Radio KBwD is on the air

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Courtesy Shara's iPod set list up at Alpine Beer Company Pub, yesterday...



Ladies and Gentlemen, from Louisville, Kentucky, it's My Morning Jacket performing "Look at You".


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What we were tweeting (yesterday)

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In response to the following, an interview of the President given by CBS News where the President reflects on his biggest mistake:

"When I think about what we've done well and what we haven't done well," the president said, "the mistake of my first term - couple of years - was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right. And that's important. But the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism, especially during tough times."


Mr. Obama acknowledged the dissonance between others' perception of his strength as an expert orator, and his own.

"It's funny - when I ran, everybody said, well he can give a good speech but can he actually manage the job?" he said. "And in my first two years, I think the notion was, 'Well, he's been juggling and managing a lot of stuff, but where's the story that tells us where he's going?' And I think that was a legitimate criticism."

(italics, ours)


Tweet: Where's the story? Dude, where are the jobs?




Unreal. Persistent unemployment. Record debt and deficits. Anemic economic growth. Unprecedented amassing of executive power. And he thinks it's all a messaging problem.


Well, thankfully, we get to see just how things might've been and may still be once the President gets his story out.


Courtesy, Ace of Spades:

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@deanriehm #betterstories

Missouri: Please show this man the door

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We've known for a while now that reproductive rights include opposing any sort of abortion survivor legislation and opposition to any sensible late-term abortion bans because that's a slippery slope or something, but now with ObamaCare Obamatax, reproductive rights also means that you will be forced to pay for others people's birth control.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon caved to pro-abortion groups, including, apparently, the Sierra Club because dead fetuses have a totally awesome carbon footprint?

After significant pressure from pro-abortion groups, Governor Jay Nixon vetoed pro-life legislation passed during this year's General Assembly. Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups pressed Nixon to reject Senate Bill 749, sponsored by Senator John Lamping that is a challenge to the contraceptive and abortion drug mandate issued by the Obama Administration.

The bill approved by the Missouri Legislature states that no employee or employer can be forced to purchase health insurance coverage which includes abortion, contraception, or sterilization, if those items or procedures are contrary to their "religious beliefs or moral convictions." The bill provides that no governmental entity can penalize an employee or employer for declining or refusing to purchase or provide such coverage.

Pam Fichter, President of Missouri Right to Life, criticized Nixon for vetoing the bill.

"During the 2012 Legislative Session, the Missouri Senate and House passed SB 749 in response to the HHS mandate from Kathleen Sebelius and the Obama Administration forcing religious institutions to pay for abortions," she told LifeNews. "SB 749 would have sent a clear message that pro-life Missourians oppose participating in the taking of innocent human lives against our religious beliefs."

"SB 749 also would have placed in statute the ability for people of faith to bring a lawsuit if they are forced to pay for morally objectionable procedures. Governor Nixon joins the Obama Administration in attacking our religious liberty by supporting the HHS mandate forcing all Missourians to pay for insurance that includes abortion coverage even if doing so is a violation of our religious beliefs," Fichter added. "SB 749 passed the Missouri House and Senate with strong bi-partisan support. Missouri Right to Life urges the legislature to override this veto in September. A veto override of SB 749 will show pro-life Missourians who will stand for our religious liberties."

A veto override is a distinct possibility as the bill passed both the Senate and the House by 28-6 and 105-33 margins, respectively (We submit that we don't know what percentage of votes would be needed in both chambers to override the veto).

And recall it was Missouri, home of Health and Human Services secretary and defacto Obamatax czar, Kathleen Sebelius, that gave ObamaTax a resounding if symbolic only vote of no-confidence a couple of years back in a public referendum.

Lamping's bill states that no employee or employer can be compelled to obtain or provide health care coverage for abortion, contraception, or sterilization, if such items or procedures violate their religious beliefs. The legislation would not reverse the impact of the contraceptive mandate in Missouri. However, it would become law in Missouri if the abortion drug mandate were to withdrawn by a new President, repealed by Congress, or invalidated by a federal court.

"The contraceptive edict issued by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius requires that all health insurance plans include coverage for every contraceptive approved by the Food and Drug Administration. That includes the abortifacient drugs Ella and Plan B," said Joe Ortwerth of the Missouri Family Policy Council. "The mandate takes effect August 1st. Religious organizations other than churches will have until August 1st of 2012 comply. That means that Catholic institutions and employers will be forced to provide health insurance coverage that violates their religious doctrines, or drop their health insurance coverage altogether."

The Catholic Church in the United States is making it clear that they have no intention to comply. The Archdiocese of St. Louis and Catholic Charities of St. Louis have joined 42 other Catholic dioceses and Catholic agencies in filing 12 different regional lawsuits against the Department of Health and Human Services over the abortion drug mandate.

We, along with other groups of faith and also other freedom-lovers of little or no faith, stand with the Catholic Church.

We continue to be amazed that the administration continues to double down on a fight of their own making that is bad on principle as well as politics. It's not like the Sandra Fluke's of the world are not going to vote for Obama because he didn't strong-arm the Church into paying for her birth control.

The man who campaigned on bringing this country together has proven to be a liar on that count as we cannot imagine an issue that would represent the complete antithesis of that concept.


Oh, and another thing: We know nothing of Jay Nixon's policies or politics but because of this single act of cowardice in a state that has demonstrated at the public and legislative levels, they want nothing to do with this law, that they show him the door at the next available opportunity.

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What we were tweeting (yesterday)

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One in a (semi-) daily series on what we've been up to on the social media scene.



With respect to a photo that appeared on the front page of the Business section of the hometown fish wrap, the San Diego Union-Tribune.



Tweet: Are newspapers ethically obligated to seek permission before putting pic of one's fat arse on article on obesity?


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Seriously. Isn't this a form of dead tree bullying?

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Your California high speed choo-choo update

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We can't help it. If it's news about high-speed choo-choos, we feel obligated to cover it. Hell, they feel obligated to build it, so...


Things continue to go from really bad to completely spinning-out-of-control atrocious for California's high-speed rail project. We touched on it before, but for some more detail, the reason why the cost estimate for the project as per the state's ILA (Independent Legislative Analyst) office went from $98 billion a few months ago to $68 billion a few weeks ago, is because Jerry Brown hacked away at it and presented California lawmakers a bastardized and quite likely illegal version of the plan voted upon by Californians back in 2008.

Article here talks about a lawsuit that has been filed and which represents a real threat to the continuance of the project as it violates several conditions of the original plan, among those being:

- current plan calls for a "blended" approach to the project whereby high speed trains would use existing rail lines in addition to newly-built high speed lines (a violation of the original plan) and which would cause...

- trains to travel at slower speeds than advertised and which would also cause...

- riders to have to switch trains between L.A. and San Francisco, another original plan no-no.

- New plan also cuts out electricity. You read that correctly. As currently laid out, there is no intention of actually providing electricity to the choo-choos. Perhaps years from now, we will have another bond proposition to consider providing actual power to the not-so high-speed choo-choos that will be setting by idly rusting away in a pistachio field outside of Bakersfield.

- Also, current plan includes local spending on existing rail infrastructure which was not in the original plan. Now, your first instinct would be to assume vote-buying as this was our first impression as well. But voting at both the Senate and Assembly levels broke along party lines and with solid Democratic majorities in both chambers, the issue was never in any doubt, vote wise, so... we will have to fall back on completely insane fiscal recklessness as the reason.

A couple of lines from linked article that caught our eye.

The governor hailed the vote, saying, "The Legislature took bold action today that gets Californians back to work and puts California out in front once again."

If by "out in front once again", the governor meant fiscal irresponsibility and all-around dumb-ass ideas, then, yes, we are #1.

And then this:

Kopp said he was disappointed that there were no plans to electrify the Central Valley segment. Planners wanted to start construction in the valley because it's a good place "to test the trains at 220 miles per hour," Kopp said.

Without electrification, trains can't attain that speed, he said.

Since we are resorting to a 19th century mode of transportation, perhaps teams of oxen will help the choo-choos attain (not) that speed.



The hell-bent pursuit of a project this heinous, wasteful and unneccessary represents an unseriousness that rivals that of Porkulus and Obamacare - statist solutions searching for a problem.



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Moving beyond gotcha

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The latest talking point/attack angle coming from Team O is with respect to #BettingOnAmerica and attempting to score points by going after Mitt Romney's foreign investments and Swiss bank accounts.

Some vetting would appear to be in order, however, as the person they have assigned as lead dog in the wolf pack, DNC chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz has had, in the past, a Swiss bank account and a foreign investment or two of her own.



But never mind all that; let's take a look at who's really investing in America:

(courtesy American Enterprise Institute)

please click to enlarge

Tech-comms, oil and gas and Wal-Mart.


The first is totally expected but the second may be somewhat counter-intuitive until you step back and look at the facts on the ground: we keep finding more and more of that black sticky stuff underneath our sovereign soil. Also, green energy may indeed be the energy of the future but, right now, we don't know when that future is because it is not market-ready - the failures of the Department of Energy's green energy loan program bears this out.

Abundant, cheap, market-ready and emerging technology to burn oil and gas more efficiently... why wouldn't the money be pursuing this particular sector?

And as for Wal-Mart..? Alas, we suppose you'll just never be able to wean America off quality goods at a reasonable price: a reality too uncomfortable to be confronted by the more progressive among us and Wal-Mart knows it.

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A not-so-random thought regarding California's high speed choo-choos

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Oddly enough, this though never occurred to us before today...



All you need to know about the folly of this California high speed choo-choos project is where the choo-choos are not going. The single corridor where high-speed choo-choos might make some actual sense, the L.A. to Vegas route, is not being built. Ever since we can remember, we've heard just-audible buzz for a San Fran to L.A. L.A. to San Diego L.A. to Vegas route and yet as plausible as it may have been for those who have experienced the hell that is a clogged 1-15 on a Friday afternoon or Sunday evening, there was simply never enough demand to get an L.A. to Vegas high-speed rail project off top-dead-center. The travel alternatives of hopping in one's car for a 3 or 4 hr. drive or a commuter plane for a 45 minute flight overcame any casino-goers political push for choo-choos.

And despite the fact that we do not have the money to build it and despite the fact that there has never seemed to be any overwhelming demand for it, California's elected officials threatened by the specter of losing federal money gave the go-ahead to begin building the largest public works project in the history of this nation, not in San Fran, not in San Jose and not in Los Angeles but rather out in middle of nowhere, the Central Valley between the bustling burghs of Merced and Bakersfield

As we said back on Saturday, it's California in a white hot fever of spending a wealth transfer in order to be able to spend a federal wealth transfer.


And like the cost estimates for this thing that keep going up, so does the travel time between L.A. and San Fran. It was sold to the California public as a bond measure back in 2008 at $33 billion (now, at least $68 billion) and with a travel time of just under two hours.


Here's our dreaming-of-a-single-party-political-system Secretary of Transportation, yesterday, who proved on Friday that he is not fit to serve as an American public official commenting on the project:

LaHood offered a different take Monday however, writing that "[U]ltimately, California High Speed Rail will deliver passengers safely and reliably between San Francisco Bay and the Los Angeles Basin in less than three hours, setting a very competitive bar for high speed rail in the U.S."

Even a doubling of the cost before a single track has been laid and a 50% increase in travel time can't dampen the enthusiasm of a true believer who trusts in his heart of hearts that government is the real engine behind economic prosperity.

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Fast and Furious update

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We arm Mexican drug cartels with assault rifles and we outfit our own with beanbags.

The Justice Department unsealed an indictment Monday charging five people in connection with Border Patrol agent Brian Terry's death -- a move that drew praise as well as skepticism from lawmakers laser-focused on the case.

The department, in unsealing the document, also announced a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the arrest of four suspects who are still at large.

The developments come amid an intensifying debate over the department's failed Fast and Furious anti-gunrunning operation. Weapons from that program were found at Terry's murder scene -- Republicans seeking documents pertaining to Fast and Furious last month escalated their probe by voting to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.

According to the indictment, the five defendants are charged with crimes including first-degree murder, second-degree murder and assault on a federal officer. The indictment alleges that the five defendants also assaulted three other Border Patrol agents who were with Terry.

For the first time, federal officials also revealed that Terry and the elite squad of federal agents initially fired bean bags -- not bullets -- at the heavily armed drug cartel crew in the mountains south of Tucson in December 2010. During the exchange, Terry was shot and killed.

(italics, ours)

We might want to give some serious thought to ending our sacrificing of brave men like Brian Terry by ending this dog'n'pony show called the war on drugs. It's entirely evident that we aren't serious about it and have instead politicized it. We apparently think it's a glorified pillow fight, so why bother?

And you would not be a hopeless cynic for wondering why those indictments are exclusive to south of the border.

#fireholder

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What we were tweeting (this past Friday)

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(hey, too much going on - things got away from us a bit)


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In response to Friday's dismal jobs report:



Tweet: He was totally hoping that number represented merely the ABV

Repeal ACA Rally round-up

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In a more perfect union, lads as ourselves would not be blogging so much on the weekend but times being as they are...


Attended a Repeal Obamacare Obamatax rally at the San Diego County Administration building yesterday. It was well-attended (200-300 hundred people), energetic and featured several speakers, Nick Popaditch (pictured), Dr. Gary Gonsalves and Congressman Brian Bilbray among them.


B-Daddy at the Liberator Today has an excellent run-down of the event, here and which included some ideas on how to truly reform healthcare:

1.Let credit card companies manage Health Savings Accounts (that use pre-tax dollars) because they are good at detecting fraud. Further, allowing HSAs to roll from year to year would encourage people to shop around and reduce health costs. As a current user of a flexible spending account for some of my health care, I like this idea. But, the current system pushes me to spend all my eligible funds in one year, leading to some wasteful spending.

2.Get the states and the AMA out of nursing licensing. Doctors and hospitals are capable of judging the quality of nurses, this just restricts supply.

3.Get the AMA out of limiting doctor licensing and medical school accreditation, because they have a vested interest in decreasing the supply of doctors.

We would also add that there needs to be much greater flexibility in what we do and do not want covered in our healthcare plans. Currently, for younger and/or healthier people, there is no real high-deductible/catastrophic coverage plan options (in fact, Obamatax outlaws many of these similar mini-med plans for low-wage employees). The government mandates all manner of coverage for stuff this segment of the population does not need which drives up the cost of premiums thus putting healthcare coverage out of reach.


Shane Atwell had his thoughts on the rally here which included the following:

Bilbray (the only named speaker in the announcement) started very weak by saying that everything reduces to taxes. Then the sound system cut out... After restoring the sound he continued to try to tap into Tea Party energy, but was clearly not into it. (Full disclosure: I especially dislike Bilbray for voting for every socon and neocon powergrab that's ever come before him, like the NDAA and Patriot Act. Dawn Wildman has more thoughts on Bilbray here.) One of the Stop Taxing Us co-founders spoke just before Bilbray and spent much of it restraining himself from criticizing Bilbray.

We understand that Bilbray has done much to not make himself a tea party fave but with respect to repealing the counterproductive monstrosity that is Obamatax, we need all the signatories we can muster. We don't mean to go all single issue on anybody but we can think of no greater legislative priority in the next Congressional session. If it means currying the support of a RINO-esque tea party wanna-be, then so be it.


While walking back to our truck after the rally, we reflected upon the charmed/nine lives existence of ObamaCare. Through back room bribes, arm-twisting, kickbacks and Stupaking, Christmas Eve votes and one of the greatest Supreme Court judicial dodges of all time, this thing has survived. So, this is where we are at: November 6, we've got our last at bat. It's then or never. Stay calm, stay focused and stay relaxed.



P.S. The rally was held in the shadow of this building.

We joked with Shane that he would not approve this message.

Your California high-speed choo-choo update

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"There's no turning back on this. We're not going to turn back. And you know why? Because that's what the people want. That's why... there's no stopping high speed rail."

That from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood yesterday commenting on high speed choo-choos and, specifically, high speed choo-choos in California and for which we took him to task here for bemoaning constitutional republics that gum up the works and desires of statist authoritarians.

But you know what? LaHood may be right. High speed choo-choos may be coming and there very well be nothing we can do to stop it because we keep sending people to Sacramento and Washington who are completely oblivious to fiscal reality and fiscal sanity.

California lawmakers approved billions of dollars Friday in construction financing for the initial segment of the nation’s first dedicated high-speed rail line, which would connect Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The move marked a major political victory for Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and the Obama administration. Both have promoted bullet trains as job generators and clean transportation alternatives.

“No economy can grow faster than its transportation network allows,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement applauding the legislative vote. “With highways between California cities congested and airspace at a premium, Californians desperately need an alternative

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Since when are these people interested in growing the economy that doesn't involve tax-payer money on stimulus plans? There is no such thing as a private sector to these people.

The bill authorizes the state to begin selling $4.5 billion in voter-approved bonds that includes $2.6 billion to build an initial 130-mile stretch of the high-speed rail line in the Central Valley. That will allow the state to collect another $3.2 billion in federal funding that could have been rescinded if lawmakers failed to act Friday.

Just a reminder, gang: the state doesn't have that $4.5 billion plus interest and the U.S. government doesn't have that $3.2 billion plus interest neither.

The bill, which passed the state Assembly on Thursday, now heads to Brown for his signature.

“The Legislature took bold action today that gets Californians back to work and puts California out in front once again,” Brown said in a statement. The governor celebrated with Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento, a fellow Democrat, in the lawmaker’s office right after the vote.

How is spending other people's money taking "bold action"? How is doing only what is encoded in your poltical DNA as a tax and spend statist taking "bold action"?

The first segment of the line will run from Madera to Bakersfield. The final cost of the completed project from Los Angeles to San Francisco would be $68 billion.

A quick word on that $68 billion figure. It's based on a dummed-down plan from the original one the voters voted on back in 2008 and was done so as estimates for the original plan were getting statospheric in the $100-$120 billion range. Even so, in just 4 years, a dummed-down high speed rail that also included some budget gimmickry that Sacramento is famous for is still estimated to cost more than double the $33 billion price tag that was sold to the voters.


We end this sad, pathetic little tale with this:

Dan Richard, chairman of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, which is managing the project, said California would have lost billions of dollars in federal aid if the Senate had failed to pass the bill before adjourning Friday for its monthlong recess. California entered a contract that called for the federal government to provide money for building the Central Valley segment if the state also put up its share, he said.

That's what passes for today's macro-economic model: tranferring wealth to spend money in order to receive a transfer of wealth only to spend that as well.