Don and Doug September 29 preview

Don and Doug are live again 1pm EDT Thursday on TalkSouthRadio.com. Kicking off this week's show:

President Obama "slipped" and said some nutty stuff this week.

Meanwhile, a Democrat governor openly expressed a desire to suspend next year's Congressional elections. And a former adviser to Mr. Obama suggests we put less power in the hands of elected representatives - and more power in the hands of professional government managers.

Other topics on your mind?  Join the conversation Thursday at 1pm EDT. You can call us on-air at 678-344-9926, or tweet us before or during the show @talksouthradio.

Medical marijuana users prohibited from gun and ammo purchases

According to a recent ATF memo, registered users of medical marijuana are prohibited from purchasing firearms and ammo.

Read more about the ATF's interpretation in this story from NBCMontana.com.

NC governor jokes about suspending the Constitution

Funny? It apparently didn't sound like a joke to at least some in the audience when North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue, a Democrat, made comments that advocated suspending next year's Congressional elections.

Read about Perdue and her comments at NewsObserver.com.

Here's another report on the governor's apparent backtracking.

Apparently TV stations didn't cover the governor's appearance. I've yet to see video of the event.

If video pops up, let me know.

Mass arrests in Wall Street occupation

An eventful Saturday for many of those still participating in what's been called a Wall Street Occupation.

The anti-Wall Street activists have posted video on YouTube:



The New York Times reports about 80 people were arrested.

Initially, protest organizers called for 20,000 to take part in a long-term Wall Street protest which began on September 17.  Most estimates put top participation at the kick-off at no more than a thousand to 1,500. The  BBC reports that, at the time of Saturday's march, protester numbers had fallen to about 200. The New York Post estimated Saturday's participation at about 500.

The Wall Street occupation has been organized by sometimes shadowy groups which often seem to have a leftist or anarchist ideology. A similar protest is planned by aligned organizers beginning October 6th in Washington DC.

Live show is now on Thursday afternoons

If you're looking for Don and Doug tonight, the show's already in replay.

New time for Don and Doug live is 1pm EDT Thursday afternoons.

"Nobody in this country got rich on his own"

So-called consumer advocate and Massachusetts candidate for U.S. Senate Elizabeth Warren unloads on the rich.

In Warren's mind, the rich can keep "a big chunk" of what they make, but the rest belongs to big government.

Her comments about "fair taxation" start at about 50 seconds in on this YouTube video:



People like Warren never consider that many of those she calls the rest of us pay taxes from money paid to them by the companies that employ them. In other words, businesses are already indirectly paying the share of  taxes Warren accuses them of shirking.

Progressives like Warren also never mention that many workers who fall below tax thresholds pay no income tax at all.

Warren's is a twisted vision of America.  In Warren's mind, it seems big government came first to America, set up shop, built infrastructure, and then invited business in as an afterthought.

Crazy leftists want to create crisis

As if our country and its economy didn't have enough trouble, there's a contingent of progressives wanting to exploit and escalate crisis in order to grab more political and economic power.

Something called the Summit for a Fair Economy took place recently in Minnesota. Activist and ex-SEIU organiser Stephen Lerner was among those taking part.

Lerner implored summit  participants to "create a crisis" for the super-rich, and implored these progressive followers to throw away old rules when doing it:




While you soak in Lerner's call for action in the streets, here's a question to ponder:  Is it just coincidence the White House ups its rhetoric targeting millionaires and billionaires at the same time people like Lerner are peddling their pitch?

Don and Doug move to Thursday afternoon

We're going to try something new.

Don and I are moving the live show to 1:00pm EDT this Thursday on TalkSouthRadio.com.

We're still shooting for a full two hours of news and commentary as we analyze current events through the lenses of history, politics and economics pulled together with a dash of common sense.

And if you're up to it, we take calls at 678-344-9926.

Occupy Wall Street day one

So they came to protest Wall Street.

About a thousand showed up. That's far short of the 20,000 organizers called for.

The UK Daily Mail had this recap of the first day.

French wire service AFP called the occupation a "failed attempt."

The Blaze offered another unsympathetic account.

Most U.S. media seems to ignore the event at least at this stage.

Of course, this is only after day one. How much longer will the attempt at occupation last?

Organizers had called for an effort that would last for months.

We'll see.

"This is the end"

Thought for the day from Daniel Hannan:


From YouTube.com

Hannan is a writer and journalist, and has been Conservative MEP (Member of European Parliament) for South East England since 1999... 

He also blogs at the UK Telegraph.

Obama discovers Brent Spence

The president thinks he's found a zinger. He's discovered the Brent Spence Bridge, carrying I-75 across the river between Ohio and Kentucky, needs replacement.

Mr. Obama will rush to the rescue with some grandstanding and a photo-op next week. It's all part of his push for a jobs bill.

But how many people does Mr. Obama think he can put to work on the project?

Planning for a replacement is already well underway. Several alternatives are under consideration.

But even if an immediate "go" order were given, actual construction wouldn't be expected to start until 2014. Rights of way must be acquired first.

For more on plans to replace the Brent Spence, here's a website dedicated to the project.

Looking on the bright side, at least the president has found someplace to visit, and project to pitch, that's not directly owned by a donor to his campaign or his party.

Attackwatch.com

I should have said something earlier regarding the Obama campaign's Attackwatch.com


But I've been laughing so hard (and sending my own @attackwatch /#attackwatch tips on Twitter), I haven't had the time.


Among my thoughts:

TalkSouthRadio Doug Rink On Labor Day, Hoffa comments overshadowed Obama's. Today, #attackwatch stole the headlines. Obama can't even compete with his own campaign.

Here's a quick sample of some of the #attackwatch related tweets I've seen:   

thorninaz thorninaz Hey #attackwatch, I saw 6 ATM's in an alley, killing a Job. It looked like a hate crime!

prfekrdumbrella Melody Kite RT @iowahawkblog: BREAKING: #AttackWatch to change name to Department of Hopeland Security ROFLMAO

MelissaTweets Melissa Clouthier MT @JonahNRO: I love email & tweets from libs saying #attackwatch struck a nerve on right. No ... it struck our collective funny bone

dennygirltwo Prudence STILL LAUGHING CAN'T STOP!"@tweetin009: Hi #attackwatch, someone just called Jay Carney a ferret"

RussSmith2 Russ Smith Dear #attackwatch my neighbor won't give me all her money even though she makes more than me. Look into this please.

keder Kevin Now they're blaming Bush for their Solyndra debacle. You couldn't make it up if you tried! #attackwatch

collegepolitico Stephen Gutowski I think #attackwatch is further evidence that this administrations has a fondness for recycling failed policies

KamaainaInOC Tish RT @ianessling: Someone should report @AttackWatch to #attackwatch since it is demolishing Obama's reelection chances. Oh, the paradox!#tcot

MelissaTweets Melissa Clouthier We are truly blessed. RT @iowahawkblog: I'm grateful to live in a country where the totalitarians are so hilariously inept. #AttackWatch

CFHeather heather I hear they are FORCING innocent shrimp to run on treadmills paid for by our tax dollars. #attackwatch

GaltsGirl Galt's Girl THIS! RT @moderncomments: Dear #attackwatch: Orwell's 1984 was a cautionary tale, not an instruction manual.

If the goal was to make a mockery of the Obama campaign, Attackwatch.com does the trick. It'll be the fodder of comedians for weeks, if not months to come.


How long will it take the campaign to wise up and kill the site? 

Don and Doug for Thursday 9/15

Coming up on Thursday night's show:

Lots of distractions this week. Some might say the president has started acting silly as he pushes what may well be his dead-end jobs bill.

And Obama's new AttackWatch.com website has become the laughingstock of the Internet.

Don and Doug will look at some of the stuff you might have overlooked this week. First and foremost being the increasingly precarious economic situtation in Greece and the rest of Europe.

And we've got a little more intel to share on what may be shaping up on Wall Street sometime Saturday afternoon.

Join Don and Doug at 8:00pm EDT Thursday on TalkSouthRadio.com

Silver dimes

I just watched a roll of run-of-the-mill Mercury dimes sell for $145 on eBay.

That's $2.90 a dime.

Same roll of silver dimes would have probably sold for around $40 in late 2006.

Update: Just saw another roll go for $146.50. 

Pure insanity: Cheering on the "U.S. Day of Rage"

MarketWatch.com columnist (or should be call him blogger) Paul Farrell seems more than sold on the idea of anarchists occupying Wall Street beginning this weekend.

Farrell wrote last week cheering on prospects of a Tahrir Square style revolution coming to America:

"This movement reminds us of the historic rag-tag armies General Washington commanded from 13 Colonies for the first American Revolution. 

"The new ones are also united in the spirit of the Tahrir Square revolutionaries: “One thing we all have in common is that we are the 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%,” according to posts on the Occupy Wall Street website ."

Farrell also writes:

"Yes, Occupy Wall Street wants to be more than the occupation of a street in lower Manhattan. Metaphorically theirs is a declaration of war, the start of WWIV and the Second American Revolution. But will it work? Or is it just braggadocio?"

Based on what Farrell says, it sure sounds like he'd like the threat to be real.

We've got some big problems in the USA. But no one in his or her right mind would fantasize that they'll be solved by anarchist mobs taking to the streets.

Just hope Farrell's a clueless, leftist blogger. And not someone with real behind-the-scenes insight of something  about to unfold.

Start carrying some cash

If you're not prone to keeping a little cash in your pocket, consider getting back in the habit.

The Department of Homeland Security is warning of possible cyber attacks on financial institutions. 

The website Computerworld reports:

 The U.S. Department of Homeland Security today issued a somewhat unusual bulletin warning the security community about the planned activities of hacking collective Anonymous over the next few months.

The bulletin, issued by the DHS National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), warns financial services companies especially to be on the lookout for attempts by Anonymous to "solicit ideologically dissatisfied, sympathetic employees" to their cause...

One of the attack tools highlighted in the alert is dubbed #RefRef, which is said to be capable of using a server's resources and processing power to conduct a denial of service attack against itself.

"Anonymous has stated publicly that the tool will be ready for wider use by the group in September 2011," the DHS said. "But though there have been several publicly available tools that claim to be versions of #RefRef, so far it's unclear "what the true capabilities of #RefRef are."

Before you blow off the warning, consider that Anonymous has targeted financial institutions before.

From Retail Week, December 9, 2010:

MasterCard has acknowledged interruption of its payment services after  it was hacked yesterday, while Visa became the latest payment service to be attacked by cyber-raiders overnight. 

MasterCard’s corporate website went down after hackers from the group Anonymous carried out a denial of service attack (DDOS) yesterday.

The group of hackers is opposed to the refusal of payment companies to process donations to whistleblower website WikiLeaks and has threatened PayPal and Amazon, which withdrew hosting of WikiLeaks’ site.

Technology news service Next Web has reported today that the PayPal website is down, potentially the result of another DDOS attack, and that PayPal has also decided to allow payments to go through to the WikiLeaks account once more.
Mastercard insisted yesterday payment services had not been affected by the hacking but has since released a statement saying it experienced limited interruption of some web-based services.

The latest DHS warning suggests the hackers have grown more sophisticated, and may have recruited allies within financial institutions. With the government giving clear warning of cyber attacks, it just makes sense to tote some cash. 

Carry enough to buy your lunch at work or to buy a tank of gas to get home. Just in case you unexpectedly find your plastic, or even complete credit card networks, become temporarily disabled. 

Flash bombs fly in the streets as Greece vows continued austerity measures

Night video from Russia Today (via YouTube.com):



Police clashed with demonstrators Saturday in the Greek city of Thessaloniki as more than 25,000 people joined anti-austerity protests. 

The demonstrations came as Greece's Prime Minister George Papandreou delivered his annual keynote speech on the economy and vowed to meet ambitious austerity targets despite a worsening recession.

The U.K. Telegraph has more on the Papandreou address.

Prescription drug shortages

If you or someone you know regularly take prescription drugs, you may want to consider getting a little ahead on your supply.


WATE TV in Knoxville, Tennessee reports pharmacies may run out of as many as 356 drugs by the end of the year. And that the American Hospital Association says more than 90 percent of U.S. hospitals experienced a drug shortage in the past six months.

Dry run for Wall Street "Day of Rage" protest

Organizers planning for what they say will be an occupation of Wall Street on September 17th apparently held a dry run last week.

From OccupyWallSt.org:




We're not sure what to expect from this bunch. They seem to be coming from an anarchist bent.

Are they leftist anarchists? Post-left anarchists? Are they aligned with other factions?

In addition to New York, they plan protests in several other cities.

How many people will show up for mass demonstrations by organisations they know nothing about?

Or have organizers quietly groomed participants for what they hope to pull off?

Don and Doug tonight (September 8)

Don and Doug are live at 8:00pm tonight on TalkSouthRadio.com with a review of the president's jobs address.

We'll also recap some of the Democrats' inflammatory Labor Day rhetoric.

And talk about a White House staffer in way over his head.

Got something on your mind? Give us a call after 8:00pm EDT tonight!

The Newt I remember

Newt Gingrich showed some of his old fire tonight in Reagan Library GOP presidential debate.

When asked about health care by co-moderator John Harris of Politico.com, Gingrich opened up on Obamacare. And gave a blistering scolding to the questioner while he was at it.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Later in the debate, when asked about Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Gingrich opened up again: 

“I would fire him tomorrow. I think he’s been the most inflationary, dangerous, and power-centered chairman of the Fed in the history of the Fed. I think the Fed should be audited. 


“I think the amount of money that he has shifted around in secret, with no responsibility and no accountability, no transparency, is absolutely antithetical to a free society. And I think his policies have deepened the depression, lengthened the problem, increased the cost of gasoline, and been a disaster.”

Yes, Gingrich used the term depression to describe the economy. 

Newt stands little to no chance of winning the nomination. But I'm glad he's sticking with the race.

Democrat math: A 12 percent majority?

Defenders of Democrats and the unions claim a couple of quotes from Labor Day were taken out context.

They're talking about Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa Jr.'s comment about "sons of bitches" in reference to conservatives, and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden calling unions a private force to stop conservative "barbarians at the gate."

Many conservatives found the comments offensive, some seeing them as thuggish threats to those who stand in opposition to the Democrats' political machine.

However, Democrat apologists contend Hoffa  and Biden were merely exhorting union members to express themselves through the lawful political process.




But do the math.

Union members account for less than twelve percent of the American work force.

Do Hoffa and Biden really think twelve percent of the U.S. workforce has the power to carry elections? The union force carries some sway, but - as we saw in Wisconsin - even where unions have larger percentages and strong organisations, they also have vulnerabilities.

It remains to be seen how the left will deploy the union's twelve percent, but when Mr. Biden says this is different kind of fight, it seems to suggest he'd like to see unions and their members used for more than politics as usual.

Fast and Furious cases moved from Phoenix

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) issued a statement Tuesday evening:

For Immediate Release

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley made the following statement after the Department of Justice moved cases associated with Operation Fast and Furious out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix.

“The Justice Department has finally recognized the conflict of interest with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona handling both the Terry prosecution and the Fast and Furious case.  Up to this point, the Terry family and others who have been impacted by Fast and Furious have been treated poorly by the department.  This is a step in the right direction and an overdue recognition that the cases could not be handled properly by the same prosecutors who oversaw the dangerous gunwalking strategy in the first place.”

Some of the other Fast and Furious news today:

CBS' initial story about the case transfers

WSJ: Grenades Case Hits Justice

Upcoming demonstrations: How big? How disruptive?

Anarchists and progressives claim big plans for demonstrations in the coming weeks.

A Wall Street occupation is supposed to kick off September 17th.

Washington DC's the target for October 6th.

Hype or reality? Can the left really pull off what it's promoting?

Don and I assess the situation in our September 1st program:

Theft threatens U.S. energy infrastructure

Most people don't perceive industrial theft as something that could impact their lives without warning.

But a recent Department of Energy memo suggests even the electric or phone service in your home is at risk:

A series of news articles during the last several months have reported increased thefts of copper nationally, including several that have interrupted electrical distribution and telephone service in communities across the country. These thefts have also adversely impacted new construction projects, irrigation systems and other infrastructure projects. In fact, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported in an unclassified intelligence assessment that copper thefts threaten the critical infrastructure of the United States. Further, an October 2010 report by the Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability entitled, “An Updated Assessment of Copper Wire Thefts from Electric Utilities,” revealed that U.S.-based utility companies suffer several million dollars worth of copper thefts yearly...

As the economy declines, look for copper thefts to increase. And utility services we now take for granted may be increasingly subject to disruption.

Jacksonville sheriff takes media police scanners

The Jacksonville County Sheriff's Office in Florida has pulled its police radios out of local newsrooms there.

Here are a couple of the accounts run in local media:

JSO Police Scanners Removed from First Coast News

Police Take Scanners from Media

As someone who spent many years working in a newsroom, I find this alarming. Police now have the ability to carry out their work under a cloak of secrecy that would have been impossible just a decade or two ago.

Police radios have changed a lot in recent years. In the old days, news media (and hobbyists) simply bought their own gear and listened in.

Things began to change in the late '80s when agencies began moving their radio traffic up to the 800Mhz range, and began to use digital technology known as trunk tracking. That meant radio traffic could jump from channel to channel, and only specially programmed radios would capture a whole conversation.

It was in this era that many newsrooms began to depend on government supplied radios.

Secrecy got bumped up another notch in recent years as government agencies began to add encryption to their transmissions. With encryption, radios that aren't specifically programmed to decode the signal will hear nothing that's understandable.

Agencies ranging from police and fire to school boards now cloak their transmissions with encryption (To see if your community is among them, look here).

I cranked up my old police scanner (800Mhz capable) a year or two ago, and heard nothing from nearby agencies. The set that once tipped me to everything from riots to local shoplifting is now relegated to picking up NOAA weather radio, HAM repeaters and a few media outlets still using UHF two-ways.

When making the move to more secure transmissions, police agencies often pacified media objections by offering to let them have (or lease) radios programmed to receive restricted transmissions. Now that those public safety networks are irrevocably in place, it appears government now feels safe in rescinding its earlier spirit of cooperation. At least that appears to be the case in Jacksonville, Florida.

The Donkey Whisperer

Who needs TV? The best political ads seem to show up on YouTube.

Roger Williams, running for Congress in Texas, has a great one.


From: RogerforCongress.com via YouTube.com                    Hat tip: Powerlineblog.com

Stimulus hiring and competitive advantage

In an effort to boost recovery and encourage new hiring, a Democrat-controlled Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009. President Obama signed the bill. The administration frequently touted varying numbers of jobs saved or created as a result of the spending measure more commonly known as the stimulus plan.

A new study suggests large numbers of those hired with stimulus money weren't pulled from the ranks of the unemployed. The voluntary survey of stimulus recipients was undertaken by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

The Mercatus survey found 47 percent of those hired were hired from other organisations (they already had jobs). Another 6.5 percent were hired straight from school or from outside the labor force. Just 42.1 percent of those hired with stimulus money were categorized as unemployed at the time of their hire.

A stat the survey doesn't provide: How many other organisations lost solid, seasoned workers because a competitor was given government funding that allowed the competitor to raid its workforce. How many private-sector companies or other organisations that didn't receive stimulus were harmed because government gave competitors unfair advantage?