve worked with—and I was part of the Business Software Alliance and all these other groups—we all sort of agree with this. There’s a line that we’re not willing to cross. So what we do from a leadership perspective, at least in terms of political leadership, is we talk about ideas. And inevitably what happens is everyone says ‘yes,’ yet inevitably on the Hill you have an older gentleman or lady.

On immigration with respect to the tech sector:

A classic example is H-1B visas. Now, the following arguments are so obvious, it’s hard for me to believe that anyone would believe that they’re false. These industries are full of very smart people. There are very smart people who don’t live in America. They come to America, we educate them at the best universities, they are smarter than I am, and then we kick them out. If they stayed in the country, let’s just review: They would create jobs, pay taxes, have high incomes, pay more taxes than the average American, and generally increase the GDP of the country. I hope my argument is clear, and if it isn’t I’ll start screaming about it. It’s the stupidest policy the government has with respect to high tech. So you have this conversation and people say “yes,” and you say, ”This is the single thing that you can do that will lead to innovation occurring in our country, and the future economic wealth of our country.” And then they don’t act.

Check out the rest of the interview at the link above.

Your #OWS update

Irony abounds at Zuccotti Park in NYC:

To show they mean business, the kitchen staff refused to serve any food for two hours yesterday in order to meet with organizers to air their grievances, sources said.
...
The Assembly announced the three-day menu crackdown announced earlier in the day -- insisting everybody would be fed something during that period.

Some protesters threatened that the high-end meals could be cut off completely if the vagrants and criminals don’t disperse.

Unhappiness with their unwelcome guests was apparent throughout the day.

“We need to limit the amount of food we’re putting out” to curb the influx of derelicts, said Rafael Moreno, a kitchen volunteer.

A security volunteer added that the cooks felt “overworked and underappreciated.”

Many of those being fed “are professional homeless people. They know what they’re doing,” said the guard at the food-storage area.

So, let's get this straight: a bunch of ne'er-do-wells existing essentially as homeless people and who are demanding things free health care and forgiveness on their student loan debt are chapped that some real homeless types and recently released from prison ne'er-do-wells are participating in some redistribution themselves. Good to know.


And still abounding:

Protesters got their first taste of the revolt within the revolt yesterday when the kitchen staff served only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and chips after their staff meeting.

Organizers took other steps to police the squatters, who they said were lured in from other parks with the promise of free meals.

A team of 10 security volunteers moved in to the trouble-prone southwest section of Zuccotti Park in a show of force to confront them.

“We’re not going to let some members of this community destroy the whole movement,” a volunteer said.

Some arguments broke out as the security team searched tents -- but no violence erupted.

Overall security at the park had deteriorated to the point where many frightened female protesters had abandoned the increasingly out-of-control occupation, security- team members said.

(italics, ours)

Yeah, they may be behaving like jack-booted pigs but at least they're #OWS jack-booted pigs. And #OWS jack-booted pigs with scant appreciation for the 4th amendment.

By rejecting the norms and institutions of civlized society they only find themselves recreating those institutions but without the underpinning of the rule of law. Without the rule of law, the Occupy "villages" become a study in the tyranny of the majority where pendulum swings in the "mood" of the General Assembly creates havoc in the encampments resulting in, as just one example, roving bands of "security" teams rousting its inhabitants and throwing them out of the village without any due process.

Governance by whim and capriciousness will collapse on itself.

MAXED OUT: What's so "great" about it?

Proving that in the world of microbrews, there are no sacred cows...

Welcome back to the Sandlot, you silly sons-a-men and women. Thanks for stopping by for another diatribe from yours truly. I’m going to
keep this week’s banter to a minimum so you can do some homework!
YAY! I know how much you’ve all been dying to get back to the grind
with the old h-dub. It’s not really homework, nor is it a
requirement, it’s just more for your own personal gain. Ok, enough
dilly-dally, let’s get to this week’s topic.

The Great American Beer Fest or GABF as we in the beer biz know it,
is a four day festival held in Denver every year celebrating the best
that America has to offer in craft beer (and other.) So I really only
have one bone to pick with the GABF; WHY ARE THERE 84
CATEGORIES!?!?!?!?! That’s right, 84 freakin’ categories.

An example of why I don’t like the GABF: Pabst Brewing Co. won more
medals than Alesmith (2) and Alpine (0) combined. I’m sorry, could
you repeat that?!!!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Holy crap in a can!
That’s right, Pabst Brewing won 4 medals. FOUR!!!! I’m sorry, but if Pabst wins that many medals… wait…. No…. if Pabst wins any medals, you may just have too many categories. Just sayin’. Also, Alesmith IPA won an award for American-Style Strong Pale. No, that’s an IPA. THAT’S AN IPA!!!!! Holy crap in a can Batman! Oh, and my favorite (least favorite) thing that happened is that the Imperial IPA from
Epic Brewing won the silver medal for the Imperial IPA category. Oh,
why is that my favorite thing that happened? THEY ARE FROM UTAH!!!!!!
UTAH!!!! Wait, let it sink in. UTAH!!!!!!! HOLY S*#@!!!!! Not crap in a can, S*#@!!!! Sorry Dean! It just needed to be said.

Highlights consist of Port Brewing winning over 20 medals. That’s all.

Here is the full list of winners.

Check it out and let me know what you guys think. By the by, a
brewery from UTAH won the best Imperial IPA category. UTAH!!!! Was a
bus driver from China judging this category? Too soon? Too soon?

Until the next time my beer loving brethren, have a beer for me.

ed. note: If Pabst wins any medals, the problem isn't the number of categories, rather you have a definite problem figuring out what is and isn't good beer. GABF disgraced themselves. Never should have happened. Never.

News item of the day

Greek cartoonist and newspaper editors: German-driven austerity measures totally like the Nazis in WW II or something.

The dark shadow of German-driven austerity measures squeezing Greece has revived historical enmities and evoked comparisons to the massive destruction of the Mediterranean country at the hands of Nazi Germany over 65 years ago.

Decades of social democracy will warp your brain into this standard line of thinking.

Your mid-week, martini-worthy photo image

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We barely remember the re-runs of I Spy while we were young but one thing remains constant after all these years: who was cooler than Robert Culp and Bill Cosby running around snoopin' on the bad guys, flirtin' with the ladies and generally looking so mod it was darn near a crime? Seriously, if you have any opinion on who was cooler than these cats, please chime in at the comment page.*



Coolest T.V. duo of all-time deserves the coolest band of all-time. Well, at least the coolest band of the 60s.

Ladies and Gentlemen, from NYC via the jukebox at Whistle Stop Bar, it's Velvet Underground performing "Foggy Notion".







* Crockett and Tubbs (Miami Vice), Batman and Robin (in a totally campy way, you understand) and Robert Conrad and Fred Freiberger's characters (Wild, Wild West) immediately come to mind but are still found lacking.

Maybe they do need their stinking badges

The People's Republic of Sonoma County have figured out a novel way of getting around those pesky immigration laws.

In Sonoma County, a California driver's license is accepted as valid identification -- but so is a card issued by the Mexican consulate.

Mexican nationals will be able to give their country's state-issued identification cards as valid ID to Santa Rosa police officers and Sonoma County sheriffs, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported.

The idea is to reduce the immigration-related duties of local cops, the newspaper reported. Accepting Mexican consulate-issued cards will reduce the number of people booked into jail for lacking ID, and ergo, will reduce deportations from Santa Rosa County Jail, the newspaper reported.

"Today is a great day," Sonoma County Assistant Sheriff Lorenzo Dueñas said. "We're now going to accept the matriculár consular ID."

Yaaaaaay....

So, we assume the logic employed here is that the sheriff's force can spend more time catching the bad guys, right? Everyone's cool with that, right?

Advocates for immigrants point out that almost half of the 921 immigrants turned over to ICE authorities by the jails had not committed a crime, and another third had committed minor offenses, the newspaper reported.

Talk about turning the half-full glass on its head - that has to be one of the most fantastically-written paragraphs we have come across in some time. We'll go to our graves trying to figure out just how it is that a demographic of which over 50% has committed a crime will now be out on the street because they carry a foreign ID can be touted as a positive public policy/safety development.

Besides, shipping out crime-committing illegals can be such a drag for.... Mexico...

... warning: high irony content ahead...

After Arizona passed a mandatory E-Verify law in 2007, lots of illegal aliens left the state and headed back across the border. Mexican officials were outraged at the burdens imposed on them by these immigrants:

A delegation of nine state legislators from Sonora was in Tucson on Tuesday to say Arizona’s new employer sanctions law will have a devastating effect on the Mexican state.

At a news conference, the legislators said Sonora – Arizona’s southern neighbor, made up of mostly small towns – cannot handle the demand for housing, jobs and schools it will face as illegal Mexican workers here return to their hometowns without jobs or money.

Stings like a bitch, don't it?

The news items above give a full representation of why the whole comprehensive immigration reform debate is such a colossal waste of time: on one hand, you have authorities here on this side of the border who not only are not interested in enforcing the law of the land, they actively seek administrative ways to skirt the law of the land, in the name of stopping crime, no less. Additionally, our neighbors to the south are shocked... shocked that we would have the gall to involuntarily oblige their citizens the right of return to the country of their origin.

Given these set of circumstances, how can any pol flapping his gums about comprehensive immigration reform be taken seriously?

Your #OWS update

Because nothing will more quickly garner you a resolution of support from the city council like barging into a city council meeting, interrupting it while chanting and demanding that the council vote on a resolution of support of your movement.

Council President Tony Young called for an end to the meeting when two dozen Occupy San Diego members began chanting.

The protesters asked council members for a resolution of support. One demonstrator says the city is not supporting they're occupation. "They are standing in the way, having police take us down with illegal pepper spray action, violently removing the protestors and their tents in an illegal action."

The council says they can't pass a resolution unless its on the agenda. There was nothing pertaining to the Occupy San Diego Movement on Tuesday's docket.

Then again, the way some cities have caved and/or pandered to the #OWS set, maybe behaving like unruly, uncivil and petulant children is the way to get that coveted good housekeeping seal of approval from the city fathers.





Also, former TARP watchdog and current candidate for Massachusetts U.S. senate seat (running against Scott Brown), Elizabeth Warren claims she laid the groundwork for the #OWS movement.

In a new interview, Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren claims much of the credit for the Occupy Wall Street protests sweeping the nation.

“I created much of the intellectual foundation for what they do,” the Harvard Law School professor and former Obama administration consumer advocate told Samuel P. Jacobs of The Daily Beast. “I support what they do.”

And in other totally related news:

Dallas Police continue to investigate whether a teenage runaway was sexually assaulted by an adult male at the Occupy Dallas encampment behind City Hall.

A source within the Dallas Police Department who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation said the girl ran away from home in Garland last month and that she is now refusing to cooperate with investigators. She initially told officers that she had sex with a man in his early twenties and had engaged in sexual activity with several other people.

Some members of the group told CBS 11 the girl identified herself as a 19-year-old and never knew she was 14.

Not co-operating with the pigs in a rape investigation? That's the ol' #OWS spirit, girlfriend! And if they do find the sicko, we hope he's brought to... uh, we hope the abuser is provided with counseling resources.

Yeah, kind of like the tea party.


Own it, Lizzy.

Video clip of the day

Hey, let's check out this 60 second Herman Cain ad and see what he's got to offer:








Wait, what?


Did that dude just do what we think he did at the end of that ad? Did he just take a drag on his heater after speaking? Oh, he most certainly did and we think it's kind of awesome says our inner libertine reactionary railing against the do-gooding of an ever-pervasive nanny state. Take that, Mayor Bloomberg!



We and Max are big fans of the AMC series Mad Men and in particular their stylized yet accurate portrayals of the dress, customs, mores and mannerisms of the early/mid-sixties in which the series takes place. Unfortunately, there has been a contract dispute between the producer and AMC so they shut down production this year (contract issue has since been resolved and the show will return in 2012).

Anyway, to get our corporate America sixties fix, we considered checking out ABC's initial run of Pan Am as in what's not to like about jet-setting and leggy stewardesses (yes, we used the period-correct term, youngsters)? Found out shortly after, though, that they would not depict anyone smoking on screen. What?

So much for accurately depicting the time and place in your now-crappy little T.V. show.

And if you're scoring at home that would be: Drinking to excess? Of, course. Women in an objectified and subserviant roles? Certainly. Extra-marital sex? Absolutely. Smoking? We'll have none of that socially-aberrant behavior on ABC.

Yeah, it may be just window dressing, but Herman Cain scores points for us for having the audacity to pull that stunt considering the current demonization of smoking and smokers.

Redoing the math... cont.

O = W

O > W

Do you remember when they told us that if we voted for McCain it would mean four more years of lobbyists in positions of power inside the White House? Well, they were right.

President Obama’s reelection campaign has hired a former lobbyist to serve as a senior adviser to the 2012 team.

The Obama campaign announced Monday the hiring of Broderick Johnson, a veteran of the Clinton White House and Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) 2004 presidential campaign.

Obama positioned himself as an enemy of K Street and special interests during his first presidential campaign. He repeatedly vowed that lobbyists would not run his White House and refused to accept campaign contributions from registered lobbyists.

Johnson is a former partner at the law firm Bryan Cave and was registered to lobby up until April 2011 for several major companies and trade groups, including the Financial Services Forum, Comcast Corporation, and Microsoft, according to lobbying disclosure records.

You might be interested to know that Financial Services Forum counts Goldman Sachs, AIG, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citi and Bank of America among its members. Yep, Wall Street. (H/T: Hot Air)

Wonder how this news will play with the #OWS set and we wonder how it will play with the the Hopenchangey set circa 2008.




Need a refresher? We thought so.

Closing Keeping open Gitmo.

Ending Formalizing the indefinite detention of suspected terrorists.

Ending Maintaining military tribunals.

Not letting unemployment get above 8 10.5 percent with a $800 billion stimulus package.

Discontinuing Continuing other Bush-era policies like rendition, Project Gunrunner and TARP.

Ending Throwing into warp drive the politicization of the Justice Department under the leadership of the biggest hack in the administration.

Engineering a bankruptcy cramdown of domestic auto companies that will most likely cost the U.S. tax-payers tens of billions of dollars.

A crony capitalism that is disguised as a green jobs program.

Engaging in an act of war against a country that posed no threat whatsoever to the U.S. with without the consent of Congress.

Swift Painfully slow response to national disasters.

Ending Maintaining the practice of signing statements.

Signing off on predator drone strikes for the ostensible purpose of assassinating a foreign head of state. And then doing so.

Using executive orders and administrative actions and generally subverting the role of Congress in order to enact his agenda.

Shutting down Operating a seeming revolving door between the White House and Wall Street and K Street.

Pushing through health care reform legislation in the sleaziest, most cynical, un-hopenchangey and business-as-usual manner possible.

Authorizing a program to assassinate American civilians. (We had previously neglected to add this rather Bushian but never Bush-authorized program. Shame on us.)

Actually authorizing a drone strike hit that killed American-born Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan (from this point forward, we never... never want to hear a peep about water-boarding)

And adopting another Bush-like tendency in combating the war on terror: refusing to provide the legal justification for the killing of U.S. citizens.

Do you have to know the secret handshake to get into this club?

Here's Ray Lane, the Chairman of Fisker, the electric car manufacturer that recieved a $529 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy to build its cars in Finland praising the Obama administration's use of tax dollars in private investment and using, wait for it... Solyndra as proof of its success in an interview back in March of 2009.

"Policy - government/private capital cooperation is actually beginning to work."


"It would be silly to think we could start these car companies and build them to full deployment with all the capital required without the help of the government in policy decisions to support U.S. jobs actually manufacturing cars in the United States."

In a sense, Lane is right. It sure would be silly to think Fisker was going to be building cars, their two main models costing $97,000 and $57,400 a piece, without being subsidized because what private investor in their right mind is going to sink his money into that?

Unfortunately, those subsidies are your tax dollars serving to prop up a technology and a business model that is not market-ready. Who is going to buy these cars except super-rich, smug limo-liberals?

And it's terrific they all seem to know each other. As Lane suggests, this crony capitalism thing is pretty damn peachy but unfortunately what winds up happening is that billions and billions of dollars are flushed down a black hole of the politically-connected and cock-a-mamie car companies building a product overseas that no one can afford.

If the technology and business model were market-ready then government subsidies would not be needed, as it stands then, when the government picks winners and losers, they invariably choose the losers.

Quickies

A round-up of news items, articles, columns and blog posts that caught our eye this past week.





B-Daddy: It's not the capitalism, it's the crony.






Awesome: Convicted cop-killer just chillaxin' in jail supports the #Occupy Wall Street movement.





Doubly awesome: Eugene Robinson of WaPo totally stoked for the Democratic Party to embrace the Nazi and aforementioned fascist pig-killing Rastafarian endorsing #OWS movement.







Another 53 percenter:

Remember, gang... Days not weeks. Just another O > W moment.

US and Italian defense chiefs on Monday said they examined prospects for ending the allied air campaign over Libya and how to support the country's post-Kadhafi transition in talks at the Pentagon.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who expressed thanks for Italy's role in the NATO-led operation, said alliance commanders favored pressing on with bombing raids as Moamer Kadhafi's loyalists were still putting up resistance in Sirte.

We're hearing the death of Gadaffi is a success for the Obama administration's foreign policy? Uh, sure. But what was the policy? How is it considered a success when you tell the American people you are merely protecting the Libyan citizens when you were clearly attempting to wack the dictator of a foreign country who posed no direct threat to this country? And how does sniveling about thousands of ancient Iraqi artifacts gone missing compare to thousands of surface-to-air missiles gone missing? Might've been something we should've considered before we threw in for this "days not weeks" overseas kinetic adventure.

Are we glad he’s gone? Sure. But the question nobody seems to want to ask is by what means is Congress going to develop the stones to demand accountability of our Commander-in-Chief. If Obama suddenly decides that he doesn’t like Assad, is Congress going to sit on their collective hands again while the President employs this country’s resources to wack him? What is the foreign policy criteria for getting put on the President's hit list? Seems kind of loosy-goosy from where we're sitting.

There are names for governing by mere whim and none of them rhyme with constitutional republic.






Yeah, kind of like the tea party:

Efforts by the Occupy Baltimore protest group to evolve into a self-contained, self-governing community have erupted into controversy with the distribution of a pamphlet that victim advocates and health workers fear discourages victims of sexual assaults from contacting police.

The pamphlet says that members of the protest group who believe they are victims or who suspect sexual abuse "are encouraged to immediately report the incident to the Security Committee," which will investigate and "supply the abuser with counseling resources."

The directive also says, in part, "Though we do not encourage the involvement of the police in our community, the survivor has every right, and the support of Occupy Baltimore, to report the abuse to the appropriate authorities."

Go to the police or don't go to the police? Dammit. We're racking our brain trying to remember what instructions were given to us at tea party rallies.





Also, quote of the week:

One Oakland police supervisor said that the participants first appeared to him as “freethinking activists” but have since devolved into something more sinister. He said it was “interesting for a group that claims to be against current civilization and rules to set up a far more oppressive society than our own.”

KT reminds us to be thankful for... flies... sure as heck beats winged piranhas and just think where human civilization would be if that were in Earth's evolutionary deck of cards. Don't have to think... KT figured it out for you, here.





W.C. Varones finally comes clean and, uh, reveals himself as a 99er.

Washington Post the most politically-biased paper in America? We're still sticking with the New York Times. Hell, even our hopelessly biased home-town L.A. Times has been covering Fast and Furious, our federally funded and operated gun-running scheme to Mexico.




So, what is the point behind the NFL's bye week? This week: no Philly, New York Giants, New England Patriots, and San Francisco Forty Niners. No Tom Brady, Michael Vick and one of the surprise teams in the NFL this season. Who thought this was a good idea? We hate the bye week. Roger Goodell, make it go away!



Alright, gang, that's probably all for now. We'll be back on Monday.

Yet another green technology (overseas) boondoggle

*


On the bright side of things, we guess we should be thankful that they have not yet gone out of business like Solyndra or are massively in debt like SunPower.

With the approval of the Obama administration, an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee is assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work.

Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department's $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the job of assembling the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car has been outsourced to Finland.

"There was no contract manufacturer in the U.S. that could actually produce our vehicle," the car company's founder and namesake told ABC News. "They don't exist here."

This really is old news as this loan to Fisker and the fact the cars would be built over in Finland was reported out on these very pages over two years ago..


And political connections, you ask? But, of course:

The loan to Fisker is part of a $1 billion bet the Energy Department has made in two politically connected California-based electric carmakers producing sporty -- and pricey -- cutting-edge autos. Fisker Automotive, backed by a powerhouse venture capital firm whose partners include former Vice President Al Gore, predicts it will eventually be churning out tens of thousands of electric sports sedans at the shuttered GM factory it bought in Delaware. And Tesla Motors, whose prime backers include PayPal mogul Elon Musk and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, says it will do the same in a massive facility tooling up in Silicon Valley.

Tens of thousands of luxury sedans and mass-produced sedans at... $97,000 and $57,400 a copy? Let us know how that works out.


And proving just how affordable green technology is becoming, the reported prices for those cars two years ago was $89,000 and $40,000, respectively.

And here's what was said with respect to the prices of the cars at the time (link above):

The Karma will target an exclusive audience -- Gore was one of the first to sign up for one. Mr. Fisker says all new technology starts out being expensive. He pointed to flat-screen televisions that once started at $25,000 but are now affordable to the mass market.

And our response:

It’s not entirely clear to us that $40,000/unit falls under the mass audience category but who the hell cares about the masses when one of the main beneficiaries of your largesse has dutifully signed up to have that thing sit in his driveway?

Think about it: billions upon billions of dollars in subsidies and the prices are going in the wrong direction unlike other areas of the tech sector (TVs and cell/smart phones) where no subsidies were received and real skin was in the game and the market determined the winners and losers.

Federally-subsidized green technology: Rising consumer prices, shipping jobs out of country and hooking up your buds... What's not to like about that?




* The Karma, Fisker's luxury sedan at the San Diego Auto Show in December of 2009. Yep, Karma's a bitch.

College football Saturday round-up and open thread

*



Jonesy's second installment of what we hope will be a standard feature here at Beers with Demo.

Greetings and Salutations,

No major upsets happened last week last[i] and there are only a slight possibility of ones this weekend. It’s been a rare season with few memorable moments that truly stick out. Although the LSU punter getting called for taunting was pretty funny. Once again I will try to counter-act Dean’s inherent West Coast bias and provide a more fair and balanced view of college football. Without further ado, here we go:

“Location, Location, Location” -The first maxim of real estate[ii]. In the prestige rankings of college football, location consists of two factors. The first is the television station that your games are shown and the second is the day or night of the week you play. Regarding stations, I believe the following order captures the prestige of your school’s matchup.

ABC
ESPN
CBS
ESPN 2
NBC[iii]
ESPN U
Big Ten and SEC Network
Versus
FX
ESPN Gameplan
FSN Affiliates
YES
PBS
ESPN 3
Live video over the internet.


It also matters what time of week you play. If you’re on Saturday Primetime (particularly on ABC) you are a top dog that everyone wants to watch. If you’re playing a home game on a Tuesday night, being shown on the Deuce, not so much.

I know many teams think they can get away with playing on Thursday night. They can’t. For the HOME team, this means you’re second rate. Your school doesn’t care for the alumni (if any) that travel, your students or your perception as a power program. The school is just trying to get on TV and will sell out cheap.


Remember, if you are not playing on Saturday[iv], you kinda suck. And, the earlier in the week you play, the less of a program you operate[v].


Games I’ll be Watching[viii]


USC versus Notre Dame: My three favorite teams, PSU, Temple and whoever is playing Notre Dame. So at least someone will be rooting for Lane Kiffen.


West Virginia versus Syracuse: I wish this game was being held in Morgantown so the West “Fu#&in” Virginians could unleash their feelings on the traitors from Syracuse. I’m guessing the Mountaineers open up a can of whoop-ass on the Orangemen[ix].


Auburn versus LSU: I think the Tigers will win this one. Just kidding. LSU is loaded and seeking redemption from last year’s Cam Newton inspired beat down.


PSU versus Northwestern: Another chance for PSU’s defense to prove it’s among the nation’s best. Last time these teams played at Northwestern, I got to take my beloved wife to the game while spending an extended weekend in the great city of Chicago[x].

Wisconsin versus Michigan State: If the Badgers win it will only prove they are the best team in the Big 10+2, not best among the nation. The Big 10+2 is just not that good this year.


Non Football Football Comment: With all the conference realignment taking place, there is one program that is truly getting screwed, West Virginia. The Mountaineers, an Eastern Nebraska-lite entity in football, also boast a top-flight hoops team. I really believe that if the late Senator Robert Byrd (aka “The King of Pork”) was still alive, the SEC or ACC would be forced to take them. As head of the appropriations committee, if he could build an eight lane highway across his state that goes to and from virtually nowhere, he could get them in better conference.


So that’s all I’ve got. Please feel free to comment, praise, or argue as you wish. And enjoy this week’s games.
Later.
Morgan

[i] None that I can recall, it’s been a rather boring season with none of the major unbeatens falling.

[ii] I should know this since we just took a huge beating when selling our home. Our location wasn’t prime, nor located in a time before the housing bust.

[iii] Sorry Golden Domers, you’re on a 4th rate network, with a 3rd rate team, playing a 2nd rate schedule. When “The Sing-off " is your best show, your network is in trouble.

[iv] Holiday weekends like Labor Day and Thanksgiving are the exceptions.

[v] The Thursday-Friday battle is debatable. My take, at least Friday is on the weekend. I could be wrong.

[vi] The “U” is probably the most popular national program with the poorest local support. Like Miami teams.

[vii] BYU and Boise State are the kings of Friday night. Multiple games and about the only way most people will watch most of their games.

[viii] These are not necessarily the best games, only the games I care about most. Obviously the PSU-Northwestern game is only of interest to us Blue & White diehards and other masochist out there. (Different opponent, same sentiments)

[ix] About the only school angrier right now is Temple. The “T” was blocked from joining the Big Least by their suburban rivals Villanova.

[x] 3rd best city in the country. My Top 5 rankings are San Fran, Chicago, NY & San Diego and Houston. Yes, Houston. A lousy place to visit but a great place to live. (Philadelphia is obviously excluded)

* Wisconsin QB and Heisman hopeful, Russel Wilson.

Radio KBwD is on the air

Before we get to the tune of the week, we were inspired by Rolling Stone's 10 worst songs of the 80s as voted on by their readers and decided to conduct our own survey for the worst songs of the 90s. We canvassed the Sunday afternoon football gang at Hoffer's for their input and though not scientific by any means, we relied on the passion of disgust and "Oh god, that song was absolutely putrid!" for our rankings.



Here goes the 9 worst songs of the 90s:

9. Collective Soul - "Shine"

8. Limp Bizkit - "Nookie"

7. Alanis Morrisette - "Ironic"

6. Hanson - "Mmm-Bop"

5. Four Non-Blondes - "What's Goin' On"

4. Meat Loaf - "I'll Do Anything for Love"

3. Milli-Vanilli - "Blame it on the Rain"

2. Vanilla Ice - "Ice Ice Baby"

1. Ace of Base - "The Sign"

Nos. 1-3 had 100% consensus and so bad was "The Sign" that it was agreed upon that you could stop at that one and you would still have a comprehensive list.




OK, no more badness...

Ladies and Gentlemen enjoy one of our favorite songs of the 90s and dig the Zeppelin-esque groove of Lenny Kravitz performing "Rock and Roll is Dead".

More great moments in the history of crony capitalism

The San Diego Tribune really wants us to get over the Solyndra scandal


Solyndra Aside, State Leads U.S. in Solar Jobs Tally*

California has the most solar industry jobs of any state by far — 25,575 — but was ranked sixth in per-capita employment, according to a survey by The Solar Foundation, a nonprofit education and research organization.

The study, published Monday, runs counter to the gloomy picture conjured by the demise of Northern California solar manufacturer Solyndra and the uproar over a half-billion dollar federal loan guarantee to the company.

Yeah, we probably should just get over this half-billion dollar adventure in cronyism as it's just one example that doesn't prove the entire green sector is rife with corruption, especially when there is another one brewing that makes Solyndra look like child's play.

How did a failing California solar company, buffeted by short sellers and shareholder lawsuits, receive a $1.2 billion federal loan guarantee for a photovoltaic electricity ranch project—three weeks after it announced it was building new manufacturing plant in Mexicali, Mexico, to build the panels for the project.

The company, SunPower (SPWR-NASDAQ), now carries $820 million in debt, an amount $20 million greater than its market capitalization. If SunPower was a bank, the feds would shut it down. Instead, it received a lifeline twice the size of the money sent down the Solyndra drain.

Two men with insight into the process are SunPower rooter Rep. George R. Miller III, (D.-Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee and the co-chairman of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, and his SunPower lobbyist son, George Miller IV.

That $1.2 billion dollar loan is for the construction of a solar farm in the San Luis Obispo County that will create 350 construction jobs over two years and 15 permanent jobs. 15.... for $1.2 billion.

Go to the link and check out the political conections and the interesting timing of some of the events surrounding the loan approval and you'll understand how SunPower may just be the latest green jobs boondoggle to blow up in the administration's face.



* We went with the title the U-T used in their print edition today.

MAXED OUT: Pet Peeves

Max warned us last Friday this was coming. He needed to get a few things off his chest, so oblige the lad, won't you.

What’s the haps my party people? Welcome back and thanks for
joining. I’m feelin’ a lil’, how do you say, FEISTY today! It’s a
gloomy Wednesday afternoon and I am about to get crazy up in this
joint. Today’s topic is my personal pet peeves when it comes to bars.

I’ve talked about what tics me off when it comes to how people act
whilst at bars, and order, and actually tend said establishments but
today ima going to talk about the actual patrons that attend these places.
This might actually be a two parter seeing as though I have A LOT of
people that piss me off at bars. Ok, you ready? Let’s do this!


I don’t know that I can put these in any particular order, seeing as
though I despise most of the rejects equally, but I know that people
that bring dogs into bars drive me absolutely crazy. They drive me
ABSOLUTELY CRAZY!!!!!! I know people love their dogs like they’re
their children (foreshadowing) but guess what…. I DON’T! If you bring some stupid little rat-looking chihuaha in your purse, fine. Just
keep it in your bag, Paris Hilton.

But these people that bring their
Labradors or Hounds to bars should be tarred and feathered. Are they
spending money? No. Are you buying them a drink? No. Are they
driving your drunk asses home? No. Then why the hell are they taking
up valuable real-estate? WHY? What chaps my hide more than bringing your stupid drool monkey to a bar? When they aren’t on a LEASH?!?! Are you hiiiiiiigh? I mean, come on. That’s just completely
inconsiderate. I don’t care if it’s inside or outside, dogs just do
NOT belong in bars. Ever. NEVER EVER!!!!!


I’d promise to calm down and stop shouting at you, but I don’t want
to lie to you. So the second thing that drives me crazy at bars is
KIDS!!!! Holy crap, should these parents be blind folded and beaten to
death with wiffle ball bats? I don’t care if some place serves food,
if it is primarily known as a bar (The Neighborhood and Toronado to
name a couple) and/or there is a door man at ANY point then please
call a baby sitter. A quick little anecdote for y’all. My friends
and I went to a game down at Petco Park a couple of months ago and
after the game, we all went to this bar and pizza place nearby.

I can’t remember the name of the place nor does it matter because it
sucks, so don’t worry about it. Well, there is a bouncer at the door
checking everyone’s IDs, we’re drinking, playing pool, eating pizza,
ya know, spending money when all of the sudden, this couple walks in. With them they have a stroller with TRIPLETS around a year old.
AAAAAAAAAND a six year old. Well, my friend and I go outside for a
smoke when the six year old walks over and starts squirting us with a
squirt gun. I love kids, so I play along and have fun with it.
That’s when my friend Loren comes out. Uh oh. So the kid walks up to Loren and gives him three straight shots right in the face. I lose it
because I know the wrath that is about to be unleashed on this kids
parents. I’ll just summarize the conclusion for you and tell you that
the phrase “put him on a leash” was used, and Loren was not allowed
back inside. But I have to admit, while I had fun with it, that kid
should not have been allowed in and probably should have been on some
kind of a leash. It was right after a game, right by the ballpark,
and there were a lot of drunk people there. Not OK. Oh, and if you
DO bring your kid to a place like that, please don’t ask me to put my
cigarette out. I will blow smoke in your and their faces. So the
moral of the story? DON’T BRING YOUR KIDS TO BARS!!!! Stupid.

Next on the list, and probably Deano’s topper are people that order
WATER!!! Holy crap, if you order water at a bar you’d better be the
DD. Otherwise I’m taking a sock full of nails and giving you a clean
swipe across the face. If you go to The Neighborhood for the food,
you’re a tool and should probably have your drinking rights taken
away. I absolutely HATE those people. I’m sorry, did you need some
water with your truffle popcorn? So that’s bad, right? But when Dean
told me about the time that he couldn't get a seat at Alpine Brew Co
because there were a bunch of bicyclists that had made a pit stop for
some tasty grub I almost lost it. This is valuable real-estate
people! So you spandex wearin’ jagoffs decide to stop off at
ALPINE?!?!?... I’m honestly having a hard time with my words right now
because only cuss words are coming to my mind. So just imagine a ton
of expletives laced throughout this paragraph. And if you DO ride
your bicycle as a hobby, more power to ya. I think that that’s
awesome and I’m jealous of your moxy. Just stay the hell out of
Alpine Brew Co. Take your mammal toes elsewhere.

While I have a ton of other people that should just fall off of the
planet, I will end this tirade with one last group. People that wear
their sunglasses inside should automatically have cyanide pills
slipped into their drinks.

I do have to say that this category does not SOLELY include people that wear sunglasses inside. If you can
IMAGINE someone wearing sunglasses inside, cyanide it is. You know
the type, the Jersey Shore looking idiots. The guys that wear
sleeveless shirts in winter with torn jeans and snake skin shoes. Yeah,
those troglodytes. You know, the guys that order WATER WITH CUCUMBER
IN IT!!!! Or cosmopolitans! I want to stab them with a spoon. In
their manginas! What? Too far? I think not, my friends, THEY go too
far.

Phew, thank God that’s over. I was starting to get a little hot
under the collar. So who irks you when they show up at bars? And
don’t say smokers. I don’t need/want to hear it. Drinking and
smoking is like peas and carrots. Abbott and Costello. Beer and
pretzels. Deal.

Until next time my beer loving brethren, have a beer for me.

(ed. note: OK, everyone just take a deep breath. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Just to clarify: we have no problem with water drinkers, per se. However, as the real estate adage goes: location, location, location. If you are at one of the most phenomenal beer locales on the planet and which also has very limited seating as is the case with the tap room at Alpine Beer Co. and you order water, you are in gross violation of all that is good, proper and decent.... Oh, and this probably isn't the greatest of timing but we and Max are thinking about having a Beers with Demo meet-up with Dean and Max sometime in November. Shooting for Saturday, November 19th later in the afternoon. Where? Pizza Port Ocean Beach... because it's kid-friendly, of course.)

Wait, what?

.


One in a series that takes a look at the unexpected and the absurd.*




Here's the Senate Majority Leader on employment priorities in this nation in the year of our Lord 2011:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday said Congress needs to worry about government jobs more than private-sector jobs, and that this is why Senate Democrats are pushing a bill aimed at shoring up teachers and first-responders.

"It's very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine; it's the public-sector jobs where we've lost huge numbers, and that's what this legislation is all about," Reid said on the Senate floor.

Wait, what?

Private sector jobs have been doing fine? Reid said that?





For those of you wondering why D.C. is "broken" or perhaps why it's "dysfunctional", maybe it wouldn't be so if incompetents such as Harry Reid didn't keep getting sent back there.

And what Reid was talking about was the President's jobs bill which the obstructionist Republicans who hate this country refuse to pass because they surmise, rightly so, that it's merely a half-pint repeat of the original jobs bill, Porkulus Pt. I, passed back in 2009 that worked so well...

... that, evidently, we're going to have to do again. One gets the sense that Reid believes that we're going to have to keep doing this until we get it right.




Also:

Reid reiterated his emphasis on creating government jobs by saying Democrats are looking to "put hundreds of thousands of people back to work teaching children, have more police patrolling our streets, firefighters fighting our fires, doing the rescue work that they do so well … that's our priority." He said Republicans are calling the bill a "failure" because they are "using a different benchmark for success than we are."

Teachers, police and firefighters are matters of the state and local levels. It's not incumbent upon the federal government to tend to the funding of these jobs. Never was. Porkulus Pt. I helped prop up these jobs and in many cases also helped states paper over their budget shortfalls without those same states making the necessary budget cuts and/or budget reforms so that many of those same basic need services could be retained. That states like California won't address their fiscal woes is now, apparently, a matter of federal concern.

Good luck with that.

* We thought about making this a Sarah Sez installment but what Reid says was even beyond the pale of any insanity that "Sarah" could muster.

Are you smarter than an Occupier?

New York Magazine asks relevant questions of 50 Wall Street Occupiers... claims "results were mixed". If by "mixed" they mean that young people with the time and means to be spending their days and nights camping out in a wanna-be hippie shanty town actually possessing the knowledge to know why they are there, then, yes, by all means the results were as mixed as a tossed salad. See for yourself below and more at the link.



What does the government spend more on? Health care and pensions, education, or the military?

The Military - 94%

Health care and pensions - 4%

Education - 2%




What is the "SEC"?

Don't know - 68%

The Securities and Exchange Commission - 28%

The Southeastern Conference - 4%


Hey, at least some people have their priorities straight.

Blogging about bloggers and those blogger's commenters and those who opine upon those commenters

.


Our blog bud Harrison over at Capitol Commentary was opining on the #Occupy Wall Street movement and its followers, here which prompted the following comment from "Jack":

I think they want the opposite of chaos and anarchy. They want a world in which “bad stuff” doesn’t happen to people. The idea of chaos and anarchy is frightening to them, which makes it all the more ironic because their actions lead to chaos and anarchy.

Sure, they want a world without consequences, but I think it’s a bit more nuanced than the way you’re looking at it. Instead of removing the consequences, they want to remove anything that would cause the consequences to happen.

I’m a pretty reasonable guy, but I whole heartedly believe that if they could, every one of those fools would prefer a world in which people were not able to make bad decisions. What they don’t understand about freedom and liberty, things that they say are important to them, is that you have to take the good with the bad. Liberty doesn’t exist if you’re rendered incapable of making bad decisions.

Jack makes a great point: a lot of the #OWS pose as anarchists or revolutionaries to establish street cred, we suppose, but at heart, they are collectivists who are clamoring for government redistribution schemes. Far from being revolutionaries or even reformers, they are clamoring for more of the statist status quo... more regulations that will only be gamed by the Wall Street "fat cats" that will only worsen the situation.

And as far as accomplishing some of the "demands" of #OWS such as forgiving student debt, banning foreclosures and making having a job a "right", how is that accomplished but through a totalitarian regime that involuntarily confiscates the wealth/private property of others?

We could be wrong but that seems to be the way things are trending out on the street with #OWS. And either they don't quite realize what it will take to accomplish their demands or they are down with the concept of a thuggish federal government that will "spread the wealth around".