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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?
š¶ Those boots were made for mockinā šµ
Black Jesus loves a paper trail.
Battle won, war still ongoing.
Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.
Republicans donāt want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.
If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.
When someone says they ālove freedomā, rest assured they donāt mean yours.
It may be funny to you motherfucker, but itās not funny to me.
Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.
This blog will pay for itself.
Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.
Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.
People are complicated. Love is not.
Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.
Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?
The revolution will be supervised.
You donāt get rid of your umbrella while itās still raining.
Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.
Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.
Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.
Technically true, but collectively nonsense
All your base are belong to Tunch.
The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.
Krista
What, no straight talk? You give up easily on your job, don’t you?
Defeatocrat.
w vincentz
Oil hit $114.53 per barrel today.
The local farm store is sold out of many types of seed due to many people starting to garden. Local independent truckers are screamin’.
Bush times! Yessiree….we’re BUSHED!
Billy K
I’m thinking about maybe delivering some straight talk. It’s my hobby. Stay tuned…
The Other Steve
I got a job offer! I’m getting a new job.
No more subprime mortgages for me!
wish I was working for an oil company, I could sell a barrel of oil an hour and get rich!
TheFountainHead
I think I’m going to spend the rest of the day listening to the Boss, as a way of saying thanks.
ploeg
Where’d you park the bus? I need to throw somebody under it.
The Other Steve
I need to buy some boss. I realized I do not have any boss cds in my collection, and I am sad.
I’m going to have to substitute Dire Straights.
w vincentz
TheOtherSteve,
Not a bad idea. As for me, I’m giving riding lessons to people that have never been on a horse. When they overcome their fear, I get to sell ’em a gentle old hacker and seal the deal by pointing to the fact that they won’t have to pay for lawn care anymore as Ol’ Nellie will munch and fertilize at the same time.
If things don’t work out, they can do like the French and just have a nice bar-b-q featuring horse steaks.
jake
For sale:
50 bajillion Pope Crazed Roman Catholics, ready for immediate pick up. Create your own army; Stack ’em up and make a completely organic dwelling with natural temperature control. They also make a great source of protien!*
Don’t make me start shoving these suckers in front of the train.
Thank you.
*Warning: Continual consumption of Roman Catholics may cause feelings of extreme guilt for no particular reason.
Jen
It’s Dire Straits, and Malkin’s Straight Talk. Getcher straights straight, homo.
j/k
Congrats on the job!
The Other Steve
Back in college there was a professor who just let his grass grow. He posted a sign that said “Natural Prairie Restoration Project”.
w vincentz
Or in other locales, “Wildlife refuge”.
rā¬nato
In case you are feeling sleepy this morning and need something to goose your blood pressure, here’s the latest instance of Michael O’Hanlon demanding another couple of F.U.’s to find the magic pony in Mess O’Potamia.
Bret Harris
How to Make a Clinton Hack pollster look very Dumb
w vincentz
And for those that don’t think their lives will be forever changed due to current circumstances:
http://www.alternet.org/audits/82476/
Incertus
The wingnuts aren’t going to like this–the second Liberty 7 trial has ended in a mistrial as well.
Incertus
Nice one, Bret.
jcricket
Speaking of straight talk, there’s some great examples in this article about student loans regarding how the private sector is quite often far worse than the government at operating “efficiently”.
The author calls it the “privatization fetish”, which is dead on. Ideology over practical results is the hallmark of Republicans and Libertarians, across the board.
Punchy
I just dont understand how these guys survive. Where I’m at, it’s $4+/gall for the Not-Vin diesel. How do these guys make any coin when they’re dropping a $K in their tank at every fillup?
And how has this not raised the price of every item at WalMart and Target and Best Buy?
w vincentz
Punchy,
They’re not surviving. One of my friends that drive cross country is waiting for the major companies to consolidate the little guys when they decide to hang it up. The transport system is gonna get a whole lot worse before it gets any better, and the dislocation will have consequences far beyond what the small independents are going through.
Billy K
Well, they’d better not be bitter.
Dennis - SGMM
Competition between American private sector companies operating in a free market drives down costs, raises efficiency and provides us with a wide array of quality goods and services at the most competitive prices in the world. That’s why every American has affordable health care. That’s why we all drive Fords, Chevies and Chryslers rather than those nasty foreign cars. My heart beats proudly as I gaze over my television set, washer, dryer, refrigerator, computer, microwave, cell phone, MP3 player – all made by Americans working for good pay because of the magic of our economic system.
Right.
John Cole
I was just talking about diesel prices yesterday with my cabbie, of all people. And the thing to remember is that truckers are not going in an buying 15-30 gallons at $4.25 a pop when they fill up the tank. Think 300 gallons.
I don’t know how much longer they will be able to hold out.
cleek
Bosnia And Back Again is pretty f’in funny.
cleek
that would earn me a couple of nasty letters and probably a fine from the Home Owners Association.
b. hussein canuckistani
Is it heartless to suggest that trains are a much safer and more energy efficient method of transporting goods over long distances? I’m personally sorry for the truckers (my cousin is one) but I sure would like to see rejuvenated rail service.
Dennis - SGMM
Very f’in funny.
jcricket
B/C WalMart and Target simply reduce their overhead/costs first – by lowering starting salaries, hiring less people, lowering benefits, freezing raises. Oh, and they squeeze their suppliers more, threatening them with cutting off access if the supplier raises prices charged to the merchant. Even if this means the supplier starts operating in the red and then goes bankrupt – Walmart’s been doing this for years. On the shady side, this also leads to corners being cut with safety and oversight, as suppliers look for ever-cheaper sourcing (and some vendor in China says sure, $0.01/crayon box, that’s fine – and then uses butane as the coating or whatever).
The customers at these places will stop going if the prices go up.
We’re all screwed.
John Cole
We don’t have the infrastructure for trains.
One of the problems with the US is how big it is- rail works great in Europe because of the density. While this is not to rule out trains, it just makes it such a different case.
bago
See, this is why I have way more respect for people that can a get a work crew to build a two story rotating dance floor in three days at burning man than any of these self important intra-connnected fundraisers.
Some of us can do it, with a work group that is 50% high, in a 120 ish degree desert at a 3.2 ph level filled with dust storms. And some of us can’t even misunderestimate the gravitas required to build la contessa.
Can we update some of the old standbys and say that those of us who can do, and frolic with the feather covered half naked girls, and those who can’t pay escort services without any appreciation of irony when your name is Spitzer or Vitter.
Perhaps I am alone but if I said “she spitzered all weekend until I upgraded to the presidential suite” should warn WAY more points than media travesty followed
Just for anyone in power to admit that they are in it for the power would be refreshing. Screw drinking cheap beer, show you have a modicum of expertise by expunging all traces of bud light from your campaign.
Dennis - SGMM
One of the worst parts about the situation we find ourselves in is that even if people come up with dynamite sources of alternative energy over the next few years we probably won’t have the money to put them in place unless we flog a few National Parks, or the Red States, to the Chinese and the OPEC nations.
JGabriel
The New York Times has an article on food preferences of the various candidates supporters.
It’s about as stupid as you’d expect.
But there’s a photo depicting the candidates and the preferred breakfast cereal of their target groups. The short version is:
Barak Obama, Bear Naked Peak Protein: Get some energy! Go, go, go!
Hillary Clinton, Kashi Go Lean: Lose weight, be healthy!
John McCain, General Foods Fiber One: I just wanna shit regular.
.
w vincentz
Yet another reminder of a lesson that should have been learned…Lam Son. I won’t bring up the Kent State massacre or the shut down of so many campuses in this country at the time. I’ll just say that I lived through it, protested, FBI’d, ya get the point.
Wasting resources in Iraq anyone?
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/16/8318/
Incertus
Shit, I choked a little a couple of days ago when I dropped $45 in my girlfriend’s compact Nissan pickup, and that’ll get us around for a week and a half if we drive with the windows down.
bago
With a 40% panel on the top of a panel as long as you aren’t in a port town (from Seattle here. What happens when it rains in Seattle? You get wet.) you can make the power created to cruise with the area atop the surface of the container carts far more efficient than it takes to push the group along. Shit balls man, even the short distances the caltrain and bart run in SF prove the viability of a prioritized rail network.
Sure it might not work for Muncie Indiana, but what can really work in a city that has less fortune 500 companies than the first zipcode I use to get to my work on?
John Cole
I used to sit and think about all the money my Cav unit spent on diesel and JP-8. We easily burned through several hundred gallons a day on my M1A1 alone.
bago
In other words it sucks to be poor, overleveraged and forced into a high fuel consumption daily diet. This is why Dallas is the opposite of anything that’s right and those freaky liberals in SF an NY have plans to deal with these crunches. I’m an engineer. That means I solve problems Really, listen to those freaks who have built their way out of problems first.
Billy K
Yeah. I came just short of $50 last week. That’s 1 week’s worth of gas (fucking commute). Until 2008, I don’t think I’ve ever put more than $35 in my 4-cylinder Saturn. Thank God I decided NOT to go for the 6-cylinder.
This shit is seriously getting out of hand. I know there are people in serious financial distress out there, but they’re silent. Where’s the outrage? Is the media just not giving voice to it? If we blame it on Gay Muslims, will people speak out?
jake
Now, now. When the I.R.S privatized debt collection (for the little guy) thingswent exactly as they planned:
This is not about doing things well to prove big gubbermint sucks. This is not about doing jack. This is about sucking cash from the gubbermint teat until forcibly weaned.
Dennis - SGMM
This much:
Billy K
Sorry. We listen to developers (Land developers, not “Developers Developers Developers”).
Are you actually from Dallas? I swear this blog is all Texans and Canucks.
jake
Oh my. And I haven’t heard any Brown Squirts screaming about Obama the Stealth Muslim Elitist Commie O.J. Drinking Nudist.
rawshark
We’re way more fucked than you guys think. You gotta listen to the wingnuts that listen to talk radio. They seriously believe the economy has gone bad since the dems took over the congress. They believe in their heart of hearts that the republicans are right, about everything, and there is no reasoning them out of it. We’re done. This country won’t reach it’s tricentennial. We will have another Civil War and the country will split.
cbear
Ah, the new gooper meme for 2008.
“We’re fighting ’em over there, so they don’t buttfuck us over here.”
“When they stand up, we bend over.”
“We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.”
I think you’ve identified the mysterious “dead-enders” Runsfeld and Cheney were allways talking about.
over_educated
Check it, one of the “voters” in the Clinton add wasn’t even a Pennsylvania voter: http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2008/04/clintons_offended_pa_voter_not.html
Lollerskates!
Punchy
John, do you not drive? If not, why not?
Zifnab
That doesn’t make any sense. The massive distances between major cities should be a selling point for trains, not a detraction. How on earth is it cheaper to run a ton of freight via truck down I-10 than via train down some rail line if the distance is increased from 10 miles to 100 miles.
I suppose implementation is cheaper, but I also suspect that the high density of European cities makes the simple act of owning a car more trouble than its worth. Like living in New York – why drive in gridlock traffic when you can walk or take the bus, given that parking is near non-existent? No cars means no need for massive interstate highways. And it means people – and goods – need a better way to travel than in a dinky two-seater.
I’ve been saying this for years and am continually amazed that no one has tried it. A train route between Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas. Tell me how this wouldn’t be a massively useful and cost-effective endeavor?
cbear
I guess those were the guys throwing all the flowers when we “liberated” Iraq.
dj spellchecka
my favorite article from this morning comes from the la times. it seems that captured documents show that al-qaeda is actually a penny-pinching bureaucracy.
i’d link but i’m not sure i know the balloon-juice rules.
anyway check out the times website and search for the article entitled ” Penalty for crossing an Al Qaeda boss? A nasty memo.”
Timb
I have a question: When media types note that being “anti-free trade” will hurt a candidate, despite the fact that even 60% of Republicans think free trade hurts American jobs (heard that stat on NPR today) and over 60% of Democrats oppose free trade who the hell are they referring to? Seems to me that the American public has largely reached the conclusion that free trade agreements haven’t worked out so well for them (and I tend to disagree), yet media types (no matter how liberal, I just heard Robert Scheer of truthdig.com say free trade agreements are good) always say this will hirt the Democratic candidate.
Similarly, I heard a news reporter say that the Iraq debate is going to be “very polarizing” in the upcoming election. How is that possible? Almost 70% of the public wants the war to end within the next year. Where is the polarization going to come from?
Seems to me, media people are the elite, quizzing each other about current events, and coming to conclusions at complete odds with their fellow citizens. But, Obama is an elitist and Chris Matthews and three Mercedes and 4 million dollar summer home on Nantucket is a man of the people?
I think they are the ones who are “out of touch.”
w vincentz
Dennis,
Thanks for that link.
Imagine where we’d be is our gummint wasn’t squandering resources? Shit! It’s time to pull the plug cause this patient is DEAD!
John Cole
Nope, I haven’t owned a car in 3-4 years, because I just haven’t needed to. I ride the bus or take a cab when I need to get around. My parents hate that I do not have a car, but I really don’t mind (Mom- “You are 37- it is just not normal!”). I was getting so angry driving in the congestion during the school year, then spending another 45 minutes trying to find a place to park that my day was ruined by the time I got to work.
Probably going to end up biting the bullet and buy a car this summer, though, although I really don’t want one. They are just a pain in the ass, and everything about them pisses me off. I hate looking for parking spaces, I hate paying insurance on them (here is some money in case something shitty happens, then I get to fight you for the money back), I hate paying taxes on property I already bought, I hate people who cut me off or who brake and wave someone in front of them when they have the green light, etc.
I would say my quality of life has gone up dramatically since I got rid of my car.
Scrutinizer
ph.uck showed up?
cleek
and i agree
Walker
This poll is the most frightening thing that I have read in a long time:
Great Depression II, here we come.
John S.
It seems we don’t have much of an infrastructure for anything these days, and I was talking about it with my wife the other night. We came up with a crazy idea.
For all the billions we are throwing down the hole in Iraq, why don’t we spend it on something to actually improve our homeland security and our economy…like infrastructure.
All those laid off factory workers, machinists, welders, carpenters could be put to good use rebuilding our electrical grid, roads, bridges, water pipes, etc. Talk about a major boon to our country!
It worked after WWII, didn’t it? So why not now? Are any of the candidates focusing on something like this? Are there any major initiatives out there?
Jen
Good thing you’re getting one, then.
I saw that poll Walker linked to. What is that phrase the government always wanted us to be whenever they talked about the Terror Alert Rainbow — watchful yet happy? Alert yet buzzed? Relaxed but vigilant? I don’t remember. Something idiotic.
Anyway, that’s kind of how I feel about this election. I have the side of me saying, ye gods, we could not possibly lose this election. Elections are about fundamentals, and the fundamentals for the Republicans are horrifying and for the Democrats are better than they’ve been in quite a while.
The other side of me says, well, explain 2004 then, smartass.
Still, even though it is abundantly clear that the MSM is going to continue to be McCain’s lap poodle, there’s only so much lipstick you can put on him before he looks like a trollop and a cunt.
Shorter me: the poll numbers are going to shift, a good bit, by November.
Decided FenceSitter
I commute something like 380 miles for work and school each week; plus on a given weekend I’ll throw another 150-200 miles on my car; so yeah, I’m thankful for my 30-34MPG stick shift Saturn and living in an area (NoVA) that brings DOWN the national average for gas (3.33-3.40 or so around my house).
Teak111
Wow no car. That is cool. Think of the cost/carbon savings. I’ve rid myself of cell phones, TVs, magazine subscriptions, gym memberships, etc in an effort to save money and increase quality of life. So far so go, although I still pay $50 for broadband. But it never occur ed to me to dump my car. Not sure it would work here in SoCal. Haven’t seen the inside of a bus in a long time. John, you must live close to your gig and to shopping and schools. Seems to me, we would all save a lot of gas and smog if those that could worked virtually. My company is still suspicious that I will do my work in my underwear. Christ, get out of the 1800s, please.
Svensker
Obama mentioned this idea somewhere the other day (Compassion Forum? sic). Of course, using tax dollars to employ Americans to build stuff in America is socialism. Using tax dollars to blow up foreigners is laissez-faire capitalism. Or something. Ask Bill Kristol, he’ll know.
AkaDad
Condi Rice: War Criminal
The Populist
Obama is talking about an infrastructure bank or something like that.
I love it. Without solid, effective infrastructure we become a 3rd world country. Sorry, laissez faire-ies I refuse to give our roads, bridges and highways to private entities.
It is in our best interests to maintain this infrastructure.
Krista
Can’t blame you, John. I loved not having a car. No expense, no worry, it was great. And if I wanted to go out of town for a weekend, I could rent a car for less than what it would cost me for a month’s parking at my building.
Living in the sticks necessitates a car, though, as hitch-hiking is not really a reliable method with which to get to work.
rawshark
The world is what they say it is. That’s the reality they sell. If they say a topic is polarizing it’s because they want people to think that. The best part is how they say it as though they are repeating people’s views rather than creating them.
w vincentz
Teak,
You sound like a potenitial customer.
I’ve got a real nice retired polo pony that might be of interest to you. She neck reigns and leg turns. I ride her bareback, but if you’re interested in lessons, I’ll toss a saddle on her for ya.
Oh, I should mention that I’ve ridden her on the side of a very busy road and it didn’t phase her at all.
Talk about a cheap commute! A bale a day ($2), let her mow your lawn, and you’ve got free fertilizer for your garden as well.
What a deal!
The Populist
Yep Condi may get off in this country, but abroad she could have some problems traveling in the future. Same goes for the other key personnel in the administration.
John Cole
My cell phone doubles as my home phone. No point having a home phone when you are single, since when I am not home, no one is going to answer the damned phone anyway. And I never call myself.
shera
I’ve had a car for 8 years now, and I use it, but I don’t really need it. I think most people are like that; they don’t really need their cars but just are lazy (including me!). With gas prices so high, I’m getting a bike. I’ve lived in Denmark, and got around by bike, and it was wonderful. If Americans just got their act together and accommodated cyclists more (slightly raised sidewalks as bikepaths and traffic lights for bikers, etc.), people would definitely drive to work.
Krista
‘Bout time somebody is. And John S. is right. For all of the money that you guys have spent in Iraq, you could have totally beefed up rail and port security and your entire infrastructure, and offset a lot of job losses in the bargain.
I’d be really, really pissed off about this, if I were you.
Jen
I live a pleasant 15 minute walk to a bus stop for a bus that runs right by my office. I would take it every day if I could, and knit.
The problem is that I have two children who go to and are picked up in two other locations every day. If I tried to do this by bus I would spend about 4 hours each way getting to work. Which has merit as far as the workday is concerned, but would really eat into my Balloon Juice time. To live outside a really central urban area with children in the United States is to be pretty wedded to your car. The price of gas definitely does affect my decisions about less essential travel, though.
Tom in Texas
Yes
Teak111
My dad said, never invest in anything that eats….so horses are out. I have a cell phone but not a home phone, all entertainment comes through the internets, much better then TV. When I workout at a gym, I pay at the local pool. Reoccurring convenience costs mount quickly. Cable alone it a triple headed monster that I just refuse to participate in. Basic cable, extended, digital, HD, HBO and on and on. Baseball and football are on the radio for free. The absolute best improvement is dumping the cable. It still have a TV and can watch rent the Wire when I want.
Tom in Texas
And sadly Texas Guv V2.1 vetoed the Texas Bullet Train project years ago. WE’re going with a privately owned toll road. Owned by a Mexican company. And the GOP will almost certainly win another term regardless. Sigh. At least Houston and Dallas have mass transit.
Teak111
I’m like you Jen, coupla kids, one in middle, one in HS, work is 25 miles away, a car is required. I do ride the bike to work, but its dangerous and time consuming. Now if I could convince the boss to work virtually, then might only need one car.
zzyzx
Yeah the gas prices pissed me off this morning. I only had driven 400 miles and I had to put in $28?!?! What’s up with that?
…oh that’s why people hate Prius drivers…
nightjar
Did you know Jimmy Carter was “An Emissary of Evil” . This from the Wingnut Intelligence Agency” . Yup, they got one of those for you east coasters. So be good.
Original Lee
Jen, I agree that the rugrats almost require having a car. I used to ride the bus to work before I became a parent, but now I don’t, because the bus takes 1.5+ hours each way and I have to pay $1/minute if I’m late picking up the kids. It’s only 17 miles to work, but usually takes 45-60 minutes each way due to traffic. If gas hits $4/gallon, though, I’m looking at a carpool, even though my current job has somewhat erratic hours.
p.a.
True to an extent, but Vienna to Lisbon is 2,024 miles, Copenhagen to Lisbon 1937mi., Copenhagen to Naples 1,608mi.
It’s a question of will…as in will you pay? Eurorail is heavily subsidized. The EU isn’t so stupid as to require the service to show a profit as we do with Amtrak; they understand there are other benefits gained from quality rail transportation.
And what’s wrong with local rail? Have any studies even been done about Amtrak-style regional service between, say the major Texas cities and New Orleans, Atlanta-Raleigh-Florida, Seattle-Spokane-Portland-Boise, the
Rustbelt cities or Cali? If these gasoline prices are to stay at these levels (at least)-and I think they are- there may be a market for commuter rail all over the country.
I live in New England, and I love Amtrak and the MBTA. I’m perfectly willing to pay so the rest of the country can enjoy the same (subsidized) benefits I have.
And this will provide decent, well-paying jobs, unless we use the Homeland Security Dept. template.
rawshark
I love my car, actually I’m in love with my car. I love it so much a bought a second car for the dog because the dog doesn’t get to go in the first car.
In phoenix you have to own a car. I know Steven Wright says everythings with in walking distance if you have the time but I just don’t have the time to walk a mile to the corner convenience store. For a lot of people it’d be two miles of walking before they found the exit of their neighborhood.
rawshark
Where’s the profit in that?
zzyzx
“Seattle-Spokane-Portland-Boise”
I can tell you that one – mountain passes. Heck even the simple Seattle -> Everett and Seattle -> Tacoma lines are regularly closed in the winter due to mudslides.
w vincentz
Teak,
You sound like you’ve got your head on your shoulders.
But as far as agreeing with your dad about not investing in anything that eats, well, I disagree.
Take chickens for example. They don’t require too much care or feed, and with the price of eggs lately, you’d be way ahead if you had six layers. When they get too old, just stew them up.
Rabbits are another. Two does and a buck will supply you with a lot of protien during a year and you can sell the surplus. Their droppings are a bonus to the garden.
So…tell your dad he’s incorrect. If you invest in something that eats, you assure yourself that YOU have something to EAT.
I’ll tell you about pigs and sheep later if you’re interested, and yes, it’s tough to keep a horse if you live in the suburbs. Heck, my brother used to live down the road from Nixon’s place in Upper Saddle River, NJ, and he kept four ewes in his backyard. Then again, he made the rounds of the north Jersey pet shops a week after Easter and filled his freezer with bunnies.
Gosh, I’m still trying to convince my girlfriend that I wasn’t doing anything wrong when I pulled over and threw a roadkilled doe in the back of my pickup. She sure liked the venison though!
Billy K
Ha. Ha-ha. You had me going there for a minute. You’re a funny man.
Billy K
One of the many things I despise about that city.
The Other Steve
Some have asked me about my new job. I’m going to be working on a contract with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Restroom Behavior Analysis. It’s a $60 million contract to place a biometric monitoring system in the MSP public restrooms to identify inappropriate use of bathroom stalls.
The system has to be up in place by September 1st, in time for the Republican convention.
The Other Steve
The US consumes around 275 million gallons of gas a month.
50 million is close to 20% of our fuel usage.
I wonder how much fuel the military consumes just sitting idle and training? I’m going to guess that it’s a fraction of what they use while in combat.
Krista
I hope you at least knew when it had been hit. Otherwise…ewwww.
w vincentz
Krista,
Yes, I knew when it was clobbered cause it was still trying to get up, even though both its front legs were broken.
Do I have to tell you why I always carry a knife?
Jen
Please tell me you did not invent a fake job offer at 10:00 a.m. this morning just to set up this joke, ’cause that is a long ways to go. You need a Prius for that joke.
ThymeZone
Well first of all Phoenix is a metropolitan area, one of the largest in the country, and it has considerably more diversity than most of its residents recognize. Where I live, I don’t need a car at all. I have walking access (5 mins or less) to just about every possible service and retail operation I need, pretty good bus service less than 150 feet from my front door, and later this year, light rail about 4 blocks away.
People who live out in the suburban reaches of any large metro area in this country, any of the post-WWII sprawls, are all car-dependent, but I am not one of those. But my main point is that Phoenix is no different from any of those cities in that regard, whatever.
The fact is, people WANT cars because it’s convenient to have one, and there are places to park them cheaply and conveniently. So everybody who can, gets a car, and uses it considerably. But in this part of town, which is bigger than most of the towns in this country, nobody really NEEDS a car unless they work a long distance away.
Quality of Life surveys in Phoenix are pretty favorable, I posted a lengthy analysis of it about a month ago. I doubt that many large (say, 1m plus) metro areas in the country are doing better in that regard. And we also have a rather famously recession-proof economy here, characterized by diversity and resiliency, that keeps people moving here in droves. To say nothing of the nicest winters in the world.
Gus
Yes, Vienna to Lisbon is 2024 miles, but how many larger metro are in between those? Going from, say Omaha to San Francisco requires going through long stretches of barren wasteland (like Nevada) with no logical stops. Which certainly doesn’t mean I’m against rail transit, I love the idea.
zzyzx
Yeah but the entire area is living on the edge of an ecological disaster. The water crisis is getting worse and worse as any visit to Hoover Dam makes clear. It’s not sustainable.
ThymeZone
Ouch, how unclear. What I meant was, the little “part of town” I live in is larger than most of the whole towns in this country. You couldn’t live almost anywhere in the US and have more convenient access to everything you need than I have right here in a half mile radius.
w vincentz
Oil closed today at $114.83.
Good luck everyone. See what happens when we have to buy foreign petroleum with devalued dollars?
We’re BUSHED!
John S.
Tom in Texas-
Thanks for the link. Although:
Is still woefully inadequate. According to the ASCE, infrastructure repairs would total $1.6 trillion. While Obama’s call for $6 billion a year for 10 years is a start, it still doesn’t come close to addressing the problems.
And actually, Obama wasn’t introducing a new idea here since senators Dodd and Hagel introduced a bill for the National Infrastructure Bank Act of 2007 which calls for the same commitment.
By the time this shitty war is over we will have spent $1.6 trillion on it, I have little doubt. To think that we could have given our entire country an overhaul for that same money makes me nauseous.
Krista
w vincentz: Yep. I understand why you carry the knife. I have one too, for the same reason. I’d hate to fatally hit an animal and not be able to do anything to stop its suffering. And yeah, you might as well get the meat out of it, I guess. The whole thing would still be kind of upsetting, though — especially if you’ve never hit a deer before.
My husband would have put it out of its misery as well. And like you, I can see him wanting to take the deer back right away, but my hysterical shrieking would probably prevent him — I get upset when I even hit a squirrel. Hitting a deer would completely unhinge me, and I’d need at least a bit of transition time before I could think of it as meat, and not the poor critter that I’d run over.
Incertus
That pickup I mentioned earlier? My girlfriend had a bumper sticker made for it that reads “I’ve got Prius envy.”
ThymeZone
Um, no, not the case. Phoenix sits at the confluence of a couple of very large watersheds, the Salt and Gila rivers, which by themselves are more than adequate to support the city and its water needs. Pima cotton was invented in this valley by the Pima indians, who grew the cotton long before mechanized irrigation and large scale reservoirs that we have now. I think that only rice is a more water-intensive cash crop than cotton. Half of this town sits on land that once grew cotton. Colorado water, which is what Lake Mead is, is an adjunct to the local water supply, not the main source of it. Our lakes and reservoirs are, at the moment, pretty much full. This past winter they had to let water out of them to keep them within the safety limits.
Phoenix will not run out of water. Even as I speak, the greatest threat to the water resource here is waste. Water has been cheap and plentiful and people don’t conserve it. We can easily conserve our way to water frugality that would rival anything in the country.
LBNL, I just converted my front yard to xeriscape and reduced the water footprint of this property by almost a third with one stroke. And … I don’t have to mow it any more, either.
Other western metro areas are much more vulnerable to drought than we are. Tucson and Las Vegas, great examples. Phoenix is in good shape.
There’s a wealth of information out there on the subject, you can start with this if you like. But in any case, don’t rely on blog chatter to educate you about water in Phoenix, because almost nobody who doesn’t live here and study the problem as any idea what they are talking about.
w vincentz
Krista,
I value your sensitivity. No, I didn’t hit the doe but the lady that did was frantic and trying to flag down anyone that would pull over to solve the problem.
Sure, it’s upsetting. But after you get past that, it’s a lot of free delicious meat.
I can’t believe how many times I’ve seen people clobber excellent makin’s for a nice crock pot full and just keep on goin’. Geesh, I pick up squirrels, woodchucks, cottontails, and many varieties of birds (pheasants, grouse). Why let the crows have ’em?
“The Road Kill Cookbook” by B.R. Peterson will get you started. Lots of good recipes there. Enjoy!
Billy K
Well, yeah, cause everybody moved there from LA or Boston or Detroit.
Based almost entirely on the idea that the growth wont stop and all those properties will continue to escalate in value. (See Debacle, Subprime.)
You’re kidding, right? Maybe Phoenix ca. 1977; but as it exists now, you’re at the mercy of the Colorado River.
All 3 weeks of it.
Full Disclosure: I grew up in that shithole.
Martin
Heh. Did anyone catch this? It’s dated, but suddenly quite relevant.
Someone put this on an index card and stick it in Obama’s hand before the debate.
Billy K
Where is your “little part of town” TZ? Tempe?
I grew up at 44th and McDowell.
Billy K
It may be, but it’s a helluva lot better than what we’re doing now. Out of curiosity, what have the other two candidates proposed?
Who cares who came up with it? I don’t think anyone has patented “bills for infrastructure improvement.” The fact that BHO “gets it” is more than we’re gonna get from the other two.
The MUP may vomit pixie dust, but it doesn’t print money.
Punchy
I laugh my ass off at the peeps who don’t do this. (I’m sorry, Mom). Really, what the hell is a home phone for when long disty is included on the cell? WTF pay 2 damn bills for the same shizzle?
My phone has become (and mine’s not even a fancy one) my scheduler, notebook, alarm clock, sports scores source, watch, calculator, and if I were a chick, I suppose a vibrator.
The Other Steve
I just made up the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Restroom Behavior Analysis, cause I thought it was funny. ;-)
But I do have a new job, just something different. :-)
D-Chance.
OMG, Driving Pet Peeve Number 1: drivers who refuse to use their right-of-way. “Hey, moron, you got to the 4-way stop first… MOVE IT! Don’t sit there and stare at me. Don’t wave me on. Just put your freaking foot on the gas pedal!”
I often wonder why I don’t own a firearm, then I get behind the wheel of my car and it becomes a reminder… I’d use it.
Face
I’m pretty sure if you hit a deer, you didn’t run it over. And most likely, you aint gunna drive off with it, cuz your front end will resemble an accordian and there’ll be lots of smoke coming from the engine. ;)
The Other Steve
My home phone is Vonage. 5cents/minute to Russia, you can’t beat that. That’s really the only reason we have it… that and a number to give annoying people, so they aren’t calling me on my cell.
w vincentz
The Other Steve,
I got it and thought it was funny. I was hopin’ you’d catch a foot tapper or three, not countin’ Larry Craig again.
Anyway, good luck with your new job. Will it involve, “Would you like that super-sized?”
Just kiddin’, been that kind of day.
w vincentz
The Other Steve,
I got it and thought it was funny. I was hopin’ you’d catch a foot tapper or three, not countin’ Larry Craig again.
Anyway, good luck with your new job. Will it involve, “Would you like that super-sized?”
Just kiddin’, been that kind of day.
Chuck Butcher
In OR you had better not load up that deer. In fact a mercy killing is technically illegal. I am always able to deal with such a situation, frequently with a firearm. An injured white tail offers some risks, a big mule deer is a bit more of a challenge, and Rocky Mountain elk, bears, and cougars could be a bit much for a hunting knife. (a 1200 lb bull elk with a 6′ rack ??)
I really hope alla youse that really don’t need to drive knock it off. I have to drive my 3/4T 4×4 ’78 Chev utility bed truck and 8 mpg is pretty uncomfortable. Sure, a new 08 would get 14mgp (20hwy) but I don’t have $24K now or anytime and try making the mpg pay that off. That truck necessarily weighs 8,000lbs, it is at rated capacity most of the time. It certainly stays parked as much as possible.
John S.
Relax, dude.
As anyone around here can tell you, I’m just about as vehement an Obama supporter as anyone. And incidentally, Hillary is on board with the same exact plan. She even co-sponsored the Dodd/Hagel bill. John McCain – not so much.
That doesn’t mean I think Obama sucks on the issue as compared to the other candidates, but I would like to see more. I just call ’em like I see ’em.
D-Chance.
But… but… that would bust the budget!
“We’ll have massive deficits! Our children and grandchildren will be paying 84% effective tax rates!” That was the Limbaugh mantra in the early 90s when it was “$200 million deficits for as far as the eye can see”. You don’t hear that kind of talk now, but let a Dem take office in Jan ’09 and the deficit and national debt will suddenly become a major Republican concern.
ThymeZone
Um, near Encanto Park, actually.
Billy K
I wasn’t un-relaxed. You should not have read that as aggressive or pissed off in any way.
And when I asked what the other two had to say on the matter, I really meant it as a question, cause I don’t know.
My vitriol isn’t 24/7. More like 23.5/6.
Billy K
Cool. You’re by the old Chris-Town mall. I assume that’s gone now. When I lived there, that was the “West” part of town. I’m sure it’s central now. I didn’t spend much time out that way, though I understand it’s pretty cool now. There was a couple great Vintage shops over there in the late-90s.
w vincentz
Chuck,
Here in NY, all you have to do is call DEC and ask that a conservation officer come over and put a tag on it. Usually they just say enjoy, and don’t show up.
Regarding an elk or a cougar, not my experience. But a whitetail is easy if you come from behind and keep your feet away from theirs, straddle the back, grab the lower jaw and hit both juglars on the first jab.
You might get some strange looks from passing motorists while you’re gutting it out on the side of the road, but I don’t pay them much mind.
By the way, carry a plastic bag in your glove compartment so you have something to put the liver and heart in. Be sure to slice the liver thin and soak it in milk for a few hours. Fry the bacon, then the onions, then the liver slices. YUM!
ThymeZone
Oh no, not at all. Very little Colorado water flows into the municipal water supply here. The CAP was built for farmers, anyway, not municipal users.
Even so, CAP water is the most expensive water around, and Phoenix is still addicted to that cheap Verde, Salt and Gila water.
CAP water is being utilized primarily in two areas around here now, one is groundwater recharge, which is a way for the state to meet a statutory requirement not to deplete groundwater resources without replenishing from any available source, and two is the supply of water to property (mostly residential) that is outside of the old water districts where there is no legal basis for using water from the local watersheds. Water rights go with the land, and the rights were assigned according to legacy use patterns that make it necessary to sell water from, say, the Salt River Project, only to land that has rights to that water. That means if you want to build houses outside of that district, you have to figure out a way to provide water for them, and CAP (Colorodo River water, flowing in what is known as the Central Arizona Project) is one way to do that.
If all this seems confusing, it comes down to this: Water is about money here. You can get all the water you want, into the next several decades, as long as you can pay for it. It’s about economics.
So far, so good.
Krista
Good point. Poor choice of words. And yes, I’ve seen cars that have hit deer. They’ve not come out well. But they’ve still looked a good sight better than cars that have hit a fully grown moose.
John S.
They already started concern-trolling when Dems took control of congress in 2006.
John S.
Duly noted.
Chuck Butcher
I bitched to an ODFW guy about that over a mulie I’d hit, he made the point that in that case there’d be quite a bit of brushguard hunting going on. I’ve lived out here for a long time and I can’t say he’d be wrong. There are a few whitetail around here, mulies are the norm, they run 20-30% bigger in body and the rack is quite vertical.
Regarding the other animals, putting yourself in reach of one is real stupid. Generally vehicles around here take pretty minor damage, the odd center punch does the bad stuff where deer are concerned. A larger elk is going to flat ruin your day. It is real unusual for a bear or cat to get hit, they are really shy.
Tsulagi
You might through VoiceStick, our VOIP carrier. With their Global Calling plan at $25 mo., the wifeās calls to mom, dad, and other family in Buenos Aires are free and unlimited. In addition to unlimited US/Canada calls.
Also nice feature they provide is a cell bridge. Using your cell, you can call your VoiceStick number then get a dial tone to call another number. Using that and her T-mobile faves cell plan, the wife can call Argentina for free from her cell anywhere in the country without eating into her cell minutes. Kinda slick, and has definitely saved some money given how long she can stay on a phone.
rā¬nato
I also live in Phoenix and I will vouch for what Thyme Zone wrote (I myself have extensively studied our water issues) about Phoenix and its water.
Billy K wrote:
That’s just flat-out wrong. If anything, Colorado River water is the LEAST important source of water for Phoenix because it is expensive. At the present moment, our reservoirs are full thanks to a wet winter. That of course is the short term and if you’d talked to me a year ago, I would have told you that the Salt/Verde reservoirs were looking pretty sad.
Medium to long term, if the current drought (which may not be an actual drought but the ‘normal’ rainfall pattern, and the last 50 years of rapid growth may well have occurred during an abnormally ‘wet’ period) continues, there may be problems with the continued growth trends of the Phoenix area. But really, water availability is nowhere near the top of the list of possible future crises in our area.
you may well have and I’m sorry you didn’t like it here, but our winters are much longer than three weeks. December and January can be cold and wet. Southwest cold, not Buffalo cold… but still, it does get below freezing at night with some frequency, daytime temperatures at or below 50 several days in a row.
In any case, returning to the issue of cars and Phoenix… I ride my bike a LOT here and while I could not get by without one, it’s also true that I can get by using one tank of gas a month. I work out of a home office, I use my bike to run short errands whenever possible, and I can actually ride about 15 miles through the heart of Phoenix and never ride on a major street, which enables me to do a LOT of daily errands solely on bike, provided I don’t have to carry anything bulky and heavy which won’t fit in the saddlebags or backpack.
It’s also true that I’m uniquely situated so that a bike is a very viable option and I also have that home office thing going for me. I sure wouldn’t depend on my bike as much if I lived elsewhere in Phoenix. Phoenix drivers are really, really inconsiderate to bicyclists. More than once I have considered arming myself thanks to bozos who think nothing of racing ahead and cutting me off with a foot or two to spare, so that they can pull into the Circle K two seconds sooner than they would have otherwise if they had had any regard for my safety.
I think if anything threatens the prosperity and growth in Phoenix, it’s gasoline prices, not the availability of water. Like Los Angeles, much of Phoenix is built around a car-culture philosophy. Unlike LA, we don’t have a comprehensive public transit system and even the addition of the light rail is only going to help so much. We are perpetually 20 years behind the transit curve thanks to the Pulliam family (long, boring in-the-deep-weeds story).
Say, I have an idea, seeing as there are so many Phoenicians on Balloon Juice… how about a meet-up sometime at the 5 and Diner on 16th St. and Colter? I semi-regularly meet an Eschaton commenter over there to chat and hang out…
rā¬nato
yow. That place is little Mexico now. Not that there is anything wrong with that. They just completely remodeled the west-facing side of the strip mall at the northeast corner. The Costco up on Oak and 44th is my favorite one to go to (seeing as I am equidistant from three Costco’s and none of them closer than 7 miles away), if I can go there during the weekday work hours it’s almost as fast as going to Bashas’ if I know what I need and don’t dawdle.
Billy K
Yup. My folks still live there. That’s the Costco we go to when I’m in town.
Wanted to respond to your longer comment, but I gotta run. I’ll try later. I guess I’m wrong about the CAP water. I lived in Tucson for 11 years (after Phx), and it seems I’m transferring.
Brachiator
Tip? Meet Iceberg.
Not only are fuel prices rising and affecting everyone, but chains and individual stores are getting squeezed or going out of business at an alarming rate (Retailing Chains Caught in a Wave of Bankruptcies)
And no matter how you slice it (yeah, I’m talkin’ bout you, Senator Clinton), both Democrats and Republicans made the problem worse by bowing down to business interests.
I can just imagine Dubya insisting that the economy is still fundamentally strong, or the Fed chairman noting that the bright side to merchandise liquidation and layoffs is that it keeps inflation down.
But along with the continuing problem in the housing market, all this will ripple throughout the economy, possibly leading to a significant decline in jobs and real wages. As an aside, it makes health reform a little less likely, since their might be inadequate revenues to fund major changes.
This is kinda easy. McCain is promising tax cuts. People hear that and they go “Hell, yeah! He’s better for the economy than them tax and spend Democrats.”
Worse, the Democrats keep talking about just raising the taxes on the rich. But people hear “raising taxes” and then stop, or they think, “one day I want to be rich, and then I don’t want to have to pay taxes.”
The larger problem is that the tax rate on wages, interest and other income is much higher than the tax rate on investment income. This creates a huge incentive to squeeze wages, employ illegal immigrant labor, and create deals to sell businesses so that investors can pocket big gains.
Shorter: the Dubya inspired tax system shrinks the middle class by design.
And when Dubya, and now McCain, talks about making the tax cuts permanent, people think he’s talking about everybody, but he is really talking about his buddies in the New Oligarchy.
If the Democrats can’t make this plain, they may be in for an uphill slog.
Conservatively Liberal
John, filling them dual-150’s (from empty) on a truck at that price comes to $1,275.00. Average mileage on a semi (generally) is 3-4 MPG, so at 3 MPG, they are spending just over $1.41 a mile. At 4 MPG, it is still over a dollar a mile. Ouch!
Regarding the other animals, putting yourself in reach of one is real stupid. Generally vehicles around here take pretty minor damage, the odd center punch does the bad stuff where deer are concerned. A larger elk is going to flat ruin your day. It is real unusual for a bear or cat to get hit, they are really shy.
cleek
well, you know, it’ll trickle down onto the rest of us, in a pleasant, warm, golden, salty, shower.
Conservatively Liberal
Oops, hit the wrong button! Better smoke another bowl… ;)
I live in Brookings, and one time I was coming back from a friends house late one foggy night and took out a deer. I was creeping along at 20 MPH on Highway 255 just north of town (it is an old section of 101 that is really a country road), and it just jumped out in front of the car. I center-punched it right through the grille of the Mustang, shoving the radiator back into the fan. When I hit it, I hit the brakes so fast that it literally shot out of the front of the grille.
It was DOA, as was the Mustang. I pulled over, killed the car, pulled the deer off the road and decided to go back to my friends house as I could reach it before overheating or the batteries (duals in it) went dead. It sucked, but the fix was not too bad as it missed the frame rails and bumper completely, so the frame was not tweaked. But I did have to replace the hood, grille, fiberglass nose, fan, radiator and straighten the core mounts.
The deer was gone before the morning, and I know nothing about it. Nothing at all.
On gas costs, when it is approaching $20.00 to fill a motorcycle, you know things are fucked.
cleek
poor white southerners ?
Screw Em !!!
Martin
SoCal diesel is closer to $5. Regular is $3.85 around me. CA has shoved the formulation hard toward gas to hold the price down and diesel is getting killed as a result.
Agree on trains. It’s ludicrous how much cheaper they are to run. Something like 1% the fuel cost of a semi. Problem is that end-to-end they take 2x as long and often cost more since you have a container swap to a semi at each end. Nobody builds near depots anymore. Airport if anything.
They’ve been fighting over a plan to run a dedicated freight rail terminal to the Port of LA/Long Beach (if it comes from China, it probably comes through the port of LA) because as it is they run 36,000 trucks per day in and out of there. There is some rail, but not nearly enough and the roads in and out of the place are totally for shit due to the traffic. But the place is awesome to drive through. Take a gander on google maps. It’s miles long and is desperate for automation if they could get the longshoremen to go along.
rā¬nato
BillyK, Tucson’s water situation is far different from Phoenix. They only have groundwater and CAP water and really, the CAP water sucks ass and no one wants to use it for daily potable needs. For one thing it tends to react with the old plumbing there and blows a lot of crap through your faucet and into your pot/drinking glass for a good long while. Yuck. Phx has groundwater, lake reservoirs and CAP as a fallback. For a hard-core desert city, Phoenix is amazingly rich in water compared to other places. Like I said, I’m more worried about expensive gasoline than water, even though i don’t really use much of the former.
rā¬nato
Martin, I am amazed that they do not have a freight rail terminal at LA/LB. That seems like something they would have done, oh, 20 years ago if not earlier. Running trucks in and out of there to move all that freight? How wasteful.
rawshark
None of this changes the fact that I love my car.
I know a few people looking to move to that area of the city. I know one that moved to a highrise downtown, Jefferson and Central area. Great views of the city from the balcony. You can almost see into Chase Field.
Fledermaus
I can relate, I have both govt loans and private ones. The staffords have been a breeze to manage – nice to me when I was underemployed my first year, paying online, consolidated them at a very reasonable rate in about 10 minutes and let me adjust my payback period.
The private loans have been a nightmare. They won’t consolidte my 12 loans in 12 amounts at 12 different intrest rates because I can’t pass a credit check, which is a little like locking the barn door after the cows have gone. Of course they kept denying my deferal requests when I was under-employed because . . well there never was a good reason provided. Now they don’t discuss mohtly payment or terms until I consolidate, which as I mentioned they won’t do. I’m at the point were I’m just going to say “fuck off” and stop sending them money, that seems to be the only thing that gets their attention.
Cain
What I did was get the absolutely cheapest cable. Here in Hillsboro, I get 7.95 for cable and then I get 12.95 netflix and I watch DVDs or online movies and that more than makes up for entertainment. 20 bucks a month + 50 bucks for FIOS, and I pay 70 bucks a month for entertainment and internet. The average american is probably paying upwards to 150 bucks ecause of all the sports channels.
If it gets any worse, expect sports and entertainment to get a big hit. It might kick these CNN/FOX News assholes in the rear as well since nobody will be able to afford to listen to their bullshit.
cain
Soylent Green
I drive 2k miles a year and bicycle about 8k. That’s not uncommon here in bike-crazy Portland. This is how the future looks in every American city, which would be smart to start putting bike lanes in. For me it’s choice, not necessity, and I don’t look down on people who drive a lot.
When are the small Euro-style cars going to get here? Our vehicles are much larger and heavier than they need to be.
I am starting to see some of these these on our roads.
rawshark
I could walk to work. Its a long walk but there is a hiking trail that starts near my house and passes near my office. Of course I couldn’t do this in daylight hours except during a small 6 week period in the winter or I’d die to death from the heat.
Jon H
Poor choice of headline by CNN:
“Vigil caps Va. Tech anniversary”
Billy K
Yup. I drank that. (I mean they “fixed” it eventually, but it was still CAP water)
rā¬nato
rawshark, if you’re still reading this thread, what’s your cross-streets? I live near the Phx Mountain Preserve. I could walk to Squaw Peak from here but it’s a bit of a hike because it can’t be done as the crow flies. However I frequently ride through Dreamy Draw Park and access the canal that way, which allows me to reach quite a bit of east-central Phoenix and even Tempe without riding on any major streets.