Cho-cho’s and Bull Crap

During the State of the Union PresBO spouted off about wanting more High Speed Rail lines built into the country. Not sure why, these are fundamentally wrong for the United States except for moving heavy freight, which happens right now on many sets of tracks. How many of those can one turn into a high speed passenger service? None.

This has come up again lately, the Vice-Dunce Biden rode his ole rail line back up to Philly yesterday to hold a presser on the federal government’s desire to pour $53 Billion dollars into more high speed rail lines. Who are they kidding, that kind of money won’t cover the cost overrun on a job of this scale.

Look I don’t care how these guys are selling it; profitable rail service does not work here in the US. Observe the map below: Yeah, that about tells the story. This country is way too big for affordable rail service. Just look at how much money we as taxpayers loose every year on AMTRACK ($5 Billion last year). They lose more than $20 bucks a passenger and on some routes it would be cheaper to run the train with no one on it at all since the conductor/ticket puncher would not be required. And this is not the Acella, word is that monetary loss is much higher on that service. The only reason AMTRACK stays open is the simple fact that it goes to Washington DC.

The sad fact is that the administration is clutching at straws for Job Creation. They aren’t cutting it. This whole idea is as flawed as the idea of renewable energy from the wind or solar. It would be better to burn wood at least you can grow that back and burn some more.

Much like the building of Wind Mills for electric production, most of the steel will come from off shore. Those large props that are used to capture the wind on those windmills come from Germany or Holland. They are not made here. Those large transmission gear assemblies that are used to steer the rotating props to the electric generator, yep made off shore. Even the generator for the most part comes from off shore.

The truth is we don’t have this technology here anymore. It is all imported.

Do you think it will be any different for building a Rail system? I don’t. The Steel Industry long ago fled this country and most of the steel used in rail lines today, even on AMTRAC come from Korea. The Passenger Cars, those fancy ones on the Acella line that hauls Bidens big ass around on come from Germany (Siemens AG). The only part of a massive Rail system that will be U.S. built may be just the locomotive. A GE locomotive would be getting my vote seeing as how they are in bed with the PresBO.

Not until the US congress straps on some Balls and passes a Buy America provision for any project that uses Taxpayer money there will be no Job creation. This should have been a stipulation of the many Stimulus projects. Instead, at the urging of the Administration the congress passed a Union worker provision. Proving once again it is who you sleep with that counts.

Sorry, Green Jobs, FAIL. Renewable energy, FAIL. Public Employee Unions, FAIL. Ownership of GM, FAIL. High Speed rail, FAIL.

This crew has no clue, all those Harvard, Yale and all the Ivy League schooling and they are still lost. Maybe, just maybe they should go out and get a real job to see what it is really like, own and operate a business to see just how jobs are created in this country. Not dreamed of on the black board in the cloistered halls of academia.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Stray Voltage - #3

October Moon

I am packing today a shipment off to the Czech Republic for my next trip over there next week. Something like 300 network patch cables, DVI video lines and serial cables along with video and LAN switches that we need for the prototype installation. We get to hook everything up next week and then in following weeks we will go back and do software installation and testing (debug). I will fly there at least 4 more times before the end of the year.

Of course all that flying has triggered Airline reward levels, I went to Silver on one and I am now Gold level on another. I do try to stay on one more than the other but I do most of the domestic legs on one airline (Delta by the way) and the international flights on the other (US Air). I am hoping for an upgrade but I never hold my breath. The 8+ hour flights in Economy are pure hell.

Vote

I will be out of town for Election Day so I vote today. I have to take a half day off work and motor to the far end of the County I live in, find parking in what is one of the highest crime areas in our County and then walk over to and into the County Courthouse. The voter services counter therein assures me I can cast an absentee ballot.

I am generally against absentee voting or mail in voting but when you have to present yourself in person to an “Election Official” (not a Party Hack) I feel better that my vote will actually be counted and not stolen in some way. Like not checking ID's.

Having once run for elected office, I have waited for the tally of votes that are conducted by people who are involved sometimes not because of their desire to do good things for their community but for Party reasons. The great idea of fair elections in this country is a myth. There are so many ways to steel an election. Mail in Ballots and absentee voting are ripe for corporation as is the registration process. Run for elected office sometime and you will see every pitfall in the process.

NPR

Boy did they step into a large cow pile! Now, to be fair I am one that does listen to a lot of NPR programming. I am a fan of the both Morning Edition and All Things Considered and the Click and Clack show (officially known as Car Talk) and a Home Gardening show that is produced locally on the Philly NPR station (WHYY). Another locally produced show that I like is Fresh Air with Terry Gross. No one interviews better than Terry, no one is prepared for the subject in a segment like Terry and she has a nice voice too. Never seen her nor do I care to.

I do have a problem with NPR.

It leans way left folks, way left. I am not against that because knowing it allows me to filter it out. But, taking our tax money to operate is a different matter. If their programming was so popular it could and should stand on its own in the free marketplace.

By taking public money they have a responsibility to be middle of the road, nether left or right. And this is where the Bullshit hits the fan, the CEO of NPR when she made her public statement on the Firing of Juan Williams stated that journalistic standards had been violated. Well then, why are they not out firing more people? There are plenty of examples of NPR Commentators, Reporters and Analysis violating the most basic of journalistic ethos’s. Just the Facts! But no, they only wanted Juan out because he was on Fox News.

I do hope the threats of defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are not simply rhetoric thrown out in the heat of the moment, the whole idea of Publicly Funded TV and Radio needs to be aired out and debated. At the very least the minimum “journalistic standards” that are a joke right now at NPR and PBS can be established which gives the FCC something real to regulate for a change.

Dumping on the Volt

That would be the Chevrolet Volt. This is the Obama mandated People-Mobile, the “Green” Car. Where do I start! The reviews I have read all pan the car as having very little utility. It is a 2-person vehicle even though there are 4-doors it has only a little more room than the Toyota Prius which is the front runner in the class although more for Lefty-Prestige more than anything. It will cost somewhere around $40,000 bucks which is a small fortune. The Federal Government has a tax credit that you get if you buy one to the tune of $7,000 bucks which reduces the original ownership costs down into the range where it competes with the Nissan Leaf which will debut this year as well.

Originally the Volt was to be an all electric with the onboard gas engine was to be used to re-charge the battery. The projected MPG for the Volt in this configuration was to be 240 miles. Which would have been great.

But, let’s not dance the streets too soon. It seems the gas engine will be linked to the drive wheels and be used not just to charge the battery but also as secondary dirve for the car itself. And the MPG in this configuration? A whopping 37mpg!!

Yeah that’s right, my Daughters 2005 Chevy Malibu gets better mileage than that.

This is a crying shame, all the emphasis on “Green”, going electric and not using evil Gasoline. But what do you expect from a Government Owned and operated corporation. Just remember if you buy one of these things that what you got was built by a corporation and works who think this is “close enough for government work”.

Enemies List

Yeah our President has one. PresBO does not mince words when he complains about people who oppose his proposals for “Change” to our country. They are his enemies, plain and simple. And here recently he has tried to enlist Hispanics into that mindset as well. In comments he made on Univision, which is a Spanish language TV network, PressBO actually told Hispanics to punish their “enemies” and reward their “friends” with their votes on the 2^nd of November.

Funny how he can call fellow Americans “enemies” but not call the Taliban or al Quida.

Rewriting History in Real Time

That is what PresBO has been trying to do and now Nancy Pelosi (Wicked Witch of the West) trying to do. In recent coments Nancy has made she claims that the "ditch" was so deep that they have had to "save and create" so many more jobs to make up for what was lost during the past Administration. Too bad we have proof, the job loss started when she took over running things in the House.

Graph stolen from John Lott's Website (called John Lott's website).

Too bad for us this woman will keep her job in congress. She as much as PresBO are responsible for the huge turn Left this country has taken.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Sausage Making with Nancy – The Devils Kitchen

For gods sake, save your eye sight and don't look directly at her, just a glance is all it will take. Go ahead and puke then scroll down to the below the picture and read my latest rant.
More and more is being made public on the Health Care reform that passed Sunday night, the devil is in the details and those are now leaking out into the sunshine. Not that we can do anything about it now.

But as I posted previously regarding all the wheeling-n-dealing that was going on with getting Democrats to vote on this monstrosity some of those details are coming out as well. Here is a story from the Wall Street Journal written by Kimberley A. Strassel that details some of the "Sausage Making" that was going on between Nancy "Sagging Boobs" Pelosi and the Democrats that wanted to vote NO.

It is an interesting look into what passes for Democracy in Action. And when you factor in the lie that Nancy made by saying "no money changed hands" in buying these votes, you know she was not expecting anyone to explain the process to the masses.

And that is yet another rub in all this, the duplicity of the media in all this. The major media in particular has again failed the public in bringing out the details of the Bill but also the drug deals as well. It was the only part of this that was open and transparent.

The wholesale Sell-Out of the American Dream, brought to you by Nancy and the Democrats.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Summit Summary

I heard parts of the Great Obamacare Rescue Debate on my XM radio. My take is that PresBO and his Democrat Cronies in both the House and Senate are really grasping at straws with this charade of a debate. Some of my thoughts on what was said and by who:

PresBO, he literally became the Blackmailer in Chief (and not because he is HALF Black) but because in his closing he basically told the Republicans that if they did not get on board well then, the Democrat Leadership will go and Pass the Bill any way they could. Using the Reconciliation Club on the Republicans like they were baby seals, it's a good thing most Republicans have hard heads. He really is a bully and his time in Chicago politics really shows.

Harry Reid's comment about "No one was talking about Reconciliation", WOW. And he said that with a straight face too, bald face lying on National TV (ok, it was on CSPAN which is at least on cable).

Joe Biden (sorry I can't bring myself to call him Vice President) and him saying that he hasn't a clue what the American Public is thinking. This is so funny because he must not have bothered to look out his window on September 12^th when around 1 million Americans were hanging out around his house bitching about what He and PresBO and all the democrat cronies are doing. I won't give him the benefit of watching TV because it's probably tuned to NBC anyway and they missed completely so far the entire Tea Party movement and the September the 12^th protest.

The best performance by a Republican was Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) who decomposed the Obamacare using the CBO to do it, really great work.

I do think the biggest hit here does go to PresBO because he gave up the high ground here. He should have acted as a moderator or arbiter between the two parties, but instead he joined the Democrat side thereby diminishing his standing as President. David Bellavia has a great analysis of the summit but mostly about this idea of PresBO selling out the Office of President to pull this off. Go HERE for that story.

The message here is simply, By Any Means Necessary. The PresBO has basically sold his soul and his Presidency for this monstrosity that we can truly call Obamacare. He has bought it hook line and sinker and he wants us, You and Me to swallow.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Who are You Sleeping With?

I got the below chart from Carpe Diem (I love that place) who got it from Art Little. I modified it a tad adding the little circles. As you can see the Democrats are squarely in the pocket of the Union's. No wonder they got that sweetheart deal in the Health Care "Reform" package, they bought and paid for it.

Does anyone wonder who the Party of Special Interests are? My god, this is so obvious its not even funny. And these are donors from before the big Supreme Court decision last week putting the McCain-Feingold act into the ditch.

You can see more over at OpenSecrets.org where they have these great pull down's for you to look over, well worth the visit.

I don't contribute to any party, person or organization. I really think money has spoiled politics as shown by this graph. I heard some years ago that a Senator has to take in $20,000.00 per day, every day from the day of his swearing in until his next election in order to compete for that seat. That kind of money does not come from plain Jane and Jim doe's out here in the public. It comes from:

It should surprise no one Harry Reid's herculean efforts to pass Health Care "Reform" when you see who paid him off. National shame is what this is and there are no easy fixes. Term Limits come to mind but there is no way this current crop of AssHats will buy off on terminating their own importance, and don't even bring up Federal Funding of elections. NO Way.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Beware of the Angry Lame Duck

Defined (from Dictionary.com):

1. an elected official or group of officials, as a legislator, continuing in office during the period between an election defeat and a successor's assumption of office.

2. a president who is completing a term of office and chooses not to run or is ineligible to run for reelection.

3. a person finishing a term of employment after a replacement has been chosen.

4. anything soon to be supplanted by another that is more efficient, economical, etc.

5. a person or thing that is disabled, helpless, ineffective, or inefficient.

An angry Lame Duck is very unpredictable and erratic. You cannot guarantee what they are going to do or what they will be standing for and especially, you have to worry about their motivations while they are voting (in the case of say a Lame Duck of the 1^st type above).

I bring this up now because of the many Democrats (and a few Republicans) who are jumping ship here in 2010. While a good thing to some that Christopher Dodd (D-Tax Dogger/Friend of Angelo) is bowing out and leaving office the heat he feels is his own corrupt morals and greedy ways that have brought him to disgrace.

There will be more. (Anyone want to start a pool on Arlen (R1D2) Specter?)

The worry here is that now these guys have nothing to lose. We as their constituents have no sway over them, no way to get them to tow our line and not either the Party or their own corrupt agenda.

You cannot count on Patriotism alone for these guys to do the right thing and either not vote on a Bill or vote their constituents opinion on the subject. Dodd in particular will most likely go off after his term and work for George Soros and as a result will pad his departure by voting for every far left agenda items that come the Senates way.

A shame for us in that these will be wasted votes. He should be removed now along with all the others that have announced their departure.

It's the only fair thing to do.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Million Dollar Test

I have this theory about government and how politicians work regarding money. They go through the process of "authoring" a Bill, say it's the Stimulus Bill; they have a cover on top with a fancy name (eg. "Save the US Economy from Going down the Crapper Act of 2010") and then the back page where the signatures go. These are the parts that the actual authoring Senator or Congress-critter actually write. Everything in between the front cover and back cover come from one or many (hundreds sometimes) of Special Interest groups. They take turns writing in there what they want in the way of a Tax Credit, or Tax forgiveness, or outright campaign contribution/bribe offset (known as Subsidies in Washington speak). This "Bill" is then taken to the floor and amendments are then attached. These are those pesky parasitic riders on each Bill that have nothing to do with the Bill itself, added by the Senator or Congress-critter that found a new campaign contributor but could not give them their offset in the last Bill, so they gloam on to this Bill with a rider. After a bunch of these votes to look you know democratic and all that, they vote and pass the Bill. It becomes law but no one but the ones that put text into the Bill know what it really means and of course it does not work as the fancy high minded Title might lead you to believe it was supposed to do. All of us out here, the taxpayers get to surrender more of our hard earned money to all of those Special Interest groups that helped write the Bill and the Senators and Congress-critters go saying they voted for this fancy titled, high minded Bill. They look good and we remain in that bent over position, gripping our ankles.

I have this test that I use to tell me if a Bill being contemplated will work or not. I call it the Million Dollar Test. It's pretty simple too. Here is how it works: You have a problem that needs Congressional Action. Will you getting $1 million Dollars make the problem go away? If yes; Can the Bill. If not, call in the Military. There, problem fixed.

Let's try this out on say that famous Stimulus Bill of 2009, you know the one that was passed in record time last year, 9 days after PresBO was sworn in.

Problem: Economy about to tank, we need jobs in all sectors to prop up business and return financial stability to the economy.

The Congressional Bill Title: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Cost: $787 Billion Dollars

Effect: Nil, naught, squat, zilch, zip, or insignificant. Some jobs to non-existent Congressional Districts and even Zip Codes that don't exist. Cost per job created or saved estimated at between $160,000 per job to as high as $246,000 per job (using numbers from Recovery.gov, the Administration's own web site).

Yeah, it's a mess and it is just like throwing away $787 Billion dollars. Might have well simply burned it in a huge bon fire on the 4^th of July. Ok, let's try my little test.

New Bill Title: Plain and Simple Stimulus Act of 2009

Fix: Give every living Man and Woman above the age of 18 years who is NOT in Jail and who is a Legal Resident of the United States a $1million dollar grant. No strings attached except that those monies have to be spent here in the US, no moving it off shore.

Impact: Just think of how many of those pesky failed Home Loans would go away? Guess how many people could pay for College? How many would go out and buy new cars, new homes or spend money on their existing home? Dare I say a lot.

Cost: Somewhere around $200 million dollars give or take. Maybe $250 million or $300 million still it would be way less than $1Billion dollars much less $787 Billion.

Effect: Well, let's just say it would have gone a long way to stimulating the economy and would have prevented a lot of other mayhem as wall. GM and Chrysler would not have had to be taken over by the government, Mortgage backed securities would not have gone in the tank and a lot of people would have been employed in all segments of our society. Tax revenues to the States and Local Governments would have not dropped and they would not need to be bailed out as they do now.

All around not too bad except for the deficit payments on something like this. But, $300 million in the hole is a lot better than $787 Billion in the hole and that is the difference especially when you see who is benefitting from what got passed.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is a monumental failure. The Health Care Bill will be another monumental failure as well as you can buy some really good Health Care and/or Insurance for $1 million bucks.

Plain and Simple. It's just too much for those jackass's in Washington won't go for it because they get nothing out of it.

BT: Jimmy T sends

Ditch Mitch

It's time now to do some accounting regarding the whole Senate Health Care Bill passage and most particularly the role of the Republican Leadership. That would be in the main, Mitch McConnell but also his Whip Senator Jon Kyl. Now, I blame Mitch for allowing this bill to be passed in the Senate not the Democrats only because you know as well as I do that we were going to get something out of the Democrats so it fell to Mitch as the Leader of the Minority party to do all he could to kill this bill.

If he really believed in killing the bill in the first place.

Now I say this in all seriousness simply because of several factor, chief among them is the really lackluster approach he took to lead the rest of the Republicans in fighting this legislation. I understand it was a tall order, him leading a mere 40 members of the party that needs 41 to filibuster a bill into oblivion, but I still hold him responsible. You see, I don't think he was totally into killing the bill, I think he was one of those that wanted to pile onto it, join in the dividing up of the Pork and getting for his vote some good pay back. But that was not to be, I would guess his price was simply too much even for Harry Legs Reid, no push over when it comes to handing out Other People's Money. I think Mitch was afraid of this going public and Him being revealed as yet another RINO.

I also assert that every tool available to him and the 39 other Republicans were not employed and there is even evidence that he suppressed activity that would have delayed the final vote on this bill until after the Christmas break. This was important because the time at home with angry constituents would may have helped in swinging even 1 Democrat over to voting against this bill. That's right, all Mitch had to do was get 1 stinking Dem to vote with the Minority party and this would have been over.

And he couldn't do that. Need I remind folks that while Mitch was serving as the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, a funding arm used to help elect and re-elect Republican candidates he went from 55 Republican Senators to 40. That's right, he helped lead the party into the deep crap we find them shoveling out of right now. Here is a great read on his failing on this matter.

So I say, Ditch Mitch! It's time to put him under the Bus and replace him with someone that will stand up to the Weasel that is Harry Legs Reid. Someone with a real backbone perhaps.

Ditch Mitch!

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Lay Down with Nancy Pelosi, get up without your Spine

Hey NY-23 voters, how do you like them apples? You voted into congress another bald face liar.

During the campaign Bill Owens claimed to be firmly opposed to cutting Medicare Benefits, taxing health care benefits and increasing taxes on the middle class AND that he was against the famous "public option" as an item in the Health Care reform. These positions made him appear more like a 'moderate' liberal (one of them 'Blue Dogs') and close in position to that of his two rivals from the right side of the political spectrum. Details here including some of his campaign material.

He prevailed against the conservative candidate on the strength of these positions. He was quickly sworn in to office by the Princess Nancy herself and promptly changed his position on all the above.

In the span of just 24 hours Congressman Bill Owens solidified his position as a solid Liberal by voting in favor of a bill that contains all the provisions he claimed he was against.

Oh, lying comes so easy to a Liberal.

I hope all of you 'moderates' that live in NY-23 that voted for this scumbag are happy. The good news is that he has to run for re-election next year. Maybe someone will remind you before the next vote what kind of spineless slug this man is before you cast your next vote.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Tale of two Bills

These are competing Health Care Reform Bills, the one on the Left is from the Republicans and the one on the Right is the Nancy Pelosi monstrosity.

The one on the left actually lowers costs to holders of Insurance Plans, will actually reduce the deficit over 10 years and is paid for in a straight forward method, no funding gimmicks or accounting doublespeak.

The one on the right is what you get when you want to buy votes and don't care what it costs to buy those votes.

Only the monstrosity on the right will actually get a vote, the one on the right will be put into the nearest recycling bin. A shame, waste of good trees.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

It’s called a Sacrifice

That is something they do in Baseball: deliberately bat into an easy out of the batter in order to advance a runner closer to home. To surrender something prized or desirable for something else considered having more value.

That is what happened in the NY23 race for Congress. Would it have been nice for the Conservative to have won that over the Democrat? Sure! But the real message was not to the Democrats, the DNC or to PresBO, it was to the RNC.

That message, the RINO is dead. Bring us no more candidates, either an incumbent or someone new that even slightly smells like a Democrat, just bring us a democrat and throw you money into a fire.

I applaud this as a victory for the Conservative base of the Republican Party; I only hope that the RNC receives the message loud and clear. No more Arlen Specters, no more Dede Sofa's and no more Lindsey Grahams. It is time to throw out the ones that roll-over and play the bi-partisanship game with the Lefty Agenda. It is time to stand up for the Constitution and Liberty.

We have to wait and see what the RNC does next.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Power to the People

Where do they get their power? Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are jamming a program down the public's throat based on the idea that it is what the public wants. This despite the numerous polls that indicate there is little support for their collective reform efforts. In fact, there is an indication that some of the uninsured don't want it either, and they were the main push to get health care reform done, to cover the uninsured.

But the bigger question remains, where do they get their power to cobble together a program of such magnitude? Even the biased estimates by the Dem's themselves the impact financially is enormous, all of it a burden on the Taxpayer. Economically speaking this is a program that will capture at the least 1/6^th of the total GDP of this country and that is at its start, once it gets going, say 10 or more years down the road it will be eating much more of the total wealth of the country, it will become like the NHS in Great Brittan. There are so many people working for the NHS that it has become its own political force and you can bet it will do everything to stay alive.

But again, where do the House and Senate get the power for this kind of a program? I am talking Constitutional power? Why is no one asking this question? Why is no one standing up and saying that this kind of program goes way beyond the powers given to either the Executive or Legislative branches of our government? Is this why they originally wanted this passed by the end of July, so no one could challenge the constitutionality, is this why the "new" house rule calls for only 72 hours of debate? Why is no one talking about the enumerated powers of the Constitution and applying those standards to the Bill before the House and Senate?

Hat Tip to my friend at Random Acts of Patriotism for pushing on this issue, he has blogged about it twice in the last month and I think it needs more airing out. He points to a really good posting at The Patriot Post that covers this entire issue.

Read it and start asking the questions about how these elected Politicians have taken for themselves the power over our lives that are deemed to us alone. We need to take it all back.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Princess Pelosi’s Magic Tongue

1990 Pages and at 2.2 million a word the Nancy Pelosi Legacy Bill is out and what a load of crap it is too!

She claims it will not add one dime to the deficit but the largest item in the bill that will generate revenue outside an outright tax hike of unimaginable amount is the $500 Billion dollar cut to Medicare. However it is only a "proposed" cut and would likely be in another Bill. That means revenue for this bill will be mired in another bill wrought with its own political life. So, most likely that $500 Billion will be paid for by advancing this bill the money out of the treasury, or from out of that deep pit known as the Deficit.

Way to go Nancy, nothing like standing before the media and flat out lying to them, to all of us.

And here is another Gift – to the Trial Lawyers to boot!!

Section 2531, entitled "Medical Liability Alternatives," establishes an incentive program for states to adopt and implement alternatives to medical liability litigation.

Now who could be against that? And have not some of us out here been screaming for some tort reform? Well kind of, just answer me why you need an "incentive" program to save money in the first place, only a Democrat sees that as the way to do business. But let us take a look at the fine print in the measure.

….a state is not eligible for the incentive payments if that state establishes limits on attorneys' fees or imposes caps on damages.

There you go, protecting the Trial Lawyers once again and being able to say you are being inclusive with respect to the alternate party.

Oh yeah, this is how you speak out of both sides of your face at the same time.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

PJTV Salutes - Charlie Rangel

I love this!!

The House Pelosi Built

Can you say, Outhouse!!

Nancy Pelosi declared that she was going to "drain the swamp" and show the people how different the Democrats were in legislating the countries business when she assumed the throne of Princess of the House (also known as the Speaker).

Her swamp draining services continue as we speak only she is using a thimble to do the draining.

So far during her term she has allowed John Murtha (D-PA) to retain his chairmanship of the House Armed Services Committee despite the air of corruption that surrounds this man and his attachments to a particular defense lobbying firm. Oh, and his nice little airport project in his home district. You know that bustling aerodrome that handles what 3 flights per day, back and forth to DC? All nicely paved and with a state of the art Control Tower and paid for with earmarks, that one.

So far she is allowing Charlie Rangel (D-NY) to retain his chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee even though he has had trouble remembering all the sources of income, declaring them only as they become public. Word is he is busy writing his transgressions into law so they are no longer illegal. Princess Nancy was able to quash a measure that would have stripped Charlie of his chairmanship by using procedural tool known as "motion to refer" effectively killing the measure coincidentally offered by a Republican. Funny how that works.

She also tried to get the Air Force to buy on their dime, additional Gulfstream Jets to shuttle her back and forth to her home district but was called out on it and that was dropped. Had she been able to, she would have been commuting in state of the art equipment that all of the asshats in Congress soundly berated CEO's for using. What's that, two faced? Yeah, I'd say.

Now someone has done the analysis to determine that the "Peoples" House under her leadership only works 3 hours and 36 minutes a day. That's right; Congressmen and Women report for work on Tuesday at 6:30pm and commence departing on Thursdays by 2:00pm. Wow, and they have spent how many trillions in this short amount of time this year. I can't imagine the financial hole we would be in if they were working a full 40 hour work week!!

These creations get a whopping $174,400 per year and Princess Nancy as the Speaker gets $223,400 per. Only the VP (at $227, 400) and the President ($400,000) gets more than the Princess.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Traffic Mystery

I don't get much traffic here, it being a 'niche' site and all that. I do appreciate the few that check in every day, you are who I write for. I have found it interesting what draws traffic however slight. Last week I posted a little note about Northrop-Grumman complaining to the USAF about their bid strategy regarding the Next Generation Tanker acquisition ("Shot across the Bow"). It was a simple link to a press release about the release by the USAF to their pricing data in the original tanker contract which they won but was successfully challenged in protest by Boeing.

Within 12 hours of that post I had an upturn of traffic from of all places, Boeing. Seems they must run one of them 'crawler' search engines that looks for anything posted with their name on it. The original hit came from Chicago which is where corporate headquarters are located, about 6-hours after the post going active. Then there was a flurry of activity shortly after the business day started here on the east coast and another flurry an hour later when business opened in the Central Time zone (their Defense division is headquartered in St Louis, MO). I also got hits from Northrop-Grumman and from two US Government computers at the House of Representatives. No word from Lockheed who I think I slammed more than either of the other two contractor giants.

In the post I made fun of the Boeing pricing scheme and I couldn't help myself and bashed Lockheed at the same time. I have never done work for Northrop, Grumman or the combined Northrop-Grumman Corporation. I have had in the past a long business relationship with Boeing, having been a sub-contractor on some work we did for NASA (the conversion of their S-3 was done by a Boeing field team with me as the consulting engineer). It was this long association that allowed me to make fun of the way they price bids. I saw it firsthand.

Now Lockheed on the other hand, well let me say this first; I hate them.

Yeah, I know 'hate' is such a hard word. Let me explain. I had the pleasure of working on one of their products for 35 straight years. The S-3 Viking was assembled by Lockheed in their old Burbank facility. Notice I said, assembled. The sad fact is that Lockheed 'built' less of the aircraft than at least two other manufacturers, the LTV Company in Texas and the McDonald-Douglass Corporation (the very part that is now owned by Boeing in St Louis). I don't remember the specific percentages by these outliers, but Lockheed was responsible for only 17% of what becomes the S-3. To those of us that worked on the aircraft and did not get a paycheck from Lockheed, that 17% is that part that sucks about the S-3. Over my many years of working on the S-3, I made no effort to hide my contempt or hatred for Lockheed the Corporation. I have had many friends and close working associates that worked for Lockheed whom I respect and feel are great at what they do, however there is 'sausage' in the Corporation and you and me the taxpayer get that shaft thing from that Corporation. That I can't stand.

This is not to say that the other two majors referenced above do not do the same kind of 'shafting' however, I never witnessed it nor did I find evidence of intentional 'revenue generators' (or price gouging, take your pick) built into their product. I did participate in the bidding process for my work with Boeing but they never padded it into the stratosphere even when they had the customer over that preverbal barrel. And they did have them over it several times and they never went there. Lockheed I dare say, would have without a doubt in my mind picked the bones clean.

I have nothing but respect for Northrop-Grumman, actually only the Grumman. Over the last 85 years they have built the best Carrier based Aircraft the Navy has ever used. Not just the F-14 which everyone is quick to point out, but there is a long list going back to bi-planes used before WWII. Their demise as an airframe manufacturer is nothing more than stunning and I feel the Navy is poorer for them getting out of that business. Yeah, they still make the E-2 and C-2 but that is it.

So, I am not sure why the interest from the Boeing Company in my little niche, but they swarmed for a couple of hours and they have gone on their way. Good for them.

Now, the House of Representatives, well now, if they come back here looking, Please one of you pass on to my Congress Woman (that would be Allyson Schwartz of the 13^th PA district), Vote NO on HR3200 and that Cap and Trade bill too!

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Democrat with a Spine, a Lazy Spine

A couple of weeks ago Her Royal and Most Holy Nancy Pelosi in her weekly speech to her subject's press conference complained about the rhetoric that was flying around The Realm the House. Seems she has detected such vile speech that she was almost in tears before all the people who voted for her er, ah, before the press. You see, she was witness to the same kind of hate speech which led to violence in her regional kingdom er ah, home town of San Francisco back in the 1970's. The things she was witness to back in the '70's were a democrat-on-democrat murder of a gay mayor, the defense of that murder and the resultant impact on the community by that successful defense (know today as the Twinkie Defense). And yes there were gay's rioting in the streets of San Fran, it was such a sight to see. All the gay bath houses and gay adult movie studios were emptied out onto the streets, there were torn tee shirts and the faux fur was flying. Oh the Humanity!!!

She should have been addressing her own minion's caucus. Representative Alan Grayson of Florida's 8^th District (which includes Orlando and most of the Magic Kingdom) stood in the well of the House and proclaimed that the republicans wanted people who got sick to simply die, and quickly at that. He even had charts. It was a good show, lots of vile intent there, the kind of rhetoric that Princess Pelosi was complaining about.

He was bitching like a queen about the lack of a plan for health care by House Republicans. Now I have issues with this, the first is that he is in the majority party, it is that parties job to have the agenda, isn't that 'winning' was all about? Don't they ram that down the throats of Republicans whenever they do show up with ideas of their own? Secondly, let's have a look at this guy's record. He has sponsored exactly 4 bills this year. Not that congressman actually writes the bills themselves, they either get the bill from their special interest or they get staff to write it. Also, only 4 bills is a poor record, some of them guys have sponsored 40 and 50 of them, a couple even in the 60's. So this guy is a slacker in the bill writing department.

Also, he is cosponsor of 211 out of the more than 1000 bills so far introduced this year. Oh and guess what, HR3200, the big health bill that this asshat was hammering Republicans about, No. That's right; this guy is so busy taking money from Union's that he did not even bother to put his name on that monstrosity of a Health Care Reform measure, sponsored by his very dear leader, Princess Pelosi.

When Mr. Grayson was asked to apologize he dug his heels, he calls himself a "Democrat with a spine", saying he would apologize for all the dead and for the "holocaust" that was occurring here in the U.S. because of the health care crisis. Holocaust! I guess he says that because of all the dead lying around everywhere you go these days. The "Crisis" in our health care system that has so completely broken down leaving millions and millions dying, so many we can't get the Soylent Green factories to keep up. Such a shame.

And those Republicans, well they were the ones who smelled 'death panel' in this Reform and I guess Alan Grayson is upset because they were jumping the gun! I mean why do you need a plan to replace something that works for 80% of the population? Why do you need to wreck something that is mostly working and doing a pretty good job? If you want to get Health Care to those few millions that Alan Grayson see's at risk, well come up with a plan for them!

Leave the rest of us alone!

BT: Jimmy T sends.