Hey Libtards, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is!!

The Wall Street Journal points out something I didn’t see in the local rag this morning.

“We recently suggested that if Bill and Hillary Clinton are eager to pay more taxes, they should write a personal check to the U.S. Treasury to compensate for the lower tax rates they so frequently decry. And lo, here comes legislation to make it easier for the former first lady and other pseudo-populists to do just that.

I would add one thing to this bill. The “extra” would become public information. Let’s see how much the libtards, especially you, Brick Decker and you, Pol Pot Doyle, and you, Barack Hussein Obama. That means every “tax the rich” politico and blogger, too.

I don’t want to see a measly $100, either. Lead by example. Add 20% to your Federal and State tax bills and send it in.

Even if the bill passes, I doubt the libs will give the “extras” they keep wanting to take from all of us.

Seems to Be All the Rage in the Cheddarsphere

I’m tired and I can’t get the real link to work. Nonetheless, here’s my life as a dog.

You are a Border Collie!

You’ve heard about this “second-place ribbon” thing, but really don’t ever plan on getting one.

Not a chance. Highly competitive, you keep one eye on the Best in Show prize and one on the rest of the pack, making sure you’re always at least one paw ahead.

You love your family and enjoy the company you keep, but you’d trade all of them in a heartbeat for a corner office and some meaty stock options. When you’re not licking your professional coat, naked skydiving and triathlons keep you entertained.

You idolize the top dog and will do so until you sniff out a way to take over the company and do a little “restructuring.”

Bullseye

Nice shot by all parties concerned. I think it’s pretty significant that the shot took place from a Ticonderoga-class Cruiser.

I’m sure more than a few sphincters tightened in Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.

Search Your Phone Calls

This could be interesting.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Communications regulators have cleared Google Inc (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) to bid in an upcoming auction of coveted wireless airwaves, according to auction documents released by the Federal Communications Commission on Monday.

Google was among a list of potential bidders released by the FCC that have made a required up-front payment and have been cleared to take part in the high-stakes 700 megahertz wireless auction.[...]

[...]The 700-megahertz signals are valuable because they can go long distances and penetrate thick walls.

The spectrum is to be auctioned off in several different blocks, ranging from smaller regional blocks to large, nationwide ones.

Up-front payments for the spectrum licenses can range from several thousand dollars to more than $100 million, depending on the size of the license a company is seeking.

The auction is seen as a last opportunity for a new player to enter the wireless market. Google and other Silicon Valley leaders see the wireless spectrum as a way to create more open competition for mobile services and devices than those available on existing networks.

I’m sure many of our Cheddarsphere denizens in the tech industry understand the tech stuff better than I do but it seems to me that this is going to benefit the consumer in many ways. If Google can get the nation-wide spectrum, then consumers will no longer be tied to a small selection of phones offered by providers. It also seems to me that the data capable devices will become even more powerful.

This Really Surprised Me

The MJS reported today that Midwest Airlines pilots do not have the training to land Cat II or Cat III instrument approaches.

(Nice summary on Instrument Approaches here for those of you who are interested. More here.)

[...]“At Mitchell International, which accounts for 77% of Midwest Airlines and Midwest Connect flights, 1,800 feet to 2,400 feet of visibility is needed to land, depending on which runway is used, Reeve said.

With additional training, pilots can land with 1,200 feet of visibility - what the airlines call “category II” landings - or 700 feet, known as “category III” landings, Reeve said.

The main aircraft used by Midwest Airlines is the Boeing 717 jet. Those aircraft will be able to land in category III conditions once the training is completed, Reeve said. The carrier’s MD-80 jets will be able to land in category II conditions, he said.

The Skyway pilots who fly for Midwest Connect will be certified to land in category II conditions, Reeve said. Midwest Connect also uses jets flown by St. George, Utah-based SkyWest Airlines Inc., whose pilots are already certified for category II landings, he said.

Midwest Air told its pilots last week that it would add training for reduced-visibility landings in 2008. Reeve said that announcement was not related to numerous flight cancellations and delays that Midwest Airlines and Midwest Connect had after an unusually snowy December in Milwaukee, as well as several foggy days in December and January[...].

If Midwest Pilots were only allowed to land Cat I instrument approaches, then they had no more clearance than any IFR private pilot. As an ex-commercial guy, who was rated in Cat IIIc aircraft (look, Ma, no hands!), I can’t understand why an airline would NOT train their pilots to the highest levels of the aircraft they fly (not all aircraft are Cat III certified.) To me, the safety factor of having better trained pilots and the ability to execute Cat II and Cat III landings far outweigh any cost. I just find that very curious, especially since Mitchell has Cat II and Cat III approaches.

In many cases, Reeve said, visibility was so poor that those flights would have been affected even if the Midwest pilots could do category II and category III landings.

Well, the above statement may be true but clearly there were many cases where the inability (due to lack of certification by the FAA, not pilot skill) of Midwest pilots severely inconvenienced a LOT of passengers. I’m sure it drives the ex-military guys crazy since they all carry the military equivilent of Cat III.

Happily, Midwest is going to start rectifying this problem immediately.

Anchors Away

A preview of the new Navy recruiting ad.*

*Just kidding….but it is pretty funny.

HT Blackfive

This is Very Cool

Check this out! It’s a place called Vine Park Brewing Company in St. Paul.

The premise is, you get a group of people together and go over there. You pay your money and make your own beer with the help of a beer coach. They have about 40 recipes (the Tornado Alley Alt and Rattlesnake Lager look good…actually, the all look pretty good). Two weeks later, you go back, check into a hotel within walking distance and practice “quality control.” What ever is left over, you take home. Each batch yields about 6 cases of 22oz. bottles. Whoa!

How fun would it be to make a few batches under the Cheddarsphere Label? Road Trip anyone? No AB1 for the road trip. The pilot likes beer and we’d never be able to load the plane with the take-home master-brewed products. Fermented water weighs too much.

Actually, I’m kind of glad these guys aren’t anywhere close to me.

Giving Thanks to The Troops

The America Supports You program is sponsoring a national “thank you” campaign for the troops during the Thanksgiving Holiday. You can send a text message to 89279 until midnight PDT. All the major carriers are providing access to the text-message program.

You can find out more about this excellent and worthy program here.

If you go to the site, you’ll see you can send an email, as well.

HT Powerline

Kudos to Kohl and Feingold

What’s that you say? The Asian Badger actually praising bin Feingold and Herb “Where am I” Kohl?

Yup. If you’re going to rip people when they’re acting like typical Libtards, you have to praise them when they do something right.

So here it is: Nice job, gentlemen, you’re showing some spine here.

Actually, I think they just wanted to distance themselves from the liars like Wes Clark, Harry Reid, Tom Harkin, Hillary Clinton, et. al.

Civics Test

Seems to be all the rage around the Cheddarsphere, so I took the test.

You answered 56 out of 60 correctly — 93.33 %
Average score for this quiz during September: 74.5%
Average score since September 18, 2007: 74.5%

You can take the quiz as often as you like, however, your score will only count once toward the monthly average.