Carpool Conversations -- #Podcast Episode II

Episode II: Attack of the Jobs Report. Well we had some fun with this one. We talk about the unemployment rate, Enron, corruption and wrap it up with a review of the Amazing Spider-Man 2. Enjoy! Download here

Update: Apologies for error on embed. You should be working now.

Here is the link I spoke about referencing the 60 Minutes piece on Medicare/Medicaid blowing 65 billion a year.

The EPA, soon to be Enforcing the Global Warming Initiatives, Are Clean and Pure as the Wind Driven Snow Are Just another Corrupt Federal Agency

You know, the usual tripe:

"This is truly a broken agency," committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said, adding that the employee problems have gotten to the point of being "intolerable."  

The committee revealed several startling allegations and cases shared by the inspector general's office. In one case, an employee was getting paid for one or two years after moving to a retirement home, where the employee allegedly did not work. When an investigation began, the worker was simply placed on sick leave.  

In another case, an employee with multiple-sclerosis was allowed to work at home for the last 20 years. However, for the past five years, she allegedly produced no work -- though she was paid roughly $600,000. She retired after an investigation.  

In yet another case, an employee was accused of viewing pornography for two-to-six hours a day since 2010. An IG probe found the worker had 7,000 pornographic files on his EPA computer. 

And so on. These people have power over our lives. They institute regulations that might as well be laws. These regulations don't go through congress because they have better things to do like personal attacks on private citizens:

“While the Koch brothers admit to not being experts on the matter, these billionaire oil tycoons are certainly experts at contributing to climate change. That’s what they do very well. They are one of the main causes of this. Not a cause, one of the main causes.” -- Harry Reid on the Senate Floor May 7th, 2014.

Actually, the report lists Koch Industries at 24 million metric tons of greenhouse gas (CO2 equivalent emissions), which puts the company at 27th on the list, responsible for 0.36 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Exxon Mobil landed in 14th place, with 39 million tons, Dow Chemical was 44th with 15 million tons and GE was not on the list. Combined, those companies actually had more than double the emissions of Koch Industries.

 Meh, who gives a shit about facts, honesty, decency, or any of that crap. We got a country to fleece. I mean run. Whatevs.

Remember how Massachusetts was the Template for Obamacare? Well Let's Hope So

... as they are pulling the plug. Well kind of. But some destruction is better than none at this point:

The Patrick administration will hire yet another outside company to try to salvage the state’s disastrous Obamacare website as it tries to avoid the embarrassment of a federal takeover. 

Virginia-based hCentive — which has worked on the Colorado and Kentucky Obamacare exchanges — will develop software to fix the Bay State’s site by open enrollment in November, the Massachusetts Health Connector announced. …

Ok, it's just the website. But there is something symbolic about this. How long before the feds finally pull the plug? After Scott Walker wins the presidency with a republican majority and they tear the shit out of it?

One can hope.

Blind Squirrel finds a Nut

So the Daily Beast admits that maybe probably kind of sorta being against big government isn't really racist. I mean, of course republicans are racists (that goes without saying but we'll say it ad nauseum anyway) but this particular opinion of big government may not be totally completely one hundred percent racist per se.

First we make sure you know that that Republican's have always been associated with racism and always will be:

There’s no question that some of the past associations are ugly. To the extent that many Republicans, conservatives, and libertarians look back kindly on Barry Goldwater’s 1964 shellacking at the hands of Lyndon Johnson, they have to acknowledge that opportunistic segregationists came along for the ride (as did a young Hillary Clinton, who was hardly a racist). As Glenn Garvin writes: “Nothing was more problematic than the civil rights issue—particularly the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which outlawed most forms of racial discrimination. Goldwater was no racist; early in his career as a Phoenix city council member, he aggressively supported local civil rights ordinances…Goldwater was privately appalled to discover that his opposition to the Civil Rights Act rallied to his side not only libertarians but racists who detested and feared not state power but black people. He was horrified when Alabama’s racist Gov. George Wallace offered to switch parties and run as his vice president.”

So now that we got that out of the way, there may be some issues that aren't... entirely.... race based: (emphasis mine)

The fixations of small “l” libertarians include ending the drug war, mandatory minimum sentence and other prison reforms, and pushing a maximalist version of school choice, all of which would directly benefit minorities more than non-minorities. Libertarian public-interest law firms such as the Institute for Justice spend much of their time fighting occupational licensing laws that disproportionately stymie inner-city entrepreneurs who have little to no political or economic capital. IJ’s first case, dating back to 1991, attacked Washington, D.C.’s absurd laws against African hair-braiding without expensive and irrelevant cosmetology licenses. 

Similarly, there’s no way to confuse libertarian obsessions with Fourth Amendment rights, ending stop-and-frisk policies, and reversing “the rise of warrior cops” with anything related to white supremacy. The same goes for the libertarian insistence against an interventionist foreign policy, whether through boots on the ground or via drone strikes and bombing runs. As with any group, there are differences, but libertarians have long been in the forefront of pushing for legalized abortion and gay marriage. (Reason magazine, like the Libertarian Party, was calling for the legalization of same-sex marriage in the early 1970s, when the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders still considered homosexuality a form of mental illness that should be “cured.”)

So apparently it not just non-racist to push for less government, but may actually be beneficial to minorities? Well yeah, because it's beneficial to all people regardless of color. This is crux of what conservatives and many libertarians believe: that people will benefit the most without an encroaching, overreaching government taking away their choices.

Of course the article talks mostly about libertarians. Conservatives are still filthy racists in their mind but this article is far more coherent than most of what you normally get out of the Daily Beast.

Carpool Conversations -- Our New #Podcast

That's right, we've made a podcast. Han and I regularly take a carpool together to work and we frequently have conversations. My daughter wanted me to call it "We're awesome and you should listen to us" but we decided on "Car Pool Conversations."

Since this is a political blog, we naturally decided to spend the first 20 minutes discussing in detail the new Star Wars movie. Then we move on to Obama's poll numbers, bad art, and false courage. It's about 45 minutes in all. You can also download here.

By the way, we are well aware that the audio quality of our voices, given the mics we have to work with and the background noise in the car, isn't the best but we hope the content will overcome that. Plus we are learning better audio techniques so bear with us. Also, there are some f-bombs here and there so NSFW just in case.

Here's the link I said I wouldn't read out: http://conservativeyoda.blogspot.com/2014/01/we-are-most-spoiled-whiny-civilization.html

My Hope-Shred Awakens. Star Wars Episode VII Cast Announced

Here you go, the cast of Star Wars Episode VII.

J.J Abrams (top center right) at the cast read-through of Star Wars Episode VII at Pinewood Studios with (clockwise from right) Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley, Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew, Producer Bryan Burk, Lucasfilm President and Producer Kathleen Kennedy, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Mark Hamill, Andy Serkis, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, Adam Driver and Writer Lawrence Kasdan.

It's hard to stay skeptical these days.

Another Gun Control Nut Runs for Cover from @DLoesch #Gutlesscoward

Dana Loesch took to task another gun control lib (read: liar) who falsely accused her of being paid by NRA, MAGPUL, the Koch brothers, the "gun lobby," Darth Vader, and Satan. She also may have made inferences to Dana's predilection for eating puppies.

Ok, I might be exaggerating on one or two of those. But the point is, Shannon Watts wasn't. Like most liars and bullies, she's a hypocrite with armed guards, she will not actually answer questions or defend her points. This, ladies and gentleman, is the walking, talking, dictionary definition of a gutless coward.

*Corrected Shannon Watts name. Originally published as Wagner. My mistake.