Obama, Dictating How You Live, & He's WRONG

Again, another case where the Religious Left sacrifice facts, lives and hurt the environment only so that their emotions can be assuaged and they can "feel better."

Mr Obama's recent news conference on Monday, June 29th:

WASHINGTON -- Aiming to keep the focus on climate change legislation, President Barack Obama put a plug in for administration efforts to make lamps and lighting equipment use less energy.

"I know light bulbs may not seem sexy, but this simple action holds enormous promise because 7 percent of all the energy consumed in America is used to light our homes and businesses," the president said, standing alongside Energy Secretary Steven Chu at the White House.

And that means embracing the CFL bulb.

The ugly truth is that CFLs poison the environment by ensuring that the toxic element mercury is released both in your home through potential breakage, and by insertion into our soil and water through refuse sites. The mercury within is poisoning and killing workers assembling these bulbs. There is NO mercury in incandescent bulbs.

DO NOT BUY CFLs. REFUSE to purchase them. Stick to regular bulbs.

Like ethanol, they are a harmful, wasteful Religious Left and ObamaScam.

BZ

Honduras: Everything You Know Is Wrong

Most Americans think there are riots occurring in Honduras, that a military coup was held, that the civilian powers were removed -- and that it was a complete defeat for the country and freedom in South America. Honduran President Zelaya was removed from power by the Honduran military on Sunday and flown to Costa Rica.

People couldn't be more wrong. Hondurans did the right thing for the right reason. The military removed President Manuel Zelaya because:

Roberto Micheletti, named by Congress to serve out the final seven months of Zelaya's term, vowed to ignore foreign pressure. He insisted Zelaya's ouster was legal and accused the former president himself of violating the constitution by sponsoring a referendum that was outlawed by the Supreme Court. Many saw the foiled vote as a step toward eliminating barriers to his re-election, as other Latin American leaders have done in recent years.

Let's do some dot-connecting together, shall we? Zelaya was a resounding friend of Hugo Chavez, who is essentially President-For-Life in Venezuela. Zelaya was building his bond and political strength linking to Chavez and many believe, myself included, that he intended to make himself pseudo-Dictator in the mold of Chavez, patterned after Castro.

Seeing the death of their Constitution and the fall of freedom, Honduras attempted to retake their sovereignty. A military leader was not installed in place; instead it was a civilian politician who is a Honduran Congressional speaker. That bespeaks volumes in itself.

The world, in the meantime, complained bitterly -- as did our Mr Obama. He said, "We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the democratically elected president there." Had it been another country, Mr Obama clearly would have condemned our own American Revolution seeking severance from Britain.

And who is barking directly alongside Mr Obama? Why, that would be Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

Where is the support for revolt which fights for freedom and against dictatorship and oppression?

[This just in: Juan Diego Zelaya, who is general counsel to the mayor of Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, and is an adviser to the National Party, the opposition party to former President Manuel Zelaya -- writes this about the Honduran situation. He calls it a CONSTITUTIONAL coup. Please check out the article.]

BZ

The Way We Get By

Thanks to Wordsmith for his post illuminating this film. Please watch the trailer:



From the movie website:

Beginning as a seemingly idiosyncratic story about troop greeters - a group of senior citizens who gather daily at a small airport to thank American soldiers departing and returning from Iraq, the film quickly turns into a moving, unsettling and compassionate story about aging, loneliness, war and mortality.

When its three subjects aren't at the airport, they wrestle with their own problems: failing health, depression, mounting debt. Joan, a grandmother of eight, has a deep connection to the soldiers she meets. The sanguine Jerry keeps his spirits up even as his personal problems mount. And the veteran Bill, who clearly has trouble taking care of himself, finds himself contemplating his own death. Seeking out the telling detail rather than offering sweeping generalizations, the film carefully builds stories of heartbreak and redemption, reminding us how our culture casts our elders, and too often our soldiers, aside. More important, regardless of your politics, "The Way We Get By" celebrates three unsung heroes who share their love with strangers who need and deserve it.

See the film if you can. Even request a showing. You can purchase the DVD on the website.

I was staggered; simply staggered. This cuts way too close, too very damned close to home in my life right now. But I'll still see it.

BZ

Rally The Troops AGAINST Cap & Trade

Texas Fred has a Saturday post where he calls for every Conservative to flood DC and local political offices with every manner of communications, to insist their Senators do not vote for the upcoming Cap & Trade bill.

My Congressman, Tom McClintock, voted against HR 2454 -- as I would have expected. He's an actual Conservative.

On the other hand, in Fornicalia, my two Senators, Boxer and Feinstein, are the poster children for Leftists and Socialists. I certainly won't be convincing them of anything.

I should like you to read, however, this special order speech presented Friday by Congressman McClintock, who has seen the equivalent of "cap & trade" help to tear my state, Fornicalia, apart. He said:

I had a strange sense of Deja Vu as I watched the self-congratulatory rhetoric on the house floor tonight, and I feel compelled to offer this warning from the Left Coast.

Three years ago, I stood on the floor of the California Senate and watched a similar celebration over a similar bill, AB 32. And I have spent the last three years watching as that law has dangerously deepened California’s recession. It uses a different mechanism than Cap and Trade, but the objective is the same: to force a dramatic reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

Up until that bill took effect, California’s unemployment numbers tracked very closely with the national unemployment rate. But then in January of 2007, California’s unemployment rate began a steady upward divergence from the national jobless figures. Today, California’s unemployment rate is more than two points above the national rate, and at its highest point since 1941.

What is it that happened in January of 2007? AB 32 took effect and began shutting down entire segments of California’s economy. Let me give you one example from my district. The City of Truckee, California was about to sign a long-term power contract to get its electricity from a new, EPA-approved coal-fired electricity plant in Utah. AB 32 and companion legislation caused them to abandon that contract. The replacement power they acquired literally doubled their electricity costs.

So when economists warn that we can expect electricity prices to double under the cap and trade bill, I can tell you from bitter experience that in my district, that’s not a future prediction, that is an historical fact.

Gov. Schwarzenegger assured us that AB 32 would mean an explosion of new, green jobs -- exactly the same promises we’re hearing from cap and trade supporters. In California, exactly the opposite has happened. We have lost so many jobs that the UCSB economic forecast is now using the D-word – Depression – to discuss California’s job market.

M. Speaker, the Cap and Trade bill proposes what amounts to endlessly increasing taxes on any enterprises that produce carbon dioxide or other so-called greenhouse gas emissions. We need to understand what that means. It has profound implications for agriculture, construction, cargo and passenger transportation, energy production, baking and brewing – all of which produce enormous quantities of this innocuous and ubiquitous compound. In fact, every human being produces 2.2 pounds of carbon dioxide every day – just by breathing.

So applying a tax to the economy designed to radically constrict carbon dioxide emissions means radically constricting the economy.

And this brings us to the fine point of it.

When you discuss the folly of the Hoover Administration – how it turned the recession of 1929 into the depression of the 1930’s, the first thing that economists point to is the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act that imposed new taxes on over 20,000 imported products.

Waxman Markey is our generation’s Smoot Hawley. In fact, it’s worse because it imposes new taxes on an infinitely larger number of domestic products on a scale that utterly dwarfs Smoot-Hawley.

Let’s ignore for the moment the fact that the planet’s climate is constantly changing and that long term global warming has been going on since the last ice age. Let’s ignore the fact that within recorded history we know of periods when the earth’s climate has been much warmer than it is today and others when it has been much cooler. Let’s ignore the thousands of climate scientists and meteorologists who have concluded that human-produced greenhouse gases are a negligible factor in global warming or climate change.

Ignore all of that and still we are left with one lousy sense of timing. In the most serious recession since the Great Depression – why would members of this house want to repeat the same mistakes that produced that Great Depression? Watching how California has just wrecked its economy and destroyed its finances, why would they want to do the same thing to our nation?

M. Speaker, this is deadly serious stuff. It transcends ideology and politics. This House has just made the biggest economic mistake since the days of Herbert Hoover.

If this measure becomes law, two things are certain.

First, our planet will continue to warm and cool as it has been doing for billions of years.

Second: Congress will have delivered a staggering blow to our nation’s economy at precisely that moment when that economy was the most vulnerable.

I'm proud to live in Mr McClintock's district. And he's absolutely correct. America stands literally on the precipice of another Great Depression. And America's politicians seem only so ready to push my country directly into that yawning chasm of economic doom.

BZ

The House Passes The LARGEST Tax Ever

America is all adrip with Michael Jackson. Michael this, Michael that.

In the meantime, whilst bloated, idiotic, shallow, unattentive Americans were diverted: a perfect time for Demorats to ACT:

Fourteen hours after introduction, the House just passed the LARGEST tax bill in the HISTORY of the United States.

This is the American Clean Energy And Security Act of 2009, HR 2454 (see my post here), known as "cap and trade" -- where it passed in the House on a 219 to 212 vote, with eight Republicans voting yes and 44 Democrats voting no.

At 3am Friday morning, another 300 pages were sneaked into the bill, literally in the dark of night.

I found the actual 932-page HR 2454 bill on the internet. It is here if you can stomach it.

It is common knowledge that no one in the House who voted for this bill has actually taken the time to read this bill.

The bill's passage "amounts to the largest tax increase in American history under the guise of climate change," declared Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) called it a “massive transfer of wealth” from the United States to foreign countries.

From Politco.com:

Before (House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio) took the floor, Republicans asked the House to observe a moment of silence for Americans who would lose their jobs as a result of the bill. Democrats objected. Pelosi argued later that the bill would mean “jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs.”

Absolutely, stultifyingly idiotic and nonsensical. Check out this video.

Utility rates will absolutely skyrocket at a time when Americans can least afford it. This is an entire reordering of our complete economy.

This bill would mean an unprecedented tax increase on American business, predominantly forcing -- those who could -- many American businesses to transfer themselves to other more friendly nations. Hence the comment by Sensenbrenner.

Those businesses trapped by circumstance would do nothing but pass the costs down, logically so, to the American consumer. The taxpayer. The persons who created the cash in the first place.

Additionally, The Heritage Foundation states the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) grossly underestimated the true costs of "cap and trade":

Last week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released their analysis of the Waxman-Markey climate change bill that had proponents of the bill claiming Americans could save the planet for just $175 per household. That was the figure CBO estimated cap and trade would cost households in 2020 alone.[1]

Both the CBO's analysis and the subsequent legislation are troubled: The analysis grossly underestimates economic costs while the legislation will have virtually no impact on climate.

Overall, there are a number of basic problems with CBO's analysis:
-Their allowance cost numbers do not add up;
-They ignore economic costs such as the decrease in gross domestic product (GDP) as a result of the bill; and
-The analysis is an accounting analysis, not an economic analysis.

Government does not make money. Private businesses makes money. Government confiscates cash via taxes. That's how it works.

Hugh Hewitt writes:

The Pelosi Democrats will try and push through the massive tax hike that is disguised as "cap and trade" today, and the 1200 plus page bill is constantly changing and of course has not been read much less understood by the Democrats voting for it. If this bill or anything remotely like it becomes law, the American economy will be pushed into a deep recession that will make the past six months look like the good old days

Moderates and conservatives are wrong to expect that the Senate will simply kill the bill, though all efforts will have to be switched immediately to the upper chamber if the Pelosi/Waxman/Markey radicals bribe enough Dems with special provisions to pass it today. The so-called Blue Dog Democrats are proving to be worthless as a check on the hard left of their party, and only a huge course correction in November 2010 will keep the country safe from the radicals currently running the Democratic caucus in the House. No one who votes for this bill can claim to be a "moderate Democrat."

The Heritage Foundation makes this analysis of the bill:

An analysis of the Waxman-Markey bill (as reported out of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce) by The Heritage Foundation found that unemployment will increase by nearly 2 million in 2012, the first year of the program, and reach nearly 2.5 million in 2035, the last year of the analysis. Total GDP loss by 2035 would be $9.4 trillion. The national debt would balloon as the economy slowed, saddling a family of four with $114,915 of additional national debt. Families would also suffer, as the bill would slap the equivalent of a $4,609 tax on a family of four by 2035.[1]

This is more than insane. And this is just one aspect of the various bill RAMDOWNS that Obama insists American taxpayers make.

Where will the money come from?

This government operates with the consent of the American Taxpayer.

How long will this consent be willingly proffered -- considering that the American Taxpayer is ignorant, forgetful and naive?

I submit that already some persons are questioning the drinking of their own cups of Kool-Aid.

It's up to the SENATE to stop this crushing bill. But will they?

BZ

A Piece of Michael Jackson

How many people do you think took a piece of Michael Jackson in death?

How many locks of his hair were cut?

How many photographs were taken, aside from official ones, at his home whilst he awaited medical treatment -- by cell phone cameras -- or other digital cameras prior to making any 9-1-1 call?

How many persons took a snippet of the clothing he wore in death?

How many persons took a small item from the room in which he was initially found?

How many medical or emergency responders took photographs of themselves, grinning or serious, in the box medic transporting him to the hospital?

How many doctors or nurses let themselves into his room for covert photos or "souvenirs" following his pronouncement?

How many persons will boast, in the coming days and weeks, that they will have a "piece of Michael Jackson" to sell, rent, loan, lease or retell?

With themselves, of course, being at the center of said point?

Michael Jackson, in life, was worth millions.

Trust me. His worth, in death, will be every bit as valuable. Wait a day. At most. Then check out eBay, YouTube, CraigsList.

And how did he get there?


Locks of hair were taken from Billy the Kid in death. And from Marie Antoinette, and Beethoven, and Charles I. Like items were taken from Bonnie and Clyde and from John Dillinger. It is rumored that multiple locks of hair exist from JFK but only upon his assassination. Check the photographs. History is my professor.



BZ

Farrah Fawcett: 1947 - 2009

One hears that deaths come in 3's.

Ed McMahon just passed away; so now has Farrah Fawcett.

Farrah Fawcett, whom every young boy adored for various reasons in the 70's, passed away today at the age of 62, the victim of cancer.

STOP THE PRESSES.

Drudge & Breitbart report:

MICHAEL JACKSON HAS DIED AT THE AGE OF 50.

TMZ.com writes:

Posted Jun 25th 2009 5:20PM by TMZ Staff
We've just learned Michael Jackson has died. He was 50. Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon at his Holmby Hills home and paramedics were unable to revive him. We're told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back. A source tells us Jackson was dead when paramedics arrived. Once at the hospital, the staff tried to resuscitate him but he was completely unresponsive.

Death apparently does come in 3's.

BZ

THE DEMORATS WANT TO START IT ALL OVER AGAIN:

How can ANYONE possible think there's even the slightest shred of common sense left in the Demorat Party?

[BZ WARNING: Pour your favorite adult beverage, then another two, and be sitting down prior to reading this.]

(Reuters) - Two U.S. Democratic lawmakers want Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to relax recently tightened standards for mortgages on new condominiums, saying they could threaten the viability of some developments and slow the housing-market recovery, the Wall Street Journal said.

And who might those two Demorats be, you ask?

Why, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D, NY) and -- you guessed it -- Barney Frank, who is still Chair of the House Financial Services Committee.

Can things get any more ridiculous or idiotic? This isn't a ploy; they really are this stupid.

Sure -- let's just start the whole financial meltdown of this country and, by extension, the world all over again.

BZ

Ed McMahon Dies At Age 86

And it wasn't pleasant.

You might think that, because he was involved in entertainment, Ed McMahon was possessed of millions.

That would not be true.

He worked hard for every dollar earned. He frequently donated "voiceovers" to many causes. When Johnny Carson died in 2005, thing changed once again.

Despite his many business ventures, McMahon encountered hard times in his last years. He faced foreclosure on his Beverly Hills mansion last year after falling behind in payments on $4.8 million in mortgages. In the end a deal was worked out allowing him to stay in his home, but he was also being sued over other debts.

Could you, will you, consistently work into your 80s?

Perhaps we should all step back and appreciate another passing designee of The Greatest Generation.

Where work didn't stop. No matter where or how the celebrity.

BZ

Cap & Trade: HR 2454

You must always pay attention, these days, to what Washington is doing. This administration, in particular, is attempting to ram down multiple egregious issues simultaneously.

Do not let "cap and trade" pass undisclosed and unnoticed. Please watch this video:



Check out AmericanSolutions.org. This site, assembled by Newt Gingrich and many others, is the one responsible for last year's DRILL NOW push.

I already wrote about "cap and trade" here, way back on November 3rd of 2009. And what of an actual "Climate Czar" -- I wrote about that here.

Sign here to help stop the massive proposed energy tax enabled by Obama's "cap & trade" policy.

This will do nothing but ensure jobs are lost and America fades. At the expense of, naturally, Mr Obama's prime philosophy.

BZ

North Korea: Continuing To Push The Nuclear Envelope

Perhaps you were unaware, but North Korea conducted its second nuclear test by exploding a device just this past May 25th. The first underground test occurred May 2nd.

Because of this and other violations, the UN Security Council issued a resolution which asks for all 192 U.N. member states to inspect vessels on the high seas "if they have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that the cargo" contains banned weapons or material to make them, and if approval is given by the country whose flag the ship sails under.

Yes, you read that correct. The country whose flag is flown on the target ship must be asked for permission to board said ship.

Oh well, that pretty much solves things.

With one caveat: if the country refuses to give approval, it must direct the vessel "to an appropriate and convenient port for the required inspection by the local authorities." However, "the new UN Security Council resolution calls for ports to withhold fuel and supplies from ships thought to be carrying prohibited items, unless those ships allow themselves to be searched."

So now, our guided missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG-56) is following the North Korean cargo ship Kang Nam as it heads towards Myanmar (formerly Burma), the Kang Nam suspected of carrying illegal weapons proscribed by the UN sanction. Mr Obama, I'm certain, counts himself "present" in terms of "monitoring" the situation.

You know the Kang Nam's captain will refuse to allow her to be boarded for any reason at any location. With that in mind, here's the beauty of the UN resolution: it does not authorize use of force to carry out its provisions.

No. I am not kidding.

BZ

My Blog Conventions: Things Are Changing

My blog operates under certain conventions, the likes of which perhaps ought to be revealed now:

1. I do my best to post every day.

2. I likewise enjoy blogs that post every day.

3. I hold out my "The Usual Suspects" list to those whom I read frequently and who post regularly;

4. I don't add to my "The Usual Suspects" list in order to increase readership. I actually possess some ethics. I only add you if I read you, or if I think you have a Voice. Capital V. Blogs that have hundreds of links bore me. Yeah. Like you read all those blogs every day. Yadda yadda yadda.

5. If you post frequently, you ascend; if you post infrequently you descend -- or I delete you.

6. I used to make announcements for every addition or deletion. I don't do that any more. Should I bring these announcements back?

Further:

1. I try to post daily. Occasionally I will make two posts daily. If I leave for a period of time, I make an announcement.

2. My masthead rarely changes. I am an HTML idiot. TF was my first HTML guru; now it is Robert at American & Proud who is my guru. I've figured out a few things; changing my masthead frequently isn't one of them.

3. I like links. I will make a link whenever possible, in order to 'justify" whatever point I'm attempting to make at the time.

4. I very much dislike minimalist obscure posts. Make your point. Make it soon. Don't just provide links to other sites with a word or two. They've done the work. You haven't. If you constantly refer me to another site to make your point, then why am I reading YOU? You are not Instapundit or Powerline.

5. Why do I read most blogs? Easy: to acquire a taste and a sense of who you are. Aggregator blogs are gone from my The Usual Suspects list. I want you to editorialize. That's why Common Cents is gone. Anyone can puke out a bunch of links. And, no matter what you might think, you are most definitely not Drudge.

6. I may like you. I may agree 100% with your philosophy. But if you don't work at your posts, you're gone. Be active.

7. Blogger offers to "monetize" my blog. Bullshit. I'm not "monetizing" anything. I've not made ONE CENT from this blog. I may enjoy politically-related ads on a blog, but I can certainly and easily tell the DIFFERENCE between a blog displaying random ads and one that focuses on Conservative issues.

8. Pay attention to your posts. Pay attention to your spelling. Pay attention to your paragraphs. Pay attention to how your post looks upon publication. If you're on Blogger, before you publish a post you'll need to click back and forth between "COMPOSE" and "PREVIEW" in order to determine if your paragraphs are full.

9. Make it simple. Make it cogent. Make it entertaining.

10. If you make your blog confusing or obdurate, I'm done with you. Life is too short for you, clearly. If you are nothing but an example for TechnoWhizBang, u b gone.

One of my favorite blogs in terms of layout? TexasFred. I wish he'd use more photos and graphics, but that's a minimal observation. His HEADLINES are clear, short, concise. I may occasionally disagree with his points or philosophies. He makes his reference quotes and then gets right to the meat of the matter. You can CLEARLY delineate between his resources and his editorialization. He is brilliant in terms of making and then backing-up his point. I submit that's why he's read so much. You may hate him. You may love him. But his blog is CLEAR, it is SIMPLE, it is OBVIOUS, it is CONCISE, it is plain. He is NUMBER ONE in my TUS blogroll because he pulls no punches and he embraces these two very important points:

He is FIRM and he is CONSISTENT. You can depend upon, at minimum, a new post every day.

One of my favorite blogs in terms of background, depth, breadth, massive content, knowledge, is A Jacksonian. I'll write this up front: YOU don't have the hours in the day to do the investigation that HE does on EVERY post. I've written to him and I'll write to you: the entire federal STATE DEPARTMENT pales in comparison to his insight, training, education and experience. You think I'm kidding? Read his blog.

In terms of other Blog Conventions:

I enjoy posting, at the minimum, one photo per post. I've finally learned how to import photos and then drag and drop them into specific points on a given post. I've learned that the top photo can be clicked-on, and then enlarged. I've learned, through Blogger, that if you want to make ALL of your photos enlargeable, you must pre-load every photo and only THEN add your words, comments, links.

So many bloggers I've embraced over the past few years have left the realm. People start by thinking that blogging is child's play. As you all know, it is not. I cannot tell you how many blogs I've found that I've enjoyed yet -- they published two or three good posts then simply disappeared. To those not involved this seems silly but I realize it to be true: blogging is hard work. Consistent blogging is even more difficult. It can damned near take over your life. But, on the other hand, people enjoy visiting a blog that's current and hasn't let a post sit for a month. I sense the Blogosphere is in a vast upheaval right now. If you have a voice -- and you can keep it -- please let it be heard. We need as many Conservatives in the choir as possible.

My priority in my blogroll: it isn't because I don't necessarily disagree with you. It's because you don't predominatly post, at minimum, a number of times per week.

After all, honestly -- don't you enjoy reading an active blog?

BZ

HR 1207: Ron Paul Is Correct

Proposed bill HR 1207, called the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, would allow an audit of the Federal Reserve. This bill needs more co-sponsors and clear bipartisan support.



This bill would remove the restriction upon the Federal Reserve to reveal fiscal information. Up to this point there is no lawful way to audit or monitor the Federal Reserve.

Rep. Ron Paul originally proposed HR 877 in 1983, a bill that would allow the GAO (General Accounting Office) to audit the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Advisory Council, the Federal Open Market Committee and the federal banks and branches themselves.

With its power and influence, the Federal Reserve must be examined. Couldn't you say or at least infer that the Fed Chair has, in many cases, just as much power or more than anyone sitting in the President's chair?

Let your voice be heard. The US Capital switchboard: 1 (877) 851-6437.

This is simply common sense.

Why the secrecy?

BZ

Father's Day

And I find this one much less than happy. It is my first Father's Day without my father.

This post was very difficult to write. I stopped and started, beginning last night, three times. It's 11 am on Sunday at this point, and I'm starting again. Half the day is almost gone.

My father passed away, at the age of 88, on February 11th of this year. He barely missed his 89th birthday on April 13th. My brothers and I were able to provide a military funeral for him; he served in the United States Army Air Corps during WWII as a pilot; he later served active duty during Vietnam.

On Sunday, March 22nd, I published this post about a letter sent to my father from his, in 1941. My eyes clouded up, as they are now.

It's so true: you never really know and appreciate what you have until it's gone. So many things left unsaid and unknown between me and my father. And of course, now, so terribly late. I still cannot quite express my true feelings and emotions about the loss of my father. I started a post two months ago in an attempt to encapsulate what I've learned after my father's passing. I can't seem to finish it; it sits in a "draft" stage.

We've sold my father's house; it now belongs to other people. When it's said that you can't go back, it's true: you literally cannot go back.

God bless you Dad; I miss you so terribly much. More today than when you passed. Though you never once said you loved me, I knew you did. And I should have said it so much more to you.

This is a tough day, folks. Later, my wife and I will be going to my brother's home for a barbeque. There will be one chair conspicuously absent. A chair we cannot fill.

I must keep telling myself, as I wrote on the day he passed, and said the day of his funeral: "I'll bet my Dad's flying high above the earth right now, in an open cockpit Consolidated Vultee BT-13, canopy slided back, where the skies are blue, the weather fair, and he's young, strong and free. So free."

That first night of the 11th, I had a dream. I awakened with it in my head. Carole King was singing "So Far Away." I remembered that most distinctly.

Last night I had a dream. Many dreams. I seldom remember any of my dreams but I remembered this: my father placed his hand upon my head.

I miss you and love you, Dad. Happy Father's day.

BZ

YOUR Local Agencies: Coming For YOUR Money

My consistent readers know that there's one aspect of me that I don't hide; I'm a peace officer for a major Left Coast agency in Fornicalia. Let's pause right there for a moment. Why do I call my state Fornicalia? Because my state essentially manages to screw over its taxpayers and then disseminate its scat about the rest of the outlying states.

With that in mind, I'll make my point directly up front: beware. All of your local agencies, utilities, governments, are looking to make up their budget deficits on the back of YOU, the local citizen, the local taxpayer.

Trust me, your local police department has had meetings about bringing up the number of citations issued. Your local electric generation utility has had meetings about ways to increase their revenue and increase your bill. Your local recreation or park district has had meetings about increasing fees. All would like to be able to pass blanket levies and taxes. Their blockade is the average taxpayer. Absent ballots where taxpayers actually get to vote, the only venues left are fees and rates.

For example, let's review your local police department.

The area where I work -- and not where I live -- is peppered with red light cameras. These are high-population areas with like high-density traffic. The unincorporated area has a smattering of red light cameras. The outlying and much smaller newly-incorated cities are rife with red light cameras. The justification for red light cameras is nothing more than "safety."

"These cameras will enhance safety!" bleat the local jurisdictions. Well, except for the fact that they haven't. They have, however, done one thing rather icily and stentorily: increase revenue.

Let me break things down to their basics: red light cameras are a scam. Their purpose is to be a money-making scheme for the applying agency and government. They cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase and install. The installing company historically GETS A CUT OF THE REVENUE. So, do you suspect they have an uninfluenced reason to trot their product out to as many police departments as possible?

This is the proverbial WIN/WIN situation for the installing company and the local government. Local revenues increase due to, ostensibly, "unimpeachable" red light camera photos. The contractor gets a percentile of this revenue.

With this dirty little secret: in many jurisdictions -- and you can't PROVE this because no one possesses the prior requisite statistics and timings -- the yellow aspect of many of these camera-monitored intersections has been purposely shortened by one second or more.

Okay: so PROVE that. You can't.

If these agencies really wanted to improve safety at intersections, all they'd have to do is hit the utility boxes at designated intersections and INCREASE the yellow aspect by a second. Or perhaps two. That would cost nothing more than generating a "work ticket" for a local utility work truck and operator.

Red light cameras and "speed cameras" are a scam. They exist solely to generate revenue. This is where the Libertarian in me comes out. And, as I mentioned above, I predicate this post and this opinion upon the fact that I am a cop. Red light cameras disgust me. Speed cameras disgust me. They are an abomination. They gut the ethics that exist in me. The local population associates red light cameras and their concomitant technology with the local cops. They associate the cameras with "cheating" and the local cops, therefore, with "cheating." They cheapen and reduce the perceived authority and authenticity of your local police officers.

They reduce respect for authority in general -- and rightly so. Because these techno pieces of crap completely de-humanize law enforcement. People can contest other people and feel as though they can actually have an opinion and a demand and are invested, at least a bit, in the governmental system. With technology, they are run by robots.

If I weren't a cop, and if I didn't have any ethics within me, I'd completely advocate for the long distance sniping of every red light camera and speed camera in existence. But, of course, I couldn't advocate for that.

What brought, by the way, this post to the foreground of my mind? Why, that would be my most recent ocean vacation in May. I noted that the police presence in this coastal city of roughly 8,000 increased geometically since my last visit -- and that those officers were making vehicle stop after vehicle stop after vehicle stop. I've been consistently visiting this coastal town for the past five years and, never before, have I seen its officers conducting so many vehicle stops. Click on the photo above to see the agency involved.

I should care to point out these were not simply calls for service where you see a unit parked in front of somebody's house and the citizens talking on the lawn. No. These were only vehicle stops. Their originating source was a violation of some perceived vehicle code section. I had one of these officers follow me for a number of blocks during my vacation, but I was aware. I drove like I was taking a DMV test.

That department was doing nothing much more than attempting to increase its governmental revenue through traffic citations.

Here is an elderly woman in the state of Washington whose water bill increased from $30 per month to $1,181. The water authority insists she must pay the bill.

Be forewarned, people. You think the fed poses a great threat?

No. It doesn't stop there. Beware your LOCAL governments. They are scrambling for cash.

Add the "i". Governments don't run -- they ruin.

BZ

BZ FIVE YEAR BLOGGIVERSARY

Bloviating Zeppelin began on June 19th of 2004.

I never thought it would last more than a few months.

I was convinced I'd lose interest.

The first post I sent via e-mail just to my family. They never read it.

I wrote only for myself. I had no idea how to embed links, how to post photographs. I could do nothing but write and click the "PUBLISH POST" button. My thanks to Texas Fred and Robert from American & Proud for bringing my graphics into the 21st century.

Since then, my life has taken any number of turns I could never have forecast, too many to enumerate here.

I've written for me; I've written to document portions of my life so I won't forget; I've written to bloviate, to excoriate, to yell, to educate. I've written when stone cold sober and remarkably inebriated. I've written with tears running down my cheeks. And I've written as the snow fell and stacked up, over six feet, on my deck.

Throughout all this, my greatest thanks go to you, my readers. Thank you for trusting me, for visiting, for taking the time to comment and interact.

With all the hubris, arrogance, violence, hate, discontent, confusion, lack of understanding and, mostly, lack of time, I know that each and every one of you are challenged in your lives.

Yet you still come by.

I stand amazed. And incredibly thankful.

BZ

Iran Update

I'm certain you're aware of the demonstrations occurring in Iran -- demonstrations that have been ongoing for four days now -- following the Iranian presidential elections wherein Admadinnerjacket allegedly won a landslide over fellow candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi (not a particularly pristine candidate himself). From Bloomberg news:

Today’s protest follows a June 15 rally that was the largest anti-government demonstration since the Islamic revolution ousted Iran’s shah in 1979, triggered by opposition accusations of vote-rigging to re-elect President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Several people were reported killed. Tehran’s bazaar merchants, a group that backed the 1979 revolution, may strike to protest the election, the BBC said.

The estimate of civilians killed range from one to 8 to 12 to 20.

A man named "Sam" on Z's blog (geeeeeeZ!) wrote in her comments of this post:

Hi zin; Many thanks to Pris and you and all the BRAVE Americans who support our uprising, Just now, there is a Bloody FIGHT between the youth and the regimes thugs in VANAK SQUARE at the north of Tehran, TODAY, again 8 deaths till this hour, Please go to this site below http://www.ncr-iran.org/ Prey for our young people; THANKS, SAM

Sam recommends this website for an update (Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran; quite well done, actually) and then subsequently makes this additional comment:

Hi zin; Please don' persist where am I; Moussavi has participated on the Genocide of the 30,000 prisoners 21 years ago when he was the prime minister, There is no difference between those 4 candidates, all of them were approved by Khameneii, the people have profited from their internal struggle to up rise. We are against all of them, Moussavi asked the people to enter to their house, he wants to save the Mullahs regime. For the Rifles, yes Zin we have seen their MADE IN AUSTRIA. Zin, in BABOL, a northern city, a green dressed commando was arrested by the students, HE COULDN'T SPEAK PERSIAN!!! Venezuelan I guess. Zin, if we were not Disarmed by the US FORCES on 2003, we could overthrow the MILLAHS in two days, without having the thousands of victims, Zin, do you remmember 2 years ago, when I said on FPM that there is a plot against your forces in IRAQ, and against GWB?!! I can not write more now, I'll tell you why all the US ADMINISTRATIONS WERE SUPPORTING the Mullahs from 30 years ago till now, GWB didn't wanted to continue this dirty politics, that's why he was smashed. he was the only one who resisted, but, even GWB did a huge mistake by keeping our resistance on his terror list, And OBM was born from that mistake.The History never forgives the monumental mistakes. SAM

Might this actually be the fomentation of real revolution in Iran? Can the regime be toppled?

BZ

Beards & Turbans in the United States Army

You knew it had to come, sooner or later.

The Sikh community is challenging the US Army's policy that beards and turbans, amongst other items and practices, cannot be worn, an article from LawOfficer.com says:

The Sikh community is hopeful it will win the policy appeal; in an April 29 letter to the Sikh Coalition, the director of the Army's Human Resources Policy Directorate said senior leadership was aware of the issue and was gathering information to make a decision. Toni Delancey, a spokeswoman for Army personnel, said the appeals are under review.

Our army is not the Sikh army, nor any other. American soldiers have their own tradition of shaved hair in training and "high and tight" in service. This doesn't just affect the seemingly paltry external and visible elements mentioned, it ultimately affects discipline, pride, identity, efficiency, the ability to carry out the mission of our military forces -- not "just" a politically correct application of outward appearance issues.

Additionally, please understand that there are two issues at work here. One involves the simple disagreement with current military standards regarding facial hair and headwear on males.

The second issue involves the forced relaxation or outright change of standards in general in our culture, to be sacrificed on the altar of alleged diversity and solely for the sake of diversity.

Let's stop there just for a moment. I would refer you to the Culturism blog of John Kenneth Press, an adjunct professor and doctoral student at NYU. He has an entire book and numerous websites regarding culturism, which he defines and references as this:

Culturism holds that majority cultures have a right to protect, promote and guide themselves. All non-western cultures are culturist. We have a right to be culturist as well.

We are losing the rhetorical debate. Injecting culturism and culturist into our vocabulary will help protect the West.

This is how culturism counters the words multiculturalism, racism, and individualism:

Multiculturalists say the West is just a random assemblage of different cultures from around the world. Culturism recognizes that western nations have unique traditional core cultures to protect, guide and promote. Multiculturalists ask us to "celebrate diversity." Culturists don't think they take cultural diversity seriously enough. At heart multiculturalists think all cultures are interchangeable and only refer to food, festivals and fashion. Culturism, the book, looks at the Aztecs and headhunters to show how diverse cultures can be. But 9/11 should have put the West on notice that not all cultures believe in democracy, individualism, the value of individual lives, the Protestant work ethic, female rights, gay rights, the relative separation of church and state or other parts of western culture. Unlike multiculturalists, culturists think the West has a core culture, think it requires protection, and take cultural diversity very seriously.

Charges of racism are used to silence all of those who would talk about the negative parts of cultural diversity. Worrying about racism makes some sense. But immigration concerns are not about race, they are about culture. Racism is stupid and dangerous. But if diversity is real, culturism is necessary.

Individualism is the third word. Culturism seeks to promote individualism realistically. If the West does not survive, individualism and individual rights will be discontinued. Individual rights being used to protect anti-social behavior can go to destructive extremes. Individual rights are now used to defile our airwaves, claim asylum and avoid culturist profiling. Being a citizen means sometimes considering what is best for the society you purport to love.

Culturism's definition holds that majority cultures have a right to guide, protect and promote themselves. Multiculturalism has told us that the West has no majority culture to guide, protect and promote. They have also told us to stick up for it is racist. Furthermore, they seek to undermine the West iin the name of indivudal rights. To survive, the West must must be as culturist as other nations.

Protect the West, fight abuse of the word racism, stop multiculturalism, and safeguard individualism.

Don't be fooled; this challenge by Sikhs isn't simply about some hair and a hat. And do what I call the "logical extension" as well.

If approved and overturned, the acceptance of beards and turbans will negatively affect other standards, trickle down to every other government agency and assure only to embolden Islamists -- or anyone else seeking to enforce their culture on ours.

That oft-used and famous Teddy Roosevelt quote comes now to mind:

"In the first place we should insist that the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equity with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming an American and nothing but an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any flag of a nation to which we are hostile. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language. . .and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

Teddy Roosevelt was correct in 1907 and is correct in 2009.

BZ

ObamaKare: It's NOT About Choice

Please watch the video; as opposed to what Mr Obama says, it's NOT about your having a "choice," it's about your being forced to enter government-controlled and rationed healthcare.



Further, have you heard or read of the "Cloward-Piven Strategy"?

In summary, from American Thinker, it is this:

The Cloward/Piven Strategy is named after Columbia University sociologists Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. Their goal is to overthrow capitalism by overwhelming the government bureaucracy with entitlement demands. The created crisis provides the impetus to bring about radical political change.

We already know that Mr Obama patterns his political ideology after Saul Alinsky and his book "Rules For Radicals."

We already know that Mr Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, has said that "you never want a serious crisis to go to waste."

Continuing, from American Thinker:

Making an already weak economy even worse is the intent of the Cloward/Piven Strategy. It is imperative that we view the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan's spending on items like food stamps, jobless benefits, and health care through this end goal. This strategy explains why the Democrat plan to "stimulate" the economy involves massive deficit spending projects. It includes billions for ACORN and its subgroups such as SHOP and the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Expanding the S-Chip Program through deficit spending in a supposed effort to "save the children" only makes a faltering economy worse.

Oh America, you have little if any idea what you've even remotely done by electing Mr Obama and the concomitant placement of his minions.

BZ

Palin Denies Breast Implants Rumor

From NewsMax.com:

Sarah Palin shot down rumors Friday night that she had undergone an operation to receive breast implants.

“Breast implants – did you have them or not, because that's all over the Internet about you, and the mainstream media," Greta Van Susteren asked Palin on her Fox News "On the Record" show.

"Boobgate is all over the Internet right now because there's a lot of, I guess, bored, idle bloggers and reporters with nothing else to talk about," Palin replied. "No, I have not had implants. I can't believe that we're even talking about this.

Further:

No, I have not had implants," she said in an interview with FOX News host Greta Van Susteren, who asked the former governor of Alaska point-blank about speculation she's had breast implants.

"A report like that is about as real and truthful as reports that [my husband] Todd and I are divorcing or that I bought a place in the Hamptons or that [my son] Trigg is not my own child."

I believe it.

She is literally her own woman. Good or bad, she has made her own decisions.

It was her decision to step away from the remainder of Alaska's Governorship.

She took heat from me and thousands of blogs for that.

You know what?

She still has stature.

And she STILL frightens the crap out of Leftists.

I ask: WHY is that?

Moreover, why isn't Joe Biden asked about his hair plugs? Why arent' the bulk of House and Senate males asked about their own hair plugs, their own dye jobs, the thousands of dollars spent -- like Clinton and Edwards -- on their own narcissistic Metro "perceptions"?

In this case I submit: sexism.

BZ

P.S.

Anyone beside me notice she's only carrying a pellet rifle?

Nine Trillion Dollars Lost, And Your Government Doesn't Care

Usually I try to be a tad escapist on Sunday posts; I was all set to get a bit maudlin and reflective since I've spent the entire weekend rearranging my cabin, which looks like a tornado ripped through, to accommodate the furniture and other family articles from my father's house. I'll write about that next week, perhaps.

In the meantime, having gone to Wordsmith's and read his Friday post, I decided I absolutely must replicate the video here with some additional comments and notations. And I may leave this post up for an extra day or two, so as many readers as possible understand:

Your federal government cannot account for $9 trillion of your taxpayer dollars, and it apparently couldn't care less.

First, watch the video:



Then, from the article:

The Federal Reserve apparently can't account for $9 trillion in off-balance sheet transactions.

When Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Orlando) asked Inspector General Elizabeth Coleman of the Federal Reserve some very basic questions about where the trillions of dollars that have come from the Fed's expanded balance sheet, the IG didn't know.

Worse, nobody at the Fed seems to have any idea what the losses on its $2 trillion portfolio really are.

After viewing the video, do you possess any inclination to think that the IG for the Federal Reserve seems to much care, or is much motivated?

How about this for a motivation: I'd recommend a nice, cold, miniscule JAIL CELL for this incompetent.

And I have another series of recommendations:

It is far PAST time to track white collar crime and then chip up the penalties to persons responsible for public and private losses.

You may not know it, but all law enforcement agencies are mandated by federal law to track and classify crimes so that the FBI can complile and disseminate crime trends and statistics for the nation. Sadly, white collar crimes are NOT a mandated federal tracking point. They NEED to be.

Further, there absolutely must be stratospherically-higher penalties for white collar crimes.

I recommend that prison sentences up to and including LWOP (life without parole) and DEATH be federally instituted and based upon the dollar amount of losses suffered by injured parties and/or victims, on a predetermined sliding scale.

For example, Kenneth Lay of Enron should have had his penalty be death, for the staggering monetary losses he forced uninvolved parties to suffer in their retirement funds and otherwise. At MINIMUM his penalty should have been LWOP in Leavenworth or the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility (ADX) -- otherwise known as Colorado's Supermax. No "Club Fed." Mostly like any given federal prison more aligned with a possible "Club Ass-ream" under the tab of "be my white bitch." Michael Milken, junk bond king, should have suffered the same fate.

These penalties would also, of course, attach not just to private firms and persons but government appointees and administrators as well.

Like, say, the completely clueless, incompetent, uncaring, uninterested, unmotivated "Inspector General" Elizabeth Coleman of the Federal Reserve.

How can you not know or not care where or how $9 TRILLION taxpayers dollars are and disappeared? This is, clearly, negligence beyond negligence.

BZ

Reading Miranda Rights To Terrorists?

I'm a little late on the issue, I believe, but when I heard it today my first thoughts were: "no, this simply cannot be true."

But it has not been refuted by the Obama Administration.

What's the issue? From FoxNews.com:

A senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee is accusing the Obama administration of quietly ordering the FBI to start reading Miranda rights to suspected terrorists at U.S. military detention facilities in Afghanistan.

You must be kidding, yes?

The Miranda Decision, based upon Escobedo, pertains only to American citizens and but upon American shores. This is a civilian and not a military application.

Any US law enforcement officer knows the three-pronged test for Miranda application:

1. Custodial

2. Interrogation

3. By a peace officer

The next paragraph settles on the back of Captain Obvious:

The move is reportedly creating chaos in the field among the CIA, FBI and military personnel, according to Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. The soldiers, especially, he says, are frustrated that giving high value detainees Miranda rights -- the right to remain silent, the right to an attorney -- is impeding their ability to pursue intelligence on the battlefield, according to a story first reported by the Weekly Standard.

I'm sorry, folks, but this is sheer insanity.

You are not just asking but demanding that this country be subject to attack.

BZ

Heroes

BZ

Rev. Wright: "Them Jews"

Again, I suspect you're not hearing or reading much of this in the DEM/MSM; no surprise there, as the DEM/MSM did their level best to discredit anyone who brought up, during the presidential campaign, Mr Obama's association with the terrorist William Ayers and his terrorist wife Bernardine Dohrn, as well as black racist and former spiritual mentor to Mr Obama, the man who married the Obamas, Reverend Jeremiah Wright of the Trinity United Church of Christ.

Rev. Wright said this week (who calls our country "the United States of white America") at the 95th annual Hampton University Ministers' Conference, to David Squires of the Daily-Press of Newport News, Virginia -- when asked if he's spoken recently to Mr Obama:

. . . them Jews ain't going to let him talk to me. I told my baby daughter that he'll talk to me in five years when he's a lame duck, or in eight years when he's out of office."

Anyone ask the next obvious question: "And who might 'them Jews' be?" Rahm Emanual perhaps? He's the Big Jew on the Obama staff.

No. Of course not. No journalist has anything even remotely resembling an inquisitive or accusative mind when it comes to Mr Obama or any topic possibly associated with Mr Obama. Of what did the DEM/MSM always accuse former President Bush? Oh, yes, that's right: lack of any intellectual curiosity. RH: Rampant Hypocrisy, DEM/MSM.

Also from the article I noted:

Rev. Wright also said that “the Jewish vote, the A-I-P-A-C vote, that’s controlling him, that would not let him send representation to the Darfur Review Conference, that’s talking this craziness on this trip, cause they’re Zionists, they would not let him talk to someone who calls a spade what it is."

Isn't it odd how that focus simply isn't turned inwards now, towards our current President and his associates? By our current media?

Please allow me to bring some further obvious DEM/MSM hypocrisy to light regarding current national events.

You heard and read of the recent horrible killing of US Holocaust Museum guard Stephen Johns by the elderly 88-year-old POS whose name I won't write here. Isn't it amazing, though, how immediately the DEM/MSM made the alleged link between that solitary asswipe and the murderer of abortionist George Tiller, 51-year-old Scott Roeder?

It's all about Right Wing radio, Right Wing blogs, Right Wing media. Blah blah blah.

How much time, column-inches, posts, airage, was provided to cover and reveal the black MUSLIM degenerate who PURPOSELY made friends with his US Army recruiter station victims and then came back to KILL THEM?

A Muslim who purposely made friends so he could kill them. A Muslim who could purposely be making friends with you. So he can kill you. And then more.

No. Minimized completely.

The Tiller killing, the Holocaust killing -- they fit the DEM/MSM narrative.

It confirms their worldview -- the country is seething with Right Wing fully-automatic machine-gun-carrying nutjobs whose only purpose is to receive subspace signals sent from Dick Cheney's Secret Bunker. The DEM/MSM is incredibly protective of anything even remotely denigrative to Mr Obama and has no problem with burying stories that do not confirm to their Leftist agendas and philosophies.

Killer Islamists and Jihadis in America?

Nah!

Rest easy, America. Your media will keep you truthfully informed.

BZ

The American Automobile Industry: Detroitasaurus Wrecks

. . . is in a shambles.

In my opinion, if everyone had simply stepped back and allowed every auto industry shoe to drop, the collapse of GM and Chrysler would have occurred earlier, would not have drained American coffers needlessly to the tune of, literally, billions and billions of dollars squandered -- dollars that American taxpayers will never see again.

1. CHRYSLER:

Over-riding a glitch by SCOTUS, Chrysler and Italian automaker Fiat have now made good on their proposed merger, ramrodded by the U.S. government, one day after the Supreme Court then cleared the path for the deal.

The new company will be formally called Chrysler Group LLC, after Chrysler/Cerberus Capital Management sold nearly all of its assets to the new firm.

If you're not aware, the Chrysler crash equals the first American car company to go bankrupt since Studebaker in 1933.

And who "owns" (and I proffer that word quite loosely) what? And does Fiat CEO -- and now named Chrysler CEO -- Sergio Marchionne really think he'll be in complete command of Chrysler?

Check this out:

-Chrysler Group is 55% owned by the United Auto Workers union.

-The U.S. government holds an 8% stake.

-Canada owns a 2% share.

Fiat will not be allowed to take a majority stake until the new Chrysler pays back the $22.1 billion lent to it from the Treasury Department, including Wednesday's $6.6 billion wire transfer.

Do what I call the "logical extension":

The REAL Big Dog in Chrysler, then, is Ron Gettelfinger of the UAW. One question: what the FUCK does Ron Gettelfinger think he knows about running a massive company like Chrysler?

He is clearly no Robert Nardelli or, moreover, no Lee Iacocca.

In the meantime, Chrysler is dropping 739 dealer locations. My. That should certainly make it easier to find and purchase a Chrysler vehicle, eh? No biases here, real or imagined. And dealerships, who allegedly "contributed to Republicans," might have been forced to close first? Perish the thought! Simply specious allegations!

Fiat will bring such J.D. Power losers as the Fiat 500 to America.

And, uh, oddly enough, the newest J.D. Power survey lists Fiat as dead last in satisfaction in the United Kingdom. And they know small cars, eh? Fiats actually rate even lower than, say, Chrysler products in the UK.

Are you beginning to sense the slightest amount of irony here -- ?

2. GENERAL MOTORS:

The new CEO of GM, Edward Whitacre, admits "knowing nothing about" the car industry.

Good for him. A smidgen of honesty prevails.

On the other hand, as Hugh Hewitt points out, the Socialism of GM disadvantages Ford who -- of course -- doesn't have the American Government behind it.

Billions spent; billons lost and pissed away. Government Motors.

3. FORD:

Ford hasn't taken one government dime. I purchased a new 1997 Ford pickup which had, essentially, every electrical problem imagineable. Its 4.6 liter engine staggered; the rear sliding window leaked. The cruise control didn't.

Ford's Alan Mullaly -- oddly enough -- hasn't supped from the Poison Cup.

And -- if limited to only US cars -- I would purposely avoid Chrysler and GM. I'd give Ford another chance.

Simply because Ford is NOT controlled by the United States government and had the BALLS to turn down a staggering amount of cash.

Let's review, shall we?

Chrysler: the UAW doesn't have a clue as to how to make a profit with 1/3 of the American Automobile Industry.

GM: their CEO simply doesn't have a clue.

Ford: viable, still present.

If you're insisting upon purchasing domestic, I'd suggest NOTHING but a Ford vehicle.

I purchased a 2007 Toyota RAV-4 myself, with the 3.5 litre engine. Chipped up to 290hp. And still getting up to 28 mpg, with an average of 24 mpg. I refused to be shat into a Tuna Can.

I drove a Toyota Prius once. I'd seriously consider buying another for 2010.

BZ