Drive to the right you f^&*ing a^&holes!

As I've gotten older, one thing I've gotten less tolerant of is people cruising in the left lane. As a cop I've gotten less tolerant of this and I've pulled people over for it.

This is a great video of why driving to the right is important.



Thanks Stacie T for the link.

Energy, the market, and liberty.

A few years ago I was discussing fracking with a friend in the oil industry and he mentioned the break even point for shale is 60-65 a barrel. They Jim said something that really blew me away, “Mike, we’re only getting 8-9% out of that rock right now…” Less than 10% and we had overtaken the entire oil market, become the largest producer of crude, forced Saudi Arabia to try to destroy our fracking industry at the cost of billions. And forced a alignment between Middle East oil producers and militant environmentalists in attack fracking with propaganda. See “Promised Land”, a piece of anti-fracking propaganda funded by the UAE. And multiple lawsuits from the environmental extremists.

Jim make the obvious point, “Mike, what will happened when get get 20-25% out of that rock..” and that, to anyone with any brains, is obvious. The energy market will be completely reconfigured. And for many in the government and the Middle East, that cannot be allowed.

Since the 1970s, two tenants have driven oil policy in the the West. One, we have a limited supply of it and it’s mostly from unstable countries in OPEC (Iran, Iraq, etc). And two oil, by increasing CO2 in the atmosphere, is causing global cooling, err global warming, no, climate change, oh, wait, global climate disruption.

So both these interests have aligned to destroy the fracking industry and so far they have been unsuccessful. Fracking mainly started on private lands where the EPA cannot get it’s dirty hands on it and the genie is out of the bottle. Saudi Arabia has flooded the market in hopes of destroying the fracking industry, but they cannot stop it with temporarily forcing down prices. Eventually they will have to close their spigots to bring prices up so they don’t go broke, and US domestic oil is back again. Their only hope is to use government and non-governmental groups to destroy fracking by legal and regulatory schemes. And again, so far, it’s not worked. Then again the B Hussein Obama regime is on overdrive in the last few months of it’s existence.

But one point is not made often enough, what is the real point of the leftist envliroomentatl movement. Not the conservation movement that wanted to preserve our national treasures, (e.g. national parks, etc) but the anti-progress/degrowth movement. It is to control people and limited energy has provided an excellent angle of attack for that movement. What has happened since the 70s because of “limited oil”? The government, mainly through the EPA has inflicted one set after another of fuel economy standards on us, making vehicles smaller, less safe and limited our choice for cars. We have entire cities and states moving to limit the ability of people to use cars in there daily lives (Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Portland), which controls the ability of people to move. An open secret of the left is the technology they really despise is the automobile because it allows people to go when and where they want, no permission required.

So back to this article. Assume we get thought the B Hussein Obama regime and neuter the EPA so fracking continues, brings oil down to prices were the US can flood the market and sell to the world. What would be the results:

1. Americans all over the country would ask, “Why the hell do I want to buy a golf cart when I can buy a SUV, be comfortable and be able to bring the entire family somewhere. I’ll buy a Tahoe, screw the Volt!”

2. Americans may finally start asking, “Why am I paying billions to solar, wind and electric car companies from the federal treasury when it is not needed.”

3. Iran, the largest supporter of terrorism in the world and working on being another nuke power (Thanks B Hussein Obama and John Kerry) will have it’s only source of income severely cut back. Nukes cost money, so do ICBMs and other weapons. Hard to support that with oil in the 30s for a barrel.

4. Saudi Arabia, and OPEC, will loose its ability to control us. We’ve needed their oil for generations. We provide our own, sorry guys, you can go back to what you were doing before we showed you how to get money from the ground.

So yes, you can see this cannot be allowed. If this works, get ready for another round of law suits from big environmental, more politician shopping from OPEC and other attempts to stop it.

Oil firms promise new life for shale
Cheap re-fracking key to the pursuit of revolution

Shale oil producers from West Texas and North Dakota have harvested enough crude to overwhelm the global oil market and force Saudi Arabia’s oil cartel to play offense on the world’s energy stage.

But U.S. producers have recovered only a small fraction of the oil that’s trapped in those rocks, and though the oil-market crash has put the nation’s energy boom on hold, some oil-technology companies are pursuing what they say will be a second American shale revolution.

That belief lies partially in re-fracking — giving oil shale deposits a second blast of water, chemicals and sand — to get more oil out of depleted or under-performing wells. The process could be up to two-thirds cheaper than drilling a new well, which is an alluring possibility for cash-strapped U.S. producers who are straining to keep operational costs down and drilling operations intact.

Over the next few years, thousands of wells could be in play for re-fracking, said Priyesh Ranjan, who manages the re-frack business and technology development at Halliburton.

“There’s so much low-hanging fruit,” Ranjan said in describing the oil left behind in many wells. “There’s an obvious push for everybody to think about how to achieve more with less.”

The technique has its skeptics. Re-fracking the wrong well or in the wrong way can damage it or the wells nearby. But this ongoing oil downturn might be the right time for experimentation, because the industry must learn how to coax more oil for fewer dollars, engineers say.

The oil bust this year has claimed thousands of jobs in Houston and across the globe, and oil companies have gutted spending budgets in North America because costs to drill shale wells are higher than older, vertical wells. The industry is now entering what may be the most ruthless phase yet of the downturn, as banks prepare to curtail oil companies’ credit lines and as billions in corporate debt weigh heavily on their balance sheets.

“All this will force companies that are over-levered to take drastic action,” said Stephen Trauber, an investment banker at Citigroup. The next few months, he said, will likely see more oil firms sell themselves or default on their debt.

A wave of re-fracking is one way companies could help mitigate the effects of the downturn, by pumping more oil for less money, oil field service companies say.

A little-advertised truth about the American shale movement is that, in each well, drillers have left behind all but about one tenth or less of the oil and gas stored in shale. That’s because in recent years, $100 oil spurred producers to adopt a “pump-and-pray” mentality that produced many nearly infertile wells in Texas and elsewhere. Refracking didn’t grab oil companies’ attention because it would have diverted resources from the non-stop drilling boom. But that sentiment is changing.

“Operators are moving away from a factory approach,” said Hans-Christian Freitag, vice president of integrated technology, global products and services at Baker Hughes. “They’re putting a lot more emphasis on understanding the reservoir. It’s a big change.”

Re-fracking can boost a well’s productivity by a third to half, reaching up to 12 percent of the oil stored underground. “Which is still quite deplorable,” Freitag said. But it’s comparable to amounts early oil companies were able to extract from sandstone nearly a century ago. The oil is down there, and as technology improves, drillers will eventually be able to reach it, he said.

More planning, engineering

At a Baker Hughes lab in Tom-ball, northwest of Houston, engineers from different fields of the oil business got a glimpse of the latest key ingredient used in refracking.

With fracking, which is the common term for hydraulic fracturing, producers deploy fleets of trucks with high-horsepower pumps to blast payloads of water, chemicals and sand underground to crack open shale plays and release oil and gas.

Elizabeth McCartney, a product champion and pressure pumping specialist at Baker Hughes, presented containers with so-called diverter chemicals

— solid fine-grain biodegradable substances — that temporarily block the flow of oil and gas from existing fractures in a shale well-bore.

“In re-fracturing, we can pump these diverters and plug off existing fractures so we can access parts of the formation that haven’t previously been fracked,” McCartney said.

In other words, the second blast of fluid will go where the engineers want it to go, toward fresh rock that hasn’t been drained of oil and gas, and away from old pathways that naturally draw fluids because of their particular rock properties and subterranean pressure.

Out in the field, whether near Midland in Texas or Williston in North Dakota, a re-fracking job doesn’t look much different than the first one, except for the addition of the diverter chemical. But re-fracking requires more upfront planning and engineering.

Oil field service firms are using massive databases on hundreds of thousands of American oil wells to find the right candidates for a re-frack job. New programs can tell engineers if a poor-performing well was drilled in a productive region, or whether one highly productive well in another area suggests a whole batch of poorly performing wells nearby could benefit from a re-fracking job.

The march of technology

“We’re trying to reproduce those results across a large set of candidates — that’s what’s going to create the re-frack boom,” said Matt Lahman, a Halliburton specialist in enhancing oil and gas production.

Talk of re-fracking has grown in recent months, but it hasn’t hit it big yet.

Oil companies have re-fracked about 600 wells since 2000 — not a large number considering the 50,000 U.S. wells that got a first round of fracturing in the last few years.

For years, the problem has been that re-fracking is a gamble, even for wildcatters. If a driller re-fracks a well too close to an adjacent well, the fluid from the fractures may begin to spill into one another and ruin both wells, a phenomenon called a frack hit. The wells could start to produce water or natural pressures could dissipate.

“This technology is very much in its infancy and it’s not going to be something that’s going to change the game or move the needle at least in the near term,” said Jonathan Garrett, an analyst at Wood Mackenzie.

Nevertheless, re-fracturing has a lot of potential as research on the process continues to expand, said Christopher Robart, an analyst at IHS.

“It’s still early days,” he said. “What will make it more successful is undertaking a significantly larger number of re-frack jobs. A lot of that comes down to the E&P’s confidence and appetite for doing science with not-fully proven techniques on their own wells.”

With the oil bust, that appetite is starting to grow, technology companies say. Executives at the Schlumberger and Halliburton, the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 oil field service companies, recently told investors U.S. energy producers are increasingly willing to take up technology used to re-stimulate wells.

Private equity firm BlackRock has promised to put up $500 million over the next three years to pour into Halliburton’s refracking operations, Halliburton President Jeff Miller announced during an earning conference call last month.

Schlumberger CEO Paal Kibsgaard said his firm is willing to change the way it sets up service contracts, and bear the up-front costs of re-fracking as a way to show it is confident in its technology, in exchange for more of the upside when the oil starts flowing.

Oil companies’ demand for new technology is much higher than in any previous downturn, Kibsgaard said, as more technological breakthroughs emerge to help firms bring more oil out of the formations.

“In the rear-view mirror, we think, ‘That was easy,’ ” Baker Hughes’ Freitag said. “It was never easy. Fifty or sixty years ago, it was difficult to extract oil and gas, but we figured it out.”

How to fix problems and make them worse.

One of the repeated pieces of tripe from the B Hussein Obama regime is "Bin Laden is dead and GM is alive." Well, how well off is GM and the Chevy Volt:

The Week - NR / Digital Articles - National Review Online

General Motors sells the electric Volt for $40,000 and loses about $50,000 every time it makes a sale, because that $40,000 car costs $89,000 to build. The solution GM has hit upon (you have to be a government-run enterprise to think this way) is to sell it for $30,000 instead. GM is offering additional $10,000 discounts on a car nobody wants, but the problem is: Nobody wants it. GM should just close the production line — in fact, that is what GM is doing abroad, shutting down factories in Europe because nobody there wants GM’s non-electric cars, either. The Democrats made the GM bailout the centerpiece of their economic case at their convention in Charlotte, boasting that the intervention saved more than a million jobs. This ridiculous claim assumes that without GM every single automotive job in the United States would have been lost: not only those at GM and other U.S. firms pinned down under the morbidly obese autoworkers’ unions, but at Honda, Toyota, BMW, etc. An automaker that cannot sell cars at a profit is not a business, and it is altogether mysterious that it has become a talking point.

The entire handling of GM and Chrysler was a complete debacle. And yes, George Bush is partly to blame for this. W, we needed you to be like you were with Enron, "Sorry we're not going to bail you out." Instead, we got “I’ve abandoned free market principles to save the free market system”. Really didn't work out well there did it? Both companies should have gone through reorganization (before January 2009 would have been nice, before the Obamaites could screw it up like they did). Now we have an institution of American capatalism turned into a governemnt bureau. And it needs another bail out. Any surprise there.

Now there is hope with out there with our motorcycle industry.

Lest the GM debacle have you fearing that no American company can successfully cobble together a motorized vehicle, consider the case of iconic motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson. H-D is a business that has been through hell but never been offered a bailout — the motorcycle industry doesn’t have that kind of political clout — and so it has had to do what GM hasn’t: get better. H-D is predicting a 16 percent operating margin this year, which it achieved by investing in robotics and embracing cutting-edge inventory and production techniques to replace an assembly plant that the Wall Street Journal referred to as “an industrial museum.” But to get that done, H-D had to go thermonuclear on its main union, telling the workers at its York, Pa., facility that they were going to make concessions regarding work rules and flexible production or the plant was going to move to Kentucky, where the extortionate power of unions is much lower, a fact that has attracted such manufacturing heavyweights as Toyota. Harley’s employees decided they like building motorcycles, and, though there are 1,000 fewer workers there today than there were three years ago, the company is moving into the future on solid ground, having consigned nostalgia to the design and marketing departments.

There it is. The Obama regime took over GM not to save the auto industry but to save the UAW. If the purpose was to save the auto industry why hobble it with unsustainable contacts with the UAW? I think we all know the answer. Hopefully a Romney administration lets GM become a private company again and it goes through reorganization supervised by a bankruptcy judge. And the UAW leadership screams when they are told the laid off workers will not be getting 90% of pay and benefits anymore.

This is not the 1950s and our major industry needs reform. But bureaucrats cannot do it. So I voted for true reform a couple of days ago.

And as a proud HD rider, thanks Harley. Hopefully people at the Big Three watched you and got a few ideas.

About says it all.

Personally I prefer to buy American but I will not buy Obama motors. So this makes me a Ford man for the foreseeable future.

I thought the plate was F. Obama.

The state let him have it and it doesn't say a dirty word. If you take that letter as something dirty maybe the problem is in your mind! ;<)

Devilish DMV Revokes Virginia Man’s F.Osama License Plate

A Virginia man says his Osama bin Laden-inspired license plates are being taken away by the Department of Motor Vehicles for being offensive. But he says the DMV’s new plates are even worse.

Rick Sanders has had his “F.OSAMA” license plates for seven years. He received a letter this week from the DMV saying the plates would be replaced because they are “profane, obscene or vulgar in nature.”

“Right after the attacks of 9/11, I decided I wanted to do something to show that I’m patriotic,” Sanders told ABC affiliate WVEC.

The plates are being replaced with “6668UP.”

“I’m offended by this,” Sanders told the station. “I don’t like anything with 666 on it.”

The numbers 666 are widely viewed as a satanic symbol and Sanders said he reads his new license plate as, “The devil ate you up.”...

...Sanders told WVEC he will probably exchange the plates for new ones, but is also considering challenging the DMV’s decision to pull his plates.

“People come up behind me, they’re laughing, they’re giving me the thumbs up. They’re laughing at me. I’ve never had anybody look at me and tell me I can’t believe you have that on your license plate,” Sanders said.

Sanders says “F.OSAMA” can mean anything you want, but for him it’s a symbol of his patriotism.

“I didn’t want to offend anybody by it. I wanted people to realize that I don’t want you forget what those folks did to us.”

Mr Sanders, please appeal this. During WWII a lot of the Allies leaders showed their contempt Hitler's Germany. George Patton urinated in the Rhine. There is a picture of Winston Churchill with a scotch in his hand leaning against the border marker of the Thousand Year Third Reich. This is your way to show your contempt for this despicable human waste. If Virgina DMV can't understand that they need to pull their heads out of their ass!

Questions the feds don't ask when they run a car company

Is there a market? Does it cost too much? The stats in this article answer the questions.

Some Chevy dealers spurn Volt allocation

DETROIT -- Some Chevrolet dealers are turning down Volts that General Motors wants to ship to them, a potential stumbling block as GM looks to accelerate sales of the plug-in hybrid.

For example, consider the New York City market. Last month, GM allocated 104 Volts to 14 dealerships in the area, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Dealers took just 31 of them, the lowest take rate for any Chevy model in that market last month. That group of dealers ordered more than 90 percent of the other vehicles they were eligible to take, the source said.

In Clovis, Calif., meanwhile, Brett Hedrick, dealer principal at Hedrick's Chevrolet, sold 10 Volts last year. But in December and January he turned down all six Volts allocated to him under GM's "turn-and-earn" system, which distributes vehicles based on past sales volumes and inventory levels.

GM's "thinking we need six more Volts is just crazy," Hedrick says. "We've never sold more than two in a month." Hedrick says he usually takes just about every vehicle that GM allocates to him.

GM spokesman Rob Peterson confirmed that "dealer ordering is down" for the Volt...

...Industry insiders are closely watching sales of the Volt and Nissan Leaf as barometers of market demand for electric vehicles. Several other automakers are set to launch EVs this year.

At the Detroit auto show this month, GM executives said they wouldn't chase a previous Volt production target set for 2012 -- 60,000 units, three-quarters of which would be for U.S. sales -- and vowed simply to build as many as customers want.

GM sold 7,671 Volts in the United States in 2011, short of its 10,000-unit target. It launched the car in seven key markets starting in late 2010, but didn't begin a national rollout until this past autumn.

"We haven't satisfied demand," GM North America President Mark Reuss said on the sidelines of the Detroit show. He said GM will be able to gauge Volt demand by sometime in the second quarter.

Many dealers say they no longer have customers waiting in the wings...

Again, an expensive POS that has no market. Now I found this comment interesting.

Gas will be aproaching record levels as early as May. I would wait untill the end of summer before ordering Volt's tombstone. The car is a little overpriced but the last time we had a gas spike I witnessed dealers paying $33,000 for a used Prius at auction. That dealer might be a fool, but he probably had a willing buyer for more money back at the store. We are rapidly aproaching the end of the era for cheap gas. When the economy comes back (and it will) we will live in a time of cheap Gold and expensive gas.

And expensive everything else. This moron seems to now comprehend high fuel costs will inflate the prices of other items (food, housing, etc) that will keep the economy depressed. And if B Hussein Obama is not thrown the hell out of officer in November out economy is shot.

Electric Car Parking

I have little use for the Chevy Volt or other electric cars out there. They may have limited use for a concentrated area but as a general use vehicle they are worthless. I personally commute over 60 miles a day and this will not work. And I know people who commute more.

Now a question. Is the use of a charger at the Wal-Mart a privilege or a perk of using the over glorified golf cart? Let's see.

Electric car parking: Perk or privilege?

They drive whisper-quiet cars, zing past you in the parking lot, and use dedicated charging stations just a few steps from the front entrance. Electric car owners enjoy many perks, and there’s a growing frustration among owners of conventional cars about the charging stations popping up at places like Ikea, Whole Foods, Walgreens, and other stores -- especially when the spots in front of them are empty.

“This makes me think drivers of electric cars must be a little disabled,” one customer who did not want to be identified told FoxNews.com about the charge ports at a Goodwill store in St. Paul, Minn. “They are usually health freaks, so I wonder why they don’t mind walking a half-mile back to a charging station.”

Meanwhile, charging stations are being installed at public libraries, sports stadiums, and even airports. In some cases, the electric vehicle-only parking spots are located closer to the front entrance than the handicapped spaces. Yet, even an advocate for green living says the charge ports are superfluous.

“If stores and organizations wish to minimize their environmental footprint then they can give priority access to bicyclers and pedestrians,” says Ozzie Zehner, a visiting scholar and the University of California-Berkeley, and author of Green Illusions, an upcoming book that pokes holes in alternative energy practices. 

Zehner says EV charge stations just reinforce eco-fetishism and urban sprawl.

“American taxpayers give electric car owners tax breaks and credits to buy their vehicles as well as priority parking and special freeway lanes even though there’s no evidence they’ve done anything positive for the environment in return," Zehner says. "In fact, the mining, heavy metals, and other side effects of electric car production and operation are likely worse for the environment."...

...Not every EV owner is an advocate of front-of-the-parking-lot privileges, however. Angela Miller, an IT executive in San Diego, owns a Nissan Leaf and says she would not mind parking in a back lot and walking. She says it will be less likely that a massive gas-chugging SUV will take her spot.,,

Rarely do I agree with an environmental nutcase like Zehner but he has legit points here. Electric vehicles use regular electrify (usually coal) for charging. That really helps with pollution right? But more to the point I am paying for this POS with my tax dollars or my other money I spend at places like BestBuy. But more to the point these EV morons piss me off because hey expect others to pay for there electrify. I'm paying over three dollars a gallon for gas right now, in large parts because of enviro-morons and the policies they push. But again, I am paying for it. The no brain enviro whack brains like to live in their city like New York or Seattle, take an electric car they could only afford with tax breaks I paid for and on top of that expect me to pay for the electrify at the library or other "municipal charging station". An example:

All told Houston, working with its partner ECOtality, will install 28 additional public charging stations at city libraries and parks. Another partner, GRIDbot, will handle the installation of an additional 28 municipal charging stations in the parking garage underneath Tranquility Park, for the fleet of city vehicles.

A city that is broke as Houston cannot afford this crap. But please, don't let reality get in the way of a good press event.

Again, a simple question. Is there a market for this?

Then again bureaucracy is not really concerned with this.

Detroit unsure over the future of green cars

The US auto industry remains unsold over the future of "green cars" such as electrics and hybrids, as carmakers struggle with the first steps in a market most agree shows promise over the long term.

Automakers wheeled out a variety of new hybrids and plug-in electrics at the annual Detroit auto show this week, touting their great energy savings along with new, freshened designs.

But despite that apparent commitment, behind the scenes, the manufacturers remain split between doubts and optimism over their potential.

Ten years after the Toyota Prius hybrid swept into the market, only about three percent of all cars sold in the United States are electric or gas-electric hybrids, said David Cole, director of the Center for Automotive Research.

"Initially there was probably some excessive exuberance about the green auto," he told AFP.

"But the economics are not attractive yet for the average consumer."

Nissan has sold only 9,700 of its all-electric Leaf in the US market, and General Motors has sold just 8,000 of its rechargeable hybrid the Volt since its launch at the end of 2010, below the targeted 10,000.

The Volt became the object of scrutiny in recent weeks after tests by US authorities saw batteries in three cars catch fire.

Detroit's investment in hybrids and electrics have picked up pace in recent years under prodding and support by the government, said Cole.

The government has set tight goals for companies to boost fuel economy across their entire range of cars and trucks, and many are turning to hybrids and electrics to meet the goals...

Translation, no one wants this POS and the only way it will be economically viable is if we force people to buy them. In other words make gas or diesel powered cars too expensive to operate. Is there an ulterior motive to deliberately driving up oil cost there? Na, no way right.

Professor Obama and his world view...

I've often made the point you should not confuse intelligence and education. Both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates did not finish college yet arguably they changed the world for the better. And no one questions their intelligence. And many a moron I know has the title PhD after his name. Paul Krugman comes to mine immediately.

Now here is a great article on the destruction of a great industry by the geniuses of today.

Obama's Electric Car Aid Goes Bust
No one, no matter how bright, can possibly know what is in the best interest of

If Tolkien was right that the burned hand teaches best, then a question arises: Will President Obama ever learn?

In a recent appearance on 60 Minutes, Obama traded in his old analogy about the car in the ditch for a new one, about a ship in rough seas. No matter how well the captain—Obama—steers it, if the ship is being tossed about with violent abandon, then the passengers will not enjoy the ride.

The implication is that Obama is doing a fine job, so don’t blame him. The president is right, in part: The voters should not blame him. But he is wrong about why. It’s not because the president is a great economic helmsman. He is an awful one. Consider his performance in just one sector: energy. The Obama administration has shoveled boxcars full of money to “green” energy, with demonstrably deplorable results.

Those results go well beyond Solyndra. Take the administration’s policy of pushing electric cars, in which it has invested billions of taxpayer dollars. As The Washington Post reported recently, “analysts say the risk is rising that taxpayers in many cases will not see a return on their money soon, if ever. Instead, they warn that some federally subsidized companies could be forced to shut down in coming months.” A123 Systems, a battery maker the administration supported to the tune of nearly $400 million, recently announced layoffs “instead of up to 3,000 new Michigan jobs as Obama and the company had predicted,” the story reported.

Despite a $7,500 tax credit for each vehicle sold, in October GM unloaded about 1,000 Chevy Volts out of 187,000 total cars sold that month. Even if the administration’s rosy prediction of 1 million electric vehicles by 2015 proves correct, that is a drop in the bucket in a nation with 250 million cars, so the effect on greenhouse-gas emissions—the ostensible justification for all this intervention—would be negligible.

What’s more, electric cars get their juice largely from coal-fired power plants, making claims about emissions highly dubious. Battery disposal is a huge environmental problem. Electric cars and plug-in hybrids are dangerous and expensive to work on. (Ask your local mechanic for an education on that score.) And they are hugely impractical. The Volt, a four-door compact, averages 30-40 miles on battery power alone. Then it needs to recharge for 10 hours.

Clara Ford, Henry Ford’s wife, owned an electric car. There’s a reason the idea has been collecting dust for the past century. Electric cars one day may take their place alongside the Internet as one of the great life-changing innovations of our time. But right now it looks as though they will join what Jimmy Carter called the “keystone” of his energy policy, the Synthetic Fuels Corporation, in the rogues’ gallery of gawdawful government flops.

In short, then, the president is using political power to reallocate economic resources to make people adopt an inferior technology that nobody wants. So much for his stellar performance as captain of the economy.

But Obama is less concerned with what the public wants than what he thinks is best for it. This is modern liberalism’s chief project: empowering a cognitive elite to correct what it sees as the poor choices of the stupid, venal masses. (Energy Secretary Steven Chu neatly summarized this approach when he argued for new lightbulb standards by saying, “We are taking away a choice that continues to let people waste their own money.”) And the president is more cognitively elite than most. Or at least he thinks he is, referring sometimes to “teachable moments," i.e., occasions for people to be given the gift of his enlightenment.

As California Rep. Dennis Cardoza, a Democrat, wrote recently in The Hill, “President Obama has behaved more like Professor Obama,” constantly lecturing others about their shortcomings and trying to impose his will on them. “In the president’s first year in office, his administration suffered from what I call ‘idea disease.’ Every week, and sometimes almost every day, the administration rolled out a new program for the country.” You don’t get to the Oval Office through a surplus of humility. Still, it takes a remarkable amount of hubris to come up with so many great new ideas about how other people ought to live their lives.

No one, no matter how bright, can possibly know what is in the best interest of everybody. Nor can any government, no matter how large, possibly manage the monumental complexity of the modern economy, or even one sector of it. Much of the current economic mess is indeed beyond Obama’s control. The trouble is, he doesn’t think so. And the harder Washington tries to run everything, the more likely it will bollix everything up. The pages of history are littered with case studies, which now include Solyndra and (probably) electric cars.

Perhaps one day Obama will look back on them as teachable moments, too.

I remember one of the other things the Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, excuse me, Dr. Steven Chu, PhD, said "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,". In Europe gas cost 7-10 dollars a gallon. That would destroy this economy but then again that is the purpose of the administration. God help us if this idiot is reelected.

To boldly go where no recall has gone before.

From an episode of Star Trek-DS9, I recall the words of Odo to Quark, after the Ferengi said his Rom brother fixed something.

"Rom is an idiot. He couldn't fix a straw if it were bent."

Back flip a few hundred years and we see a formerly great symbol of American industrial might and vision, Government Motors. After wasting billions in an over glorified golf cart, with billions more in tax subsidies backing the boondoggle up, they have sold 6000 units nationwide. And now because they are a possible fire risk, they are coming back.

GM willing to buy back Volts

By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- General Motors will buy Chevrolet Volts back from any owner who is afraid the electric cars will catch fire, the company's CEO said Thursday.

In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, CEO Dan Akerson insisted that the cars are safe, but said the company will purchase the Volts because it wants to keep customers happy. Three fires have broken out in Volts after side-impact crash tests done by the federal government.

Akerson said that if necessary, GM will recall the more than 6,000 Volts now on the road in the U.S. and repair them once the company and federal safety regulators figure out what caused the fires.

"If we find that is the solution, we will retrofit every one of them," Akerson said. "We'll make it right."

The fires happened seven days to three weeks after tests performed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. And GM has said there's no threat of fires immediately after crashes. GM also has said that no Volts involved in real-world crashes have caught fire.

Still, NHTSA has opened an investigation into the fires and has asked other companies that make electric cars for battery testing data. NHTSA said the safety testing hasn't raised concerns about electric vehicles other than the Volt.

"The fire broke out seven days later. Not seven minutes. Not seven seconds," Akerson said, adding that the company wants to fix the problem so people continue to have faith in Volts and other advanced technology cars. The company is notified of any Volt crash through its OnStar safety system and dispatches a team with 48 hours to drain the battery, preventing fires, he said.

"I think in the interest of General Motors, the industry, the electrification of the car, it's best to get it right now than when you have - instead of 6,000 - 60,000 or 600,000 cars on the road," he said...

You may be interested in electrification of the car but the car buying public is not you moron. In case you haven't realized that without them you will not recoup your losses (God forbid make a profit) on this crap. You are squandering your resources on a one of the greatest waste of money every in the history of American capitalism. And do you think your gravy train from DC will continue forever. At some point conservatives will cut you off and you will have to produce things that sell to the general public.

Gee, what a concept. Building things that the public wants to buy, selling it at a price the public is willing to pay so you make money and the public feels like they have not be squandered. Maybe you should look into that Mr. Akerson.

...Earlier this week GM offered loaner cars to all Volt owners until the cause of the fires is found and fixed. So far, Akerson said 16 Volt owners have inquired and only two have taken the loaners.

6000 cars sold nationwide in two years with a five digit federal tax credit. That's an average of 120 cars a state in two years. Sixty cars per year per state for two years. Now there s a serious safty hazard. And you wonder if this piece of s@#$ is viable.

UPDATE: From this morning's Hotair, their take on this issue and marketing

The reputation of the Chevy Volt – part of the next generation of “green” vehicles – has come under fire (sorry) under increasing scrutiny since a few of them burst into flames recently. At the center of the controversy are the huge lithium-ion batteries, manufactured in Korea, which may be subject to some incendiary events which are making consumers nervous...

...A smart move on the part of GM, clearly. To be successful in marketing you need to be sensitive to what options consumers want and are willing to pay for, as well as identifying features which are less popular. Cars prone to suddenly turning into a human size barbeque grill, according to recent customer satisfaction surveys, clearly fall into the latter category.

Another example of How's that Hype and Choak, err Hope and Change working for you

Of all the immediate cluster f#$%s of B Hussein Obama's reign of error what he did with the auto industry is a classic example of a clueless idiot in a driver's seat. GM and Chrysler were in serious condition and needed something. Reorganization. The contracts they signed with the UAW were absurd and needed to invalidated by a bankruptcy judge. But the Democrats couldn't have that so they took over the two with billions of our tax dollars.

Last year we were lied to again by saying the government was out of the car business and we had actually made money. Well.....

Autos Insider | U.S. boosts estimate of auto bailout losses to $23.6B | The Detroit News

The Treasury Department dramatically boosted its estimate of losses from its $85 billion auto industry bailout by more than $9 billion in the face of General Motors Co.'s steep stock decline.

In its monthly report to Congress, the Treasury Department now says it expects to lose $23.6 billion, up from its previous estimate of $14.33 billion.

The Treasury now pegs the cost of the bailout of GM, Chrysler Group LLC and the auto finance companies at $79.6 billion. It no longer includes $5 billion it set aside to guarantee payments to auto suppliers in 2009.

The big increase is a reflection of the sharp decline in the value of GM's share price.

The current estimate of losses is based on GM's Sept. 30 closing price of $20.18, down one-third over the previous quarterly price.

GM's stock closed Monday at $22.99, up 2 percent. The government won't reassess the estimate of the costs until Dec. 30.

The government has recovered $23.2 billion of its $49.5 billion GM bailout, and cut its stake in the company from 61 percent to 26.5 percent. But it has been forced to put on hold the sale of its remaining 500 million shares of stock...

...Republican presidential candidates, including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, have seized on the auto bailout losses estimates, as evidence that the Bush and Obama administrations "wasted" money.

Matt Anderson, a spokesman for the Treasury Department, said, "Both TARP and the auto industry rescue are still on track to cost a fraction of what was originally expected during the dark days of the financial crisis."

In 2009, the government initially forecast it would lose $44 billion on its auto industry bailout. It revised it down to $30 billion, and later to as low as $13.9 billion earlier this year.The administration and President Barack Obama have argued that any losses on the auto bailout were worth the hundreds of thousands of jobs saved.

"The investment paid off. The hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been saved made it worth it," he said at an appearance last month at GM's Orion Assembly plant. "I want to especially thank the people of Detroit for proving that, despite all the work that lies ahead, this is a city where a great American industry is coming back to life and the industries of tomorrow are taking root, and a city where people are dreaming up ways to prove all the skeptics wrong and write the next proud chapter in the Motor City's history."

That is rich. How many jobs were lost when a government agency decided "We'll shut down Pontiac, Saturn and Hummer." How many jobs were saved or created by the shuttering of thousands of profitable car dealerships.

God, what a waste. Is it 2012 yet?

Update from Star Fleet Command on an unstable transportation system know as the Chevrolet Volt

Captains Log, Stardate 312864.54. Have received an update warning of the dangers of a primitive transportation source called the Chevrolet Volt. We have had previous encounters with this vehicle on Stardates 65261.8 and 311409.04. At the times of these encounters this piece of s@#$, err machinery was considered a joke of engineering but good for a laugh. It took my Chief of Engineering almost two days to get over his hangover from the last encounter. But we have notice the vehicle make be more hazardous that it's stupid, slow and meek image leads you to believe.

Chevy Volt catches fire weeks after crash, feds probe

A Chevrolet Volt caught fire in storage more than three weeks after a government crash test, prompting federal safety regulators to look at safety procedures for electric vehicles after a crash.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said today it had investigated a fire that occurred this spring, after the Volt extended-range electric vehicle underwent testing for its five-star crash safety rating. The test damaged the Volt's lithium-ion battery.

And after weeks of sitting in storage, the vehicle caught fire.

The fire damaged property but caused no injuries. General Motors says it believes the fire -- which caused property damage but no injuries -- occurred because NHTSA did not follow GM's recommended safety protocol for a post-crash Volt, spokesman Greg Martin said.

"Had those safety protocols been followed for this test, this incident would not have happened," he said, adding that this is the only crashed Volt ever to catch fire.

NHTSA did not immediately respond to Martin's statement about protocols. Still, it said, "NHTSA does not believe the Volt or other electric vehicles are at a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles." The agency said it "is working with all vehicle manufacturers to ensure they have the appropriate post-crash protocols."

I requested my Chief of Engineering review this update for any issues that may require action on our part. Last time I saw the engineer he was reading the update in the bar with a couple of bottles on the floor and a third open on the table.

Until I get updated analysis from my engineering staff (and I know that wasn't Synthol in those bottles) I have ordered immediate destruction of any Chevy Volt we come in contact with.

Enough said of the electric car

Anyone with half a brain knows the Chevy Volt is a POS and not worth driving on a college campus, much less an interstate. But this is great.

Duke Energy stops use of electric car charging station

Electric car charger center of investigation in house fire

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Duke Energy is asking customers who own their electric car charging station to stop using the product after a house fire in Mooresville last month.

Duke Energy sent an e-mail to about 125 customers in the Carolinas and Indiana who currently participate in their plug-in electric vehicle pilots and have the same type of charging station installed at their homes to stop using it.

Investigators have not determined if the electric car charger was the source of a house fire in Mooresville on October 30, but the product has been the center of the investigation...

The real funny part. In two states there are all of 125 owners of these damned things. There are more F-150 owners in my subdivision, but this is the car of the future.

On the subject, Consumer Reports seems to have uneasy feelings about the Nissan Leaf

Driving the Nissan Leaf: Hurray for traffic

Nov 8, 2011

I drove our all-electric Nissan Leaf over the weekend and while I was happy to drive past gas stations, it still came at a price.

My turn in the Leaf started last Thursday night, and I had an easy commute from our Yonkers headquarters to my New Jersey home. The car was warm from the sun and only used 25 miles of charge. On the way back in Friday morning, I was concerned the Leaf would drop battery power quickly on my regular 33-mile highway commute over the Tappan Zee Bridge, so I opted to travel fewer miles and pay the $12 toll over the George Washington Bridge and another $2.25 over the Henry Hudson Bridge. Luckily traffic was light, but so was my wallet.

Driving over the weekend was great in the Leaf as I was running errands and only going short distances. The car was relatively fun to drive and the kids enjoyed the quiet ride, as well. I charged up during the afternoon for five hours on my garage standard plug, but the charge only brought the range up 25 miles to 75 miles. Consequently, I wasn’t confident we would make it there and back to our dinner location, which was 60 miles round trip. My husband noted that the possible cost of a tow truck added to the cost of dinner and the babysitter would make for a very expensive date.

I didn’t charge the car overnight Sunday since I had 70 miles left. Plenty for my 33 mile trip back to work, or so I thought. The car was skimmed with ice Monday morning, so I had to use the defroster for a few minutes, but after that I kept the heat off even though it was 39 degrees out.

I decided to head out on my regular long commute, with the cheaper toll, but saw the Leaf quickly run though the charge and drop to 39 miles about halfway through my trip and I was freezing. I was very happy to see stopped traffic on the New York State Thruway (that’s a first) as that calmed my range anxiety and I saw the estimated range actually increase by six miles. The last two miles of my trip, I put on the heat with 24 miles left, but it did little to warm my already numb fingers and toes. I made it to the office with 17 miles to spare.

This electric experiment definitely forces you to think about your driving and always leave at least a 20-mile cushion. Heat is a luxury only allowed when driving short distances close to home. Likewise, fast highway driving may get you to your destination quicker, but it also quickly reduces charge. It seems Leaf ownership is best if you are not in a hurry or live in a climate where the temperature remains moderate, so you can avoid using the climate control for heat or air conditioning.

I have long had a fond view of future of electric cars and how it would be great to have quick-charging stations at the grocery store while I was shopping, on the street parking meter while I was out for dinner, or at the movie theater or mall. I assume this will happen in the years to come, but until then I’ll need to remember to wear my boots and gloves.

And you can put out of you mind that the electricity comes from coal. But the quote of the story, "Heat is a luxury...". Heat, a luxury in a 30 thousand plus micro car.

Lady, please buy one of these damned things and I'll laugh at you on the side of road with your boots and gloves as I go by warm as hell in my F-150.

What a waste.

Report from the front lines

Captain’s Log, Stardate 65261.8

While on routine radar interception patrol, encountered for the second time the fantasy vehicle known as the Chevrolet Volt. To our amazement it achieved speeds of 42 miles per hour, but use of so much electricity must limit observation as it missed the sign that said School Zone, Speed Limit 20.

Although the intelligence of the operators of this vehicle is apparently limited, in the interest of general curiosity I had the chief of engineering analyze the vehicle as a possible children’s car. After spending five minutes in the engine compartment, he went to his office, pulled out a bottle of 20 year old single malt and downed half of it in a single gulp.

“What morons designed this piece of crap!. A reserve motor as your primary source of movement, limited ability to accelerate, few fueling stations, taking hours to refuel instead of minutes and paying twice as much as a normal transporter. This is beyond a bad joke. I would swear a group of lawyers were on this thing’s plan....just pass me the bottle, I wanna purge this from my mind!”

We release it as the inbred stupidity might be contagious and my ship’s physician said he has his limits. We let it go on it’s merry way to explore stupid college parking lots, to seek out more 220 plugs and federal bail outs, to meekly go where no real car wants to go!”

And So Goes The Ford Commercial in Shreveport

I hearc Ford stopped showing this great F-150 commercial and Pat posted on it at
And So it Goes in Shreveport: The Ford Commercial



So here it is. As I said, personally I prefer to buy American but I refuse to buy Obama Motors. So that makes me a Ford man for now.

Ford, pease bring this commercial back....like summer of 2012! :<)

I have never been impresed with Mayor Parker

And this doesn't give me a warm and fuzzy.

City hoping to jump-start electric car usage

The Petro Metro is positioning itself as an early adopter of electric vehicles by seeding the city with charging stations for cars that don't need gasoline.



"Oil and gas is going to continue to be with us and incredibly important for the foreseeable future. But there is another future out there as well, and Houston's going to be prepared for that future," Mayor Annise Parker, a former oil and gas exploration company software analyst, told a gathering Thursday where the city debuted its first two electric-only cars.

City officials and entrepreneurs gathered in an H-E-B parking lot on Buffalo Speedway, where one of the new stations has been installed, to announce their coordinated efforts to roll out more than 250 stations across Houston by the end of the year.

Parker pitched what she calls Houston Drives Electric as a continuation of the innovative, entrepreneurial spirit that has characterized Houston from its origins. Parker said the city figures to save at least $7,000 per car in fuel and maintenance costs in the first three years of the 25-car electric-only fleet it will purchase by the end of the year.

7000 over three years. So in a 6 year life it will save us 14000. That's assuming the two thousand dollar battery doesn't die. And an electric motor never gave out. Also the price of a Chevy is around 42k. That's more than twice the cost of the Chevy Cruse, the Volt's gas big brother. And if the POS in this picture is a Volt it has a gas backup engine. So there is you clean maintenance. Real cost savings Anise.

200 stations to come

The city also has retro fitted 15 of its existing hybrid vehicles to charge off the stations. In addition, the city is installing 56 charging stations of its own - half in the City Hall parking garage to service the municipal fleet, and half for public use at libraries, Hermann Park, the Arboretum and other parks. The city stations are funded by state and federal grants.

OK, a city that is completely broke is gonna spend money on more electricity for these things, retraining it's mechanics, putting more cost on it's maintenance system for a vehicle very ill suited for the Houston area. This city is almost 600 square miles and my personal round trip commute is 64 miles. And that is typical. How will an electric car handle that?

San Francisco-based ECOtality will install 200 stations for public use this year, and NRG Energy's eVgo electric vehicle charging network will put 25 in Houston this year and 25 more next year.

San Francisco...why am I not surprised. And they will be pulled out with five years for lack of use.

More than 73,000 plug-in electric vehicles will travel Houston's streets by 2020, according to city projections.

Right....more like 73 and most will be owned by the city.

Thursday's announcement declares the first steps toward providing the infrastructure to support so many electric vehicles.

Tell me how many city gas stations were established with federal money early last century. Oh yea, none. The market for cars developed on it's own and the infrastructure for it (gas supply, maintenance, etc) works fine.

What a waste. The bad things is she will win reelection. Not because of accomplishments (or should I say in spite of) like this but because no one will run against her. Hopefully the damage of her reign of error can be limited.

Further signs of the decline of a great industry

Former GM executive Charles Wilson, when nominated to be Secretary of Defense said, "Because for years I thought what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa." This has been misquoted as "What's good for GM is good for the country." but you get the gist.

Now I've vented on this blog multiple times on the waste called the Chevy Volt. Now we see how bad corporate stupidity...we now have a Cadillac version of the Volt, the ELR

H/T AllahPundit

The General announced today that the Cadillac Converj concept has been approved for production, although in keeping with Caddy’s alphabet-soup naming it will be called the ELR…

The Volt is indeed pricey — the model we tested came in at $44,680 before the federal EV tax credit — because the underlying technology, namely the 16-kilowatt-hour battery, is expensive. Rolling out the Voltec drivetrain in a Cadillac won’t do much to change that, because it won’t increase volume enough to bring economy of scale, Bragman said, but it will make it easier for consumers to accept the price.

That’s why you see luxury brands like BMW, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz rolling out upscale hybrid sedans.

“That cost is more easily masked in a car like this,” he said. “GM can better accommodate the price without the sticker shock. You expect a Cadillac to cost a lot. You don’t expect a Chevrolet to cost a lot.”

Is anyone asking the question any 20 year old with a sliver of intelligence and an idea for a business would ask: "Is there a market for this?" Or put another way, "Will someone but this piece of s^&&.." Err sorry, I got carried away. The answer is of course no. In June Government Motors was all happy that the Volt had sold 125 units...nationwide. More F150's get sold by individual dealerships in Houston in a month.

A few days ago I was listening to a local talk show host Michael Berry and had on a young women (seemed like a clueless college kid) and me made a great point, "The Chinese are eating our lunch because they are doing what we used to do. We would find out what people wanted and needed, make it and then sell it to them. Now we're building things no one wants like solar panels and windmills and we're shocked that they are not selling..." Excellent point...and here is another great example. God help the Big Three if, or should I say when, China goes into the auto market.

Again I pray for January 2013 and hopefully a conservative (Sorry Mitt, you ain't the guy) comes in and cuts GM off...let it know what running a business is like again. And hopefully we will never have another massive waste of money like this one...

Captain, we have a Chevy Volt dead ahead

Captain's log, Stardate -311409.0496892441, while on routine patrol in Houston Texas, observed a vehicle of legend called a Chevrolet Volt...a four door mini-mini vehicle that had limited range, excessive expense and known to be piloted by people of modest mental means and buffoonish ego's.  It's normal habitat was a dealer showroom or a federal government agency parking lot, but one seemed to have escaped.

Conducted complete scan of vehicle before it went out of sight...no intelligent life detected.

Battery dying...need gas!

Another great example of government/corporate stupidity

I have posted before on the massive waste of money of the Chevy Volt. It amazes me that a once great business (GM/Chevy) has forgotten one minor fact of life and the market. If there is no demand for the item, it will not sell.

The fact politicians, especially B Hussein Obama, don’t realize this...you would think business men like the heads of GM would know it. Then again GM is controlled by the government.

That being said, we have some shocking news....the Chevy Volt is a showroom dud.

Chevy Volt: Still Not Selling | The Weekly Standard

A Volt in it's natural abode...the dealership.   If anyone has seen one on the street, please let me know where/when.

The July sales numbers are out and the Chevy Volt continues to electrify (get it?) the country. GM sold … 125 Volts last month!

Way back in March I made fun of the Volt for selling 281 units in February. Turns out, February was a good month. But wait, there’s more! GM says they’re going to increase production to 5,000 Volts per month in order to keep up with demand. You see, they claim that the reason the Volt isn’t selling is that they can’t keep enough cars on the lot. A GM spokeswoman recently claimed that they are “virtually sold out.” Which is virtually true. Mark Modica called around his local Chevy dealers and found plenty of Volts waiting for an environmentally conscious driver to bring them home.

All told, GM has sold close to 2,700 Volts. (Funny aside: There’s a Volt in my neighborhood and a Volt that parks in my garage at work. So I see almost 0.1 percent of all the Volts in America on a daily basis.) But hey, the EV future is just around the corner.

If GM had done such stupidity on it's own, oh well, that's life. But the fact my tax dollars were wasted on this boondoggle drive me nuts. Hopefully come 2013 we can cut our losses on this crap and when GM finds out the federal gravy train is gone, they will cut this crap off.

Is is 2012 yet?

Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before

I generally keep some anonymity on my blog for multiple reasons.  One is my profession.  The other is my agency is really, what is the word, picky (polite word, open site) about social media.  But I will let a little bit out.  I just got a new license plate for my vehicle and it is a classic if I say so myself!

Until recently Texas would only allow a six character license plate and I was looking at "NC1701" or something like that, but it was not good.  Then I just happened to be reading the paper in February and there was an article saying for seven days beginning March 7th at 700 am (see a pattern) you can order a seven character plate.  So I woke up at a quarter to seven, drank coffee, logged, put in the request and my heart almost stopped when I got the message "Plate Available".  Yes!  To my astonishment there was not a bigger geek out there...then again they are probably just going to sleep, not waking up.  It has to be destiny.

Few minute filling out the online request, paying too damned much money and a few weeks to get the actual plate in.  But I wanted to frame it better than the dealer frame and online again...and it has the real words to start the show (Sorry Captain Picard, but it will always be "no man"...Kirk kicks ass!).

And final precaution...security bolts on it...God knows there are other nerds out there who might be tempted.

I really wanted it for the Harley but they won't issue seven character plates for motorcycles yet.  But I own the license for this plate number for ten years so I can transfer if the opportunity presents itself.

So yes, you get to the Houston area and see this plate, you got an ID on MikeAT from A Cop's Watch.