Free At Last!

I was told by my liberal friends that if Obama got elected, the dissidents imprisoned by the Republicans would finally be freed. They were right, although even they expected the dissidents in Gitmo would get out before Squeaky Fromme.

Can John Hinkley be far behind?

What Did I Tell You?

Just like I said, here's the first of them:

Can I call it or what?

What Did I Tell You?

Just like I said, here's the first of them:

Working For A Living

Or trying to anyway. My daughter sent me this pic, which is making the rounds:
I guess it depends on how you define "work". Check the employee parking behind any government building.

I got a short-term gig on the North side of town. One thing I notice driving in to work is that the traffic sure is light.

Working For A Living

Or trying to anyway. My daughter sent me this pic, which is making the rounds:

Sorting Out A Disputed Election

In Pakistan they really know how to do it right. If you don't approve of the winner, you simply knock them off, and try again in the next election. Benazer Bhutto comes to mind right up front, but wait, there's more.

You may have heard of the recent demise of Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistani Taliban, who reputedly ascended to the post after "eliminating" his own brother from the competition. All that work and what do you get? A missile from a Predator drone, right in the middle of a leg massage. At least his legs aren't sore anymore.

The Taliban held a convention to pick a successor. Hakimullah Mehsud was elected. the loser, Wali-ur-Rehman, upset with the outcome, opened fire on Mehsud, killing him. Mehsud's followers fired back, killing Wally. I suspect that more than just the two were among the departed by the end of the "recount", and it appears that now they have to start all over with a new slate of candidates.

While putting "none of the above" on the ballot accomplishes the same thing, you have to admit the Pakistani method is certainly more exciting, plus there's the possibility of TV talking heads to become part of the collateral damage. A win-win-win situation.

Stimulus Money

I could use some of that stimulus money, so here's my suggestion for the next big thing:

Simoleans for Stickers

Under this $1.3 trillion bumper-sticker upgrade bill, everyone will be issued upgrade stickers for now-outdated bumper stickers.
You get a small one that says "NON-" to go in front of your old "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"
You get "DONT" to go in front of "Question Authority"
You get "CONFORMITY" to overlay "Diversity" on your "Celebrate Diversity" sticker.

Of course you could always just swap the Authority with the Diversity and accomplish the same thing, but we all know how hard those stickers are to remove. I will earmark $10 million to develop an earth-friendly bumper sticker remover. I'm told that a mixture of gasoline and nitromethane works well. 10% Ethanol will be added to insure the support of the congressional delegations from Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana.

Maybe I'll just buy both stickers, cut them in half, and reverse the offending words.

$100 million has been earmarked to a think tank to come up with more such good ideas. Send recomme3ndations for funding to be sent to Billlls Idle Think-Tank to flag@whitehouse.gov, with special mention of how patriotic I am for coming up with such a worthy use of the taxpayers money.

Upon receipt of the funding, all my regular readers will be invited to a local watering hole for an evening of high-level dr...thinking, all on me. The unemployed among you will be added to my staff.

Show Trials

The L.A. Times is reporting that Eric Holder, the U.S. answer to Felix Dzerzhinsky, has announced that he is near to appointing a special prosecutor:

U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. is poised to appoint a criminal prosecutor to investigate alleged CIA abuses committed during the interrogation of terrorism suspects, current and former U.S. government officials said.

Apparently using anything beyond the dreaded "comfy chair" on people who feel a religious obligation to kill as many Americans as possible is frowned upon by the current leadership, although publicly beating domestic dissidents and stationing "voter screeners" at polling places is acceptable.

Some cases have not previously been disclosed, including an instance in which a CIA operative brought a gun into an interrogation booth to force a detainee to talk, officials said.

Cultural equivalency takes the position that a bone in the nose is equivalent to, say, walking on the moon. In the detainees culture, if you are being questioned by the local authorities, and one of the interrogators brings a gun into the room, you may safely assume that if the quality of information you have been giving does not improve markedly in the next 30 seconds or so, that you will be leaving the room feet first in about 35 seconds.

Bracing for the worst, a small number of CIA officials have put off plans to retire or leave the agency so that they can maintain their access to classified files and be in a better position to defend against a Justice investigation.

"Once you're out, it gets a lot harder," said a retired CIA official who said he had spoken recently with former colleagues. The inquiry would probably also target private contractors who worked for the CIA during the interrogations.

Going after people who are in a poor position to defend themselves improves the chances of getting a headline-grabbing conviction. How much this will divert attention from the administrations problems with Cap and Tax and Nationalized Health Control remains to be seen.

On that note, it seems the congress critters, home to party with the people, seem to be genuinely surprised to find the natives to be quite restless:
Aide: "Sir, the peasants are revolting!"

Congress Critter, to himself: "You can say that again!"

The congress seems to take it as an affront that anyone should question their judgment. They seem to have forgotten that we didn't elect them for their judgment, we elected them to express ours.
Keep up the pressure. To paraphrase a quote attributed to Adlai Stevenson and Everett Dirksen; When they feel the heat, they (sometimes) see the light.

Job Market

Perusing the job boards, I came across this one, for a skateboarding instructor. The rate offered is $25/hr. Now tell me again why I went to engineering school? I suppose if stuff like this is popping up, the recession must be easing.

Noted in the National Review was that the loss of about 1/4 million jobs actually caused the unemployment rate to go down, to great celebration and hosannas in the white house. Later on in the article, it was revealed that this was accomplished by dropping about 3/4 million folks off the rolls of workers.

In June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the civilian labor force was 154,926,000 people.

In July, 796,000 of those were taken out of their definition of the workforce, and thus their unemployment calculations for this month, because they have stopped looking for work “because they believe no jobs are available for them.” Ten percent of the June workforce would be 15.4 million, 1 percent would be 1.5 million, and so 796,000 is roughly one half of one percent.

In other words, BLS took .5 percent of what you and I would consider unemployed and took them out of their total. And with that, unemployment went down one tenth of one percent.

I suppose that as the first of the baby boomers reach 62, and find themselves out of work and facing grim prospects, they take the much-reduced retirement route to keep the wolves from the door, and thus drop out of the work force. OTOH, the population of the country is inexorably increasing, probably faster than the boomers are receding, so I would expect the overall workforce to get larger, if anything.

On that note, here's a musical interlude, the theme song of the Democratic party for 2008-2012:

Art Appreciation II

My heart goes out to whomever it was that came up with the Obama-Joker image. The L.A. lefties are demanding he step foreword so he can be publicly tried and pilloried for hate crimes against humanity, and the right has taken the image and is turning it into $$$ on various sites as t-shirts, ties, and all the usual stuff.

Making your own poster in 8-1/2 x 11 and getting copies from Kinkos is fast becoming a national pastime, and John Hawkins of Right Wing News suggests that if you do this, make the posters up with multiple different slogans on them, as this causes people to look at all the posters they pass.

Read the posters! Collect the whole set!

Suggestion: Keep your slogan to 3 or 4 words only. They're much easier to read, and more memorable.

"Health Control"

We know it's not about care.

"I am your Banker"

"I am your auto"

"I am your media"

"I am your Fathe..." no wait, that one's taken.

Gun for Sale

Machiavelli observed that while it is wonderful to be both feared and loved, if one had to choose only one, it would be better to be feared. Well, here you are, the baddest potato cannon on the block, and probably for several miles around.
This baby was built to chunk pumpkins, and does so with great enthusiasm. Powered by compressed air, the compressor is a 35 CFM unit driven by a 39 hp Kubota diesel. The 15 cu ft tank fills to 85 psi in just a couple of minutes, and the hand made quick-acting valve snaps open at the push of a button to lob your projectile up to 1/2 mile through the 10 inch dia PVC barrel.

When squash are out of season, 12 lb bowling balls fly the same distance. The barrel shown here was damaged, but the gun includes a 2-piece, heavy duty replacement totaling 26 ft. The components are mounted on a 2-axle car carrier trailer, and all are bolted on, no welding was done on the trailer.

The complete unit weighs 3500 lbs, and the trailer does not have brakes, so be sure to use an appropriate tow vehicle.

Built by the Denver Mad Scientists Club, who, by the way, need a web page person, interest has waned, and storage may soon become an issue. For $1500 this cutting edge technology can be yours.

Complete advert is here. Along with contact info.

Update: New advert addy with better pics, possibly movies as well.

Art Appreciation

Here are two works based on the same theme:
This one is described as "edgy and insightful commentary on the administration".
This one was described as "hateful and racist, lacking only the noose".

I'm sure someone who has studied art appreciation at, say, Harvard, could tell you instantly what it is that differentiates the two.

Dems Turn On Voters

And I don't mean that in a groovy good way:

What you gonna do with P.O.'d people?
What you gonna do with P.O.'d people?
What you gonna do with P.O.'d people?
Early in the Morning.

Call the cops and have 'em busted!
Call the cops and have 'em busted!
Call the cops and have 'em busted!
Early in the morning.

What you gonna do with an arrogant Rep now?
What you gonna do with an arrogant Rep now?
What you gonna do with an arrogant Rep now?
Early in the morning.

Show up at their office and give 'em hell now!
Show up at their meetin' and give 'em hell now!
Show up at the polls and turn the bums out!
Early in the morning.

Feinstein has constituents arrested at her office:
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/ap/52302417.html
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/ap/52302442.html

Yes folks, pay a visit to your congressthing and, rather than listening
to you, get charged with trespass?

Hat tip to the Welshman:
http://thelibertysphere.blogspot.com/2009/08/yes-you-can-make-big-difference.html

And thanks to Jed, whose blog Freedomsight is temporarily out of service, who sent me the note about Feinstein. Blame me for the sea chantey.

Gun Show Report

This weeks gun show was again, modestly attended. Prices are coming down, but the sellers still have inventory for which they overpaid to get rid of. Consensus at our table was that we have gotten past the time of "Oh my god, Obama's going to take our guns, better buy now!" and moved on to the "Oh my god, Obama's going to take our money, better not spend any!"

On a lighter note, Julys postal match from Sailor Curt is now over. Results will be posted eventually. This too seems to have been under-attended, possibly because everyone is hoarding ammo. Anyway, for those of you who play golf, here's the target:
Nice course. The drill is to hit each red "hole" one time. Theoretical best score would be 5. Take as many shots as you need from 21 ft. Note that hits in the "sand" count +1 for 2 strokes each. Hits in the water count +2 for 3 strokes each. Anything else counts 1.

I'm sure you golfers have had days like this: Hole #1 (top left) 2 shots. Hole #2 (top right) 1 shot. Hole #3 (bottom center), 1 shot. Hole #4 (right center) 4 shots, which wouldn't have been so bad if 2 of them hadn't been in the sand, and the 3rd on in the water for a score of 8.

Hole #5 (left center). About here I seem to have come down with a severe case of the DTs or something. I hit the thing only on the 11th shot. Damn good thing there was no sand or water close by.

Resisting the temptation to wave the gun in the air and scream "Rat Shit!", I put up another target and tried again. Did better. How much better we'll see.

Update: Thanks to Sailor Curt generously giving me a 1-stroke handicap, I have a tie for second place. Curtis Lowe has the August match ready. Get your guns, and get shooting.

DeGette To Hide From Voters

Maybe this is the new 21st century and I'm just out of date, but I hadn't heard of it before. Instead of an in-person town hall meeting in a properly sized venue, Congresswoman DeGette (D, CO-1) will be taking calls which will be well-filtered beforehand.

The format for being possibly heard, is to sign up for a kind of conference call in which you get to listen to DeGette and a friendly moderator hold forth on the wonderful job she's been doing, providing you with the Porkulous bill, the Cap and Tax energy bill, Cash for Clunkers, and soon, nationalized health care. And let's not even begin on the wonderful tax hikes on the evil rich. Here's the format:

• Thousands of constituents are called and asked to stay on the line to join a live telephone town hall with U.S. Rep. DeGette.
• For those who submit this form with your phone number, you will receive a call.
• Those who remain on the line will hear U.S. Rep. DeGette and a moderator.
• People who wish to ask questions can press a button on their phone and be connected to a staffer who puts the constituent into a ‘queue’ along with others who have questions.

In addition to your phone number, they ask for your zip code. If you think they might actually let you ask a question, use 80201, which is within her district, otherwise the friendly staffer will likely put you into the queue for don't call us, we'll call you.

In a real live town hall meeting, questions that the politician would normally brush off are sometimes met with widespread murmurs, (grumbles, shouts, etc) of agreement which were not what the pol expected. This lets him know that he's missing out on an issue. The telephone format eliminates this, and the friendly staffers insure that the pol and anybody on the conference call will hear only the party line. This isolates the pol from the dissenters, and the dissenters from each other, encouraging the pol, and stifling dissent.

Of course it also saves the bother of having the police eject noisy voters, or, in some cases, provide the pol with cover during his or her escape. Thanks to Jed for the link.