Monday, December 29, 2008

NYTimes and Norks

This is pretty good. The Times thinks the Norks should not have their fuel oil cut off.
If the shipments stop, North Korea would be within its rights to stop disabling its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon and resume producing plutonium for weapons.
And the Norks should test their first one on the NYTimes. Well, not in New York. Maybe at an off-site. In, like, Pyongyang.

Read all of the idiocy here.

H/T Weekly Standard

More Evidence that Rubble Doesn't Make Trouble

Your tax dollars at work.



If that's not a US-made JDAM, then it's an IDF version. And we send a bunch of money to Israel each year. Not a dollar of it is wasted. I wish our politicians would turn a few more of these loose on the Taliban.

H/T John Derbyshire over at The Corner

The Best Terrorist is a Dead Terrorist

Remember this video the next time someone complains about mistreatment in GITMO, or bitches about waterboarding. I don't see teenagers in this country driving their SUV's around with car bombs. 14 of those innocent kids walking along that wall were murdered.



Bastards.

Hug your kid tonight and say a prayer for the safety of our soldiers.

H/T CDR Salamander

Sunday, December 28, 2008

One Democrat Has It RIGHT



Here's Howard L. Berman (D-CA), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee:
Israel has a right, indeed a duty, to defend itself in response to the hundreds of rockets and mortars fired from Gaza over the past week. No government in the world would sit by and allow its citizens to be subjected to this kind of indiscriminate bombardment. The loss of innocent life is a terrible tragedy, and the blame for that tragedy lies with Hamas.
You're goddamn right it's Hamas' fault, and Israel should bomb 'em back to the stone age (not very far, to be sure).

You lob a rocket at my house, and if the police and US Army don't respond, I'd be kicking some politician's ass. And I'm sick and tired of seeing the wailing Palestinians. If they don't like it, they should have elected someone other than Hamas.

Rubble doesn't make trouble, as Derb said.

H/T Commentary, pictures from FoxNews.com

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Union Work Rules -- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I read a great article on Pajamas Media about the damage that union work rules are causing in Detroit. Rand Simberg is right in his article. These work rules are stifling productivity.

When I graduated from high school, the president of our local bank called me one day and asked if I had a job for the summer. Nope, said I. Mike then told me about the job that got him through college...working on a freight dock. He arranged for me to have an interview for a summer job as a "casual" -- union-speak for a temporary worker. I got the job and kept it for 4 years. That union money put me through college, along with Social Security Survivors Benefits. In 1976 I made $9.02 an hour (I still have the paystubs!). That was an enormous sum for an unskilled college kid. I got paid time-and-a-half for any day over 8 hours. Friday nights I would come on at 2pm and work until 1 or 2am. That's 8 hours at $9.02, and 4 hours at $13.53, so in one day I could make $125 or so.

Mr. Simberg's article reminds me of a confrontation I had once with the dock foreman. We had two of them. One was an old grizzled veteran, and the other a 25-year-old hard charger. I liked them both, for they made sure I got enough hours to pay for college.

One night the younger of the dock foremen came out to me on the dock and asked me to open a trailer's doors so that he could see if there was anything inside. We would always sweep out trailers before loading them (pretty good money for sweeping). I thought to myself, "WTF, why don't you open the damn doors yourself?". But I held my tongue and opened the trailer doors. Empty.

About a half-hour later, he came back out and took me to another trailer and told me to open it up so he could look. Again, I held my tongue, but I thought this guy was pretty damn lazy to make me walk all the way down the dock just to open a trailer that he could easily open.

A bit later, here he is again, asking me to open up a trailer. I knew him pretty well, and we were out of earshot of the other workers, so I said "F*** you, dock foreman, open the damn trailer yourself." Well, he kinda grinned at me and said, "You don't get it, do you? Since I'm a foreman, if I touch that trailer, I have to pay the union steward (usually the guy with the most seniority) a full day's pay, since that's a job you guys do. The union rules forbid me to touch it."

Well, since I was a snot-nosed college kid, what did I know? The light bulb came on for me, and I apologized immediately. From that day forward I never complained when asked to do a menial task that someone else could do. But I also formed a terrible opinion of the union on that day. Being introduced to work rules that are assinine will do that to you.

Don't get me wrong...union work rules started out as a way to make sure that the company didn't mess with your job. But they have become a way for the union to prevent the company from innovating.

By the time I was a senior in college I was making over $12 an hour. I thought this was an outrageous sum...until I got my tuition bill every fall. Then I was glad to have the job.

Work rules killed the freight business (my old company, Illinois-California Express, or ICX) is still around, but as a shell of its former self. They're killing the auto industry, too.

Obama: A Real Leader

The island of Oahu is without power because of a thunderstorm.
From Fox News:
Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann told KSSK radio that Obama is in one of the "most secure places, so he'll be OK." The mayor said he talked to Obama at 9:30 p.m., and that Obama said he was fine and planned to go to bed and sleep through the blackout, The Honolulu Advertiser reported on its Web site. (Emphasis mine.)
Ya gotcha a real leader there, America. If he had any real sense of service he'd volunteer during the blackout.
Oh, wait...blackout. That would be a racist term. Sorry (not).

Well, at least if he's asleep he can't do any real harm.

Moron.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Brit Hume (semi) retires

If you turn to your dictionary and look up "class act", there's a picture of Brit. Here's his goodbye.



I met Brit one evening at Dulles airport. He and I were on the same flight to Chicago, and I walked up and introduced myself to him, offering my hand and my thanks for his professionalism. We spoke for about an hour about current events (a little) and golf (a lot). I gave him my card and offered to host him on a round of golf either in Texas or Wisconsin.

If he is half as passionate about golf as he is as a newsman, he's gonna be a tough competitor on the links!

Fare well, friend. I watched you EVERY night these last 10 years. Walter Cronkite for the fair and balanced.

H/T Blackfive

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Tax ROI by State

Sigh.

The John Locke Foundation is out with a table of the ROI (return on investment) of your tax dollars, listed by state. The states are graded based on the tax rate and overall state services returned to the taxpayer. The results are exhilarating or depressing, depending on whether you're from Texas or Wisconsin. (Hint: I'm from Texas, but pay taxes in Wisconsin, so don't know whether to sh** or go blind).

Let's see...Texas ranks 3rd...




Wisconsin ranks, well, er, last. That's 50th, in case you listen to the other moron, Barack Obama, and think there are 56 states.



No real surprise, given that our school tax dollars are going up in smoke. Can't we fire the morons, starting with the head moron, Russ Feingold?

Harrumph.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

The Cowgirls

From The Boss:

The Cowboys

……………………………..what a bunch of girls !!!!!!!!!!.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Evil Forces at Work

From THE BOSS. She's pissed off...and says Sarah Palin should be a good role model for these punks in Congress (see previous post).



Evil Forces at Work

What happens to a person when elected to Congress? He (or she) arrives on the steps of the Capitol with the intentions of making changes that will improve the lives of those who elected him. He promises to be the new voice of the people; he promises to reduce spending, and he promises to make a difference.

After a few years, when the elected official is questioned about his promises, he dodges the questions. He's learned how to deliver an answer without really answering the question. When a news crew follows him through the halls of the Capitol building, he's always in a hurry to get to a meeting and does not have time to speak with anyone. He has forgotten where he came from.

I believe there is an Evil Force that hides in the nooks and crannies of the Capitol Building and only elected officials are affected by the Evil Force. This evil force slides along the hallway walls, moving from office to office like the plague. The Evil Force turns elected officials into greedy, selfish, self-centered zombies of the Evil Force.

It is no longer about those who elected him, it is all about him. The economy is slowing down, the stock market is dropping like a rock and thousands of people are losing their jobs, savings, and retirements.

The zombies of the Evil Force have voted themselves a raise.

They are calling it a "cost of living" raise that will increase the annual salary of zombies of the Evil Force by $3,400 to a total of $158,103 per year.

I ask you, how could a person in his right mind sit there and vote "Yea" on giving himself a raise? The Evil Force makes idiots out of what might otherwise be sane, normal people. I can think of no justification they could make that I would accept or believe. Their pictures should hang on a Wall of Shame in the halls of Congress.

And for the record, I say "throw the bastards out". -- Texan in Wisconsin

Cat Fight at the Puzzle Palace


OK, that's oversimplifying it a bit, but -- dayum.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ plan to deploy three additional combat brigades to Afghanistan by the summer has superseded a contentious debate that pitted the Bush administration’s “war czar” against the special operations hierarchy over a proposed near-term “surge” of spec ops forces to Afghanistan, a Pentagon military official said.
The National Security Council’s surge proposal, which grew out of its Afghan strategy review, recommended an increase of “about another battalion’s worth” of troops to the Combined and Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan, or CJSOTF-A, said a field-grade Special Forces officer, who added that this would enlarge the task force by about a third.
Several sources said that the “SOF surge” proposal originated with Lt. Gen. Doug Lute, the so-called “war czar”...
...the proposal sparked a fierce high-level debate, with special operations officers charging that Lute and his colleagues were trying to micromanage the movement of individual Special Forces A-teams from inside the Beltway, and countercharges that Special Forces has strayed from its traditional mission of raising and training indigenous forces and become too focused on direct-action missions to kill or capture enemies. (Emphasis mine)
My buddy COB6 will tell ya that soldiers, especially SOF, are meant to be used to take it to the enemy -- quickly, violently, and overwhelmingly. His actual words about SOF are "with surgical, extreme violence". Let's quit arguing about the role, and start thinking about the GOAL.

Hey, there's a slogan in there.

IT'S NOT THE ROLE, IT'S THE GOAL.


H/T Small Wars Journal Blog

SEIU -- Bad-apple Union


The Governator has ordered budget cuts and layoffs in California in order to address a $42 billion budget deficit. Think of that number for a moment -- $42 billion. And that's just the deficit.

So Arnold is cutting budgets and proposing layoffs. He's also said he'll force all government employees to take 2 days per month off without pay until the budget turns around. But here's the thing. You'd think everyone would pitch in and try to help out. You know, to preserve jobs around the holiday time. But noooo. Here's the money quote from the SEIU:
Labor officials said they were considering filing a lawsuit to prevent job losses.

"We definitely think we have grounds for filing an unfair labor charge," said Jim Herron Zamora, a spokesman for the Service Employees International Union, Local 1000, the largest state employee union. "Our contract doesn't allow him to do this."

That's the same union that Blago was trying to extort money from.

Gee, take a 10% paycut or lose my job entirely -- which one do I chose?

How are those union dues working for ya?

Thursday, December 18, 2008

No Handouts for Sarah

Why Sarah will win in 2012:


No hand-out by Sarah for mo money.

She's just turned down a payraise that was recommended by a commission she appointed. You don't think she's won points across the nation with this? Damn right.

Next stop: The White House, and she'll do it for 200 grand a year!

H/T Hot Air
Photo by Erik Hill / Anchorage Daily News

Monday, December 15, 2008

Success in Iraq

If you have any doubt that we've won, take a look at this.


Think back to when you were in grade school, and you went to the local Army Reserve weekend to meet -- SOLDIERS! YEA! Let's play ARMY!

You can see it in this kid's eyes...he is in awe, and he respects this soldier. BZ to our men and women in Iraq. Major Scott just returned from there last week. Welcome home.

H/T Blackfive. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Todd Frantom

Sunday, December 14, 2008

OnStar and Bad Guys


There's a new technology that OnStar is going to roll out which allows the cops to ask OnStar to stop a fleeing vehicle. I heard the story on FoxNews this weekend while driving from Dallas to Wisconsin. Here's a link to the story on ABC News.

The gist of the story is that GM can program the computer in the car to respond to a request from OnStar to set the engine speed to idle, regardless of the inputs from inside the car. Pretty cool.

I like OnStar. I've used it to unlock the truck when I've locked the keys inside (yep, I did that once; no, twice). I even had a weird backfire on the Interstate in the middle of Nebraska once. I called OnStar and they downloaded the engine diagnostics and told me that it was no big deal.

In Dallas some years back, the Dallas PD started a program in which you put a sticker on your car, and that sticker allowed the cops to stop the car and search it if seen on the road between 1am and 5am. If you're a regular 9-5er, and you come home from the bars before closing time, it seems like a good idea to allow the cops to stop that guy that stole your car at 3am. I supported the program, and I think the OnStar feature is a good one...

except...


Hey, I've been in the computer business for 28 years. I've seen a lot of bad code, and a lot of hackers. I guarantee you that if OnStar turns this on, then the carjackers and the code hackers are going to get together and hack this system. I can see it now: You're out on a back road headed home one night, a car comes up behind you, you hit the gas, and...nothing. The bad guys have hacked OnStar and you're lucky to be walking home (if you're not shot). I think this is a bad idea...but that's not going to stop it. Besides, we need a good car chase now and then to distract us from bailouts, corrupt governors, and shoe-throwers.

You heard it here first...how long will it take the bad guys to hack OnStar? I give it 6 months.

An Equal Opportunity...for Santa Claus via NPR

From THE BOSS.

I cannot believe what I just heard on the radio. It is crap and I mean crap listening to them discuss Santa Claus on this NPR program.

It seems that some people have taken it upon themselves to create a program to endorse Santa Claus as black for black children. They are trying to get me to believe that without Santa Claus being black, these children are somehow deprived of the true meaning of Christmas and Santa Claus.

I can hear it now, “Judge, my client is not guilty of this armed robbery because he was denied his constitutional rights as a black child by the local mall not providing a black Santa for him to sit on his lap and express his wishes.”

Are we now to have a numerous lines at the malls for those wishing to see a black Santa Claus, Chinese Santa Claus, White Santa Claus, Hispanic Santa Claus? And hey, what about a Santa Claus for Gay and Lesbians? Why stop there?

To all the people reading this email, give me a break. Go to your local library, get on the internet and look up the cultural history of Santa Claus. Facts are facts, he was white.

I have one last question:

If your Santa Claus can be black, can my Martin Luther King be white?

NOW

From THE BOSS.

Now that we will have a black man as president in the White House, what are the chances that Affirmative Action will be removed and it constraints on businesses, colleges and universities be forever a thing of the past?

Barack Obama has proven that a minority can rise to the highest position in this country. This should prove to every black person, no matter what their means, that they too can succeed if they work at it.

They should no longer be allowed to enter our universities with lower scores just to fill an Affirmative Action quota. A black male should no longer have an advantage over black females and none of them should have an advantage over anyone else just because of the color of his skin.

Remember what the Declaration of Independence says ….”that all men are created equal.”

Second Thoughts

From THE BOSS.

Sitting on the couch these past two weeks, recovering from surgery, got me to thinking about Barack Obama.

After listening to hours of news on the bailout, discussions on Iran and Iraqi, pirates off the coast of Africa, recession, and the final episode of Boston Legal, I was wondering if Barack Obama is having second thoughts on winning the election. Does he ever sit there at night, alone in his bathroom and look at himself in the mirror and think, “what the F--- did I do, what the F--- did I get myself into?” (Hey, this is how they talk in Chicago and the governor’s mansion in Illinois).

Can you imagine what he thought after he got his first security briefing? I am sure he had to make a dash to the men’s room. Here is a guy who thought he was on top of the world by pushing Hillary aside for the Democratic nomination and then beating McCain. How he feels today must pale in comparison to what he felt the night he won the election. Even though he might like to run and hide and tell the American public, “I’ve changed my mind”, he is stuck for at least the next four years.

Most of the black community who voted for him are counting on him to make their house payments, help with gas for their cars and educate them for free. For them he is their savior. Like I said, he is stuck. He did it to himself and he has no one to blame but himself. I hope he has broad shoulders, is ready for many sleepless nights, and likes eating airplane food.

Godspeed Barack Obama.

RNC Ad about Blogo

Here's the new ad:



A lot of folks think the RNC is going to far, too fast. B.S. Blogo is going to take Obama down with him. At the very least, Rahm Emanuel is toast.

What? You don't think Blogo is going to sing? Just like Resko, Blogo is going to sing about the real estate deal that Obama got from Resko. Between Resko and Blogo, Obama is going down.

You heard it here first...

UPDATE: Round one, Emanuel and Blogo aides discussed Obama successor; FBI has it on tape.

Ditka for Governor!


Everyone's arguing about the "how": How do we pick the new Senator? Should we have a special election? Should the Lt Gov get the choice? How do we pay for it? I even saw one mention online of Mike Ditka running as a Republican for the seat. (My guess is -- he'd win!)

Let's go one better. Let's have Ditka run for Governor! He would do well to announce the following:

1. All conversations in the Governor's office would be recorded and streamed live on the internet. (Ok, maybe a 24-hour delay.)
2. The Gov's appointment calendar would be published on the web, live.
3. All of the Gov's emails would be published on the web, live.

I know, I know, there are times when the governor of any state needs to talk about classified matters. So he goes into a secure conference room...and that time shows up on the calendar as "classified".

The only way to restore confidence in this office is to be completely transparent...and this would do it.

I guarantee you that Ditka could do this and he'd win! Go Mike!

Just imagine how pissed-off Harry Reid and Dick-less Durbin would be!
It would be worth it just to see Reid's, Durbin's, and Pelosi's faces at the announcement.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Obama Reprises Clinton

I DID NOT HAVE CONTACT WITH THAT MAN, MR. BLAGO.



H/T Moonbattery

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

What the Auto Bailout Means to You

Can I at least get a new Suburban outta this deal?

Unions of Today a Far Cry...

From THE BOSS:

The unions of today are a far cry from what my grandfather and others fought for many years ago. I am sure my grandfather is turning in his grave at what the UAW has become and what it represents in the minds of most people.

I was born into a Union family in Detroit. My grandfather fought in the Battle of the Overpass. I listened to many stories from my grandmother about how grandpa would come home bruised and bloody on numerous occasions and how she would doctor his wounds and care for him, only to have him go right back to work and fight for the union again.

He fought to protect the workers' safety on the job and he fought for the rights of the workers to be financially taken care of if hurt on the job. He fought for what each one of us expect today from our employers; it wasn't always so.

There is a government agency called OSHA (Occupational Health and Safety Administration) this agency was formed in 1970 as part of the Department of Labor. In 1970, the United States Congress passed the Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act. As a result, OSHA was formed.

The Act required that "every employer under the Act furnish to his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees" (29 CFR 1903.1). This passage is commonly known as the General Duty Clause.

Prior to OSHA, it was the Unions that made the employers provide a safe workplace for the employees.

So where and when did the Unions go wrong? Who is at fault for the union mess we are in today? Where should I begin? It was not one person but one thing that cascaded into this dismal mess we see today: greed. Greed on the part of those that formed the administration of the union, those men that left the factory floor to run and manage the UAW. Could I name names? You bet; I knew them all. I am glad to say that my grandfather was not one of them. When given the opportunity to leave the factory assembly line and become part of management of the UAW my grandfather said "no", he wanted to stay in the factory as a UAW representative to make sure the employers followed through on their promises to the workers and to make sure the safety changes were made. He spent the rest of his life doing just that.

During these past weeks, it has pissed me off to no end to listen to Congress belittle and chastise the heads of the big three auto makers. Is there fault on their part for the financial mess they are in? The obvious answer is "yes" but to what degree?

Why isn't Congress bringing the UAW executives to the hill? Why are they not tearing them up and spitting them out like they did to the big three CEO's? There is enough blame to go around and in my mind the bulk of it belongs at the feet of the UAW. These men should be forced to resign their positions and the government should put a Union Czar in place just like the Car Czar who will oversee the big three.

Do I still believe that Unions are a good thing for the American work force? My answer is "yes"? I still believe in protection for the workers, and now with the government stepping in I believe it is more important. I can only hope that those at the helm of the UAW will go back to their roots and help lead the car companies out of this mess instead of creating more. This is no longer about them (UAW), it is about the survival of the American auto industry.

As I said at the beginning of this post, my grandfather is turning in his grave as to what has become a once highly respected part of the auto industry.

Sunday, December 07, 2008

Pearl Harbor Day


Say a prayer for those who were lost on that fateful day.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Opie Never Grew Up


Ron Howard went on CSPAN and said this about his new film:

"Well, it’s a great drama. It doesn’t have a political axe to grind, and yet you know, it speaks to democracy, the media, the way it all works in the modern era. The only thing that’s kind of quaint about the story at all is the fact that, you know, uh, that the Nixon crimes pale by comparison, with uh, with uh, um, um, [picks up pen] you know, what we’ve been reading about and hearing about in the last few years. Uh, and yet, it also reminds us that abuse of power at any level cannot be accepted, and, so if there’s a political point to be made, you know, I’d say it’s nonpartisan, but that’s the point."
Opie, STFU, will ya? Bush can waterboard all he wants, and listen in on international phone calls, and he's broken no laws. You bumbled and stumbled through trying to say that he has committed crimes, yet you couldn't even bring yourself to say it directly when asked. That's because you know it's not true, you freaking moron.

Why don't you just make films and go smoke dope somewhere. Assclown.

BizJets and Bailouts

Many of you saw Rep. Brad Sherman ask the CEO's of the Big Three if they would sell their jets and fly home commercially. No takers.

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/media/play/wmv/6821/24169

I really would have liked one of the CEO's to have stood and said, "Rep Sherman, I'll make you a deal. If you'll give up using the government's fleet of private jets and fly commercial as you travel around the world on the taxpayer's dime, I'll give mine up, too. Except, you know, my jet is leased. Have you ever tried to break a car lease? Well, Gulfstream frowns upon my company breaking its lease on the jet, too. We don't own it -- we lease it."

None of these guys has the balls to say it. Too bad...I might even support giving them the money if they'd said it.

It's seems incredible that not one of the marketing folks at an automaker said, "What a great marketing opportunity. Let's put our CEO in the last row of coach on United or Delta, have him roll up his sleeves, and let's get a picture of him on the way to Washington." Would have won a Pulitzer.

As it is, screw em. Chapter 11 is designed for the problems GM, Ford, and Chrysler have.