Dos Cosas (Two Things)

First, Obama is trying to tell us that "If we're fighting to reform the tax code and increase exports, the benefits cannot just translate into greater profits and bonuses for those at the top. They have to be shared by American workers, who need to know that opening markets will lift their standard of living as well as your bottom line." Clearly, this is a redistribution scheme. He didn't say it should be done through legislation but isn't that was he's really all about? Years ago, he expressed the opinion that the Supreme Court should have ruled, as part of the civil rights hearings that they should have taken a bigger role in the redistribution of wealth. The government has been redistributing wealth for years. They take it from the middle class and give it to the poor (or seemingly poor) through social programs and to the rich through bailouts, loans, tax favors, regulations, etc. The middle class gets screwed and is stuck paying the bills for both sides.

Secondly, the mayor of Detroit is peddling a program to get cops and firefighters to move back to the city by offering them refurbished houses for $1000. Detroit has turned in to a wasteland. Using the scarce funds they have available to subsidize housing for government employees is a horrible waste. Also, the 47% of police and firefighters who are living in the city and paying rent or mortgages have to keep doing what they're doing. How many of these police and firefighters are going to buy these houses, rent them to friends and relatives, but list it as their home address while maintaining their actual residence outside the city? There will be a lot of that. The city is dying, they should just let it die. Entire neighborhoods are being abandoned. The median home price in the city of Detroit is $5700 (no, that's not missing a zero). Formerly multi-million dollar homes are up for sale at 10% of their original cost. Skyscrapers downtown are completely abandoned. I think at some point in the near future, they need to just plow the city under and leave the ground fallow for 7 years and then homestead it again. Leftist policies destroyed the city. Let's remake the city as a new experiment in libertarian ideals, free from most government restraint. A group of billionaires could form a coalition to buy the entire city and privatize it.

Cheapest Gas

I've been using Gas Buddy for quite a while* to find the cheapest gas prices around but I discovered another tool they have. You can get local gas prices sent to your mobile phone from wherever you're at.

Before I give you those instructions though, Gas Buddy has localized gas prices for your area. To keep an eye on gas price trends, I tend to use orangecountygasprices.com which means I don't have to go to the main site first. They have localized listings for many areas. The first time you put in your city or zip code in to the main site, look at your address bar to see where it redirects you.

Now, for the mobile directions:

1. Compose a new text message to the phone number 368266

2. Type "gasbuddy" + zip code or city, state as the body of the message.

Ex: gasbuddy los angeles, ca
Ex: gasbuddy 55428

3. Send the message. You should receive a response within a few seconds.

*These services are offered free of charge, but your standard mobile carrier text messaging rates may apply.

Easy enough eh? That's my Christmas present to you. Feliz Navidad A Todos! (even though it was yesterday)

*I have no affiliation with GasBuddy and I'm not compensated for this endorsement.

Auto Industry Bailout

There is absolutely no reason for an auto industry bailout. They talk about all the jobs that would be lost, etc. but it's just not true. Sure, some jobs will be lost, but do you think if they went bankrupt that they would just shut down and stop making cars? No. Don't you think Toyota or Honda would come along and buy an interest in them very quickly if they went bankrupt? Of course they would.

When it comes right down to it, the auto industry is in trouble because they've been putting out crappy products and now they want us to pay for it! Japan and Korea put out superior machines for a better price.

Let them fail. Someone will fill in the gap.

Dow Heading UP?

Given the fact that our supposedly FREE market really isn't that free at all, I expect the DOW to soar before the election for a McCain boost.

I'm not basing this on any evidence I have of market trends, etc., it's just just a baseless political prediction.

Protest Gas Prices - July 4th

I have an idea for protesting high gas prices. It would take an immensely coordinated effort but it could be done.

I envision a two pronged attack.

Part 1: A massive "park in" at gas stations around America. Get the kids, pack some food and water and essentially block access to all the gas stations for an entire weekend. It would be better to start on a Friday morning but to ensure maximum participation, starting on a Saturday morning would be better. It would only take 10 to 20 cars at each gas station to make this effective. Imagine, completely blocking access to the entire nation's ability to refuel their cars!!

Part 2: This might be a little more difficult but could prove to be even more effective than Part 1. Coordinate thousands of truckers around the nation and have them park their trucks around the country in such a way that they block access to the busiest highways in the nation. In particular, I was thinking of blocking access to major freeway interchanges in Los Angles (especially around Long Beach since it's a major port for goods coming in from overseas). Imagine 2000 trucks in each city parked in groups in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco, etc. Shut down access to all the major arteries in the US. They would have to leave room for emergency vehicles to pass but a roadblock system where a few trucks can be moved to allow that access but prevent general traffic flow. Oh, we'd need to block rail access as well but that wouldn't take nearly as many trucks.

If something like this could be accomplished it would have a huge impact on gas prices. No gas purchased, no goods being shipped around the country, and law enforcement would be absolutely helpless to stop the process. There aren't enough tow truck in the country to haul away the cars and trucks that would be blocking everything. Furthermore, even if the police attempted mass arrests, they would be met with serious resistance and they would likely just monitor the situation and not attempt to remove anyone.

July 4th would be a good day to start this. It's a Friday, it's a national holiday and symbolically speaking it would be a great day for it.

The only real problem I see with this is that so many people are so complacent about everything that it would be hard to get people to participate.

We've got less than a month to get the word out. Can we do it? Post this on your blog, send it out in an email, let's get it done!

**Please note... this is not designed to get the government to "do something" about oil prices. This is a direct action by customers to let the suppliers know that we're very unhappy about what they're doing.