This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: “Your Tax Dollars At Work”

  • Sure, It’s All Legit. Trust Us.

    One of the main boondoggle giveaways in features of the P!ss-Poor Abysmally-Crafted Abomination Patient Protection and “Affordable” Care Act (PPACA) is the fact that it subsidizes the cost of insurance for many.  In fact, that’s one of the main ways it will screw over US taxpayers help the “poor”.

    So, no one would ever take advantage of that, right?  No one would ever think of understating their income so that they’d qualify for “free help”, right?

    Yeah, right.  Uh huh.  Sure.  Whatever you say, amigo.  Just like everyone who gets cash income always declares 100% of that cash income on their tax returns.  And just like they always send Uncle Sam their FICA and Medicare taxes from said cash income, too.

    Of course this is going to be abused like hell.  In fact, it already is being abused.

    And the “kicker”?  Some PPACA “Navigators” are advising people to do exactly that.

    Yeah, folks – you read that correctly.  We (US taxpayers) are actually paying people to tell people how to defraud Uncle Sam.

    Don’t believe me?  Then watch this video clip.  And afterwards, watch this one, too.  And then you can read this article.  (You might want to have a barf bag handy, though.)

    Sheesh.

    Dunno about you, but I’m getting damned tired of seeing my tax dollars siphoned off by blatant fraud like this.  And I’m royally p!ssed that the Federal government is actually paying people to help low-life a-holes certain individuals perpetrate that fraud.

  • About That “Wonderful” Federal Lifeline Phone Program . . .

    Many of you doubtless have doubts and misgivings about the “Lifeline” program – the Federally subsidized program to provide basic phone service to the “poor”.  I for one certainly do.

    The program is sometimes derisively referred to as the “Obama phone” program.  That’s a misnomer.  The program dates to 1985, during the Reagan administration.  It was begun as a way to subsidize emergency phone service for the poorest of the poor.

    It’s funded from the “universal service fee” – one of those incomprehensible mandatory fees tacked onto the phone bills of paying customers.  (IMO those fees are intentionally incomprehensible to hide what they’re being used to fund, but that’s another story . . . . )

    Originally the Lifeline program was landline-only.  But in 2005, the Bush administration opened the program to cell phones.

    “Really bad idea, sir.”

    From there, soon things began to go off the rails – badly.  During the last few years, program costs have skyrocketed.  Costs went from around $800 million in 2008 to roughly $2.2 billion in 2012.

    (more…)

  • T-Shirt of the Month

    We’re all familiar with the recent brouhaha about NSA telephone/internet monitoring.  We also all know about any number of instances where our “illustrious” Federal government seems to ignore the public and do what it pleases, consequences be damned.  (No, I didn’t say a damn thing about the AHCA.  But if the shoe fits . . . . )

    Well, it seems like one enterprising artist in Minnesota decided to use those things to his advantage commercially – and IMO, hilariously.  Here’s the design on one of his t-shirts.  The image is rather smallish, but expands nicely.

    Predictably, some of our American Royalty apparently “were not amused”. NSA reportedly sent the guy a “cease and desist” letter claiming “violation of intellectual property” in parodying the NSA seal.

    Sheesh.  It’s called parody, guys.  Seems to me what little I remember of the law says that parody generally is considered “fair use” of intellectual property.  And that’s clearly a parody of the actual NSA seal – check out the text used in lieu of the original text along the bottom border of the joke seal. (smile)

    Besides – last time I checked, documents/images/photographs produced by the Federal government cannot be copyrighted.  They can be protected against illicit use by Federal law, but this doesn’t seem to be such a case.  This is an altered version that is obviously a parody of the original vice deceptive use.

    To his credit, the guy didn’t back down. He’s partnered with Public Citizen and plans on taking NSA to court for violating his First Amendment right to free speech.

    I’m guessing this one ends up settled out-of-court pretty soon.

    Given how well the rest of our “esteemed” Federal government listens these days, I’m seriously considering ordering one of those shirts.  If you’re interested in doing so, a link where you can do that is is in the linked article (2nd link).

  • Oh, Sh!t – Here We Go Again. Solyndra Part III, Anyone?

    Or Part IV.  Or maybe Part V – hell, I’ve lost count.

    Energy Dept. Seeks Company to Turn Sunshine Into Gasoline

    No, I’m not kidding.

    The process was apparently discovered by a Federal lab in Albuquerque in 2007.  It produces hydrocarbons that are precursors to motor fuels from CO2, sunlight, and (presumably) a catalyst.  At the time of discovery, it was estimated to be “15 to 20 years” away from being market-ready.

    Yeah, the process works – on a lab “proof-of-concept” prototype.  But that’s far different than an economically-viable industrial production line.  And the last time I checked, 2007 was 6 years ago rather than “15 to 20”.  I seriously doubt the process will be producing fuel at anything resembling competitive costs any time soon.

    Here we go again.  Looks like we’ll now have $23/gal “sunshine-gas” for DoD vehicles to go with that $25/gal bio-fuel oil for ships.  Just the thing for an era of declining DoD budgets, eh?

    I wonder which “friend of the Administration” will get the contract for this financial boondoggle and obvious example of cronyism critical and important research effort?

    This looks more to me like just another example of the current Administration steering Federal dollars for “clean energy” to political allies and cronies as a payback rather than a serious effort at clean energy.  Further, their track record to date with “green” projects does nothing but support that impression.

    But what do I know?

  • And In the “Gee, What a Surprise” Department . . .

    Volt sales drop 32% in October

    GM blamed the drop in sales on “declining gas prices”.

    An underpowered, poorly-designed, poorly-built, short range “gas saving” $40,000 Adam Sandler Mobile (warning – link is DEFINITELY NSFW or around children) that wasn’t worth half what people paid to buy it and was overhyped from day one whose sales fall by 1/3 when gas prices fall 15% or so.  Gee – who could have predicted that?

    In contrast, sales of a well-designed and well-built competitor – Toyota’s trendy car for the smug and arrogant, the “Prickmobile” (AKA the Prius) – rose 7% in October.  And Toyota’s Prickmobile doesn’t have a huge government subsidy backing it, either.

    I’d say YGBSM – but I’m dead serious.

    Look, I’m OK with people driving a hybrid or other “energy efficient” vehicle if that’s their choice.  But I don’t think they deserve any “special reward” for doing so – they get their reward every time they get fuel.  And I really hate people trying to sell me a turd sandwich while telling me it’s a delicious hamburger.  The Volt was government-subsidized turd sandwich from day one.

    “Well done”, GM.  Next time, listen to the market instead of some community organizer with no clue about real-world business or economics.

  • Just When You Thought You’d Seen It All . . .

    . . . you see something that makes you realize you haven’t.

    ‘Healthy Ho’s Party’: ObamaCare Registration Drive For Prostitutes

    (Additional details can be found here.)

    Yeah, it was in the SF area and was co-ed.  It was sponsored by a “sex-worker” prostitute and/or madam calling herself “Siouxie Q”.  About 40 reportedly signed up at her “gala”.

    Sheesh.  Now the government is subsidizing the sex trade – a typically all-cash business whose employees often operate illegally and report at best a fraction of their actual income.

    What’s next?  A “Healthy Hitmen” party sponsored by a Mafia Don?

  • You Couldn’t Make This Sh!t Up . . . .

    The following screen was reportedly shown by Healthcare.gov about 30 minutes before HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee today:



    Spot checks reportedly verified that the message was seen by users in multiple states (North Carolina, Virginia, Utah, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, New York, Maryland, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Kentucky, Minnesota, and New Hampshire). So it seems highly unlikely this was due to an outage at the state level.

    But I guess that must not be the case.  According to Secretary Sebelius today, “The website never crashed. It is functional, but at a very slow speed and very low reliability.”

    As I said in the title: you couldn’t make this sh!t up.

  • In Case You’re Wondering Why the “Obamacare” Web Site Was So AFU* . . .

    . . .perhaps this article might help explain things:

    Feds reviewed only one bid for Obamacare website design

    Single-bid, no-bid, and sole-source contracts all have their place.  But I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of a $670+ million dollar contract being awarded on that basis before – and certainly not to the US subsidiary of a foreign firm with a spotty track record.  Hell, even the Angel and Oxcart programs evaluated multiple proposals initially (though Angel was eventually pursued sole-source by another Agency after the USAF rejected it).

    However, I also found this:

    Michelle Obama’s Princeton classmate is executive at company that built Obamacare website

    Interesting.  Dunno if there’s a connection, but . . . .

     

    Note:  AFU = “All Fouled Up”.  But there may be other definitions for the acronym, too.  (smile)