Podcast 472

Texas. That’s all you need to say. Texas. We start on the Texas Gulf Coast at Galveston and work our way up to Beaumont, Houston, on through central Texas with an eye toward La Grange, Austin, Waco and finally to Dallas. If you woke up in one of these places, even any of the smaller towns along the way, you would know, you could only be in Texas. Along the way, lots of stories from this Road Trip so far, including the drive up the Gulf Coast through Mississippi and Alabama, and Louisiana, ending in New Orleans on Saturday night, where Mobile Podcast Command was forced to break the law, in service of a cup of chicory coffee and a pastry from Cafe Dumonde. Sadly, New Orleans seems like it is still struggling to overcome the effects of Katrina, which is probably why there are suddenly so many parking restrictions, and the parking authorities so vigilant. So out of character for this ‘anything goes’ town. In Mississippi, you pass the beautiful home of the president of the confederacy Jefferson Davis, and one can only wonder what it must have been like to leave this gorgeous home on the beach, move to a place like Richmond, to ‘run the confederacy’; a really bad decision in the long run. Did he ever make it back? Then the gulf coast, with its brand new ‘towns on stilts’…literally the houses, the stores, the cafes are all built on pylons, to withstand floods and perhaps the intense winds of hurricanes, which come every year. The Bolivar Peninsula, and Galveston where I finally found the deserted coast line I have been looking for. Finally central Texas including Houston and finally Dallas. Both of these cities are juggernauts on their own. When you combine Houston and Dallas with San Antonio, Austin and the western Texas cities, you begin to understand why this state is so important, and why it is unlike any other. Sponsored by Hydrus and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul. 

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Podcast 314

Global Warming Hot Air. The ‘Climate Change Community’ thanks Brian Williams for making up stories, stealing coverage from what could be the biggest scandal in scientific history; It appears the US Government has been cooking the books when it comes to temperature data. Actual temperatures posted from weather stations in Paraguay, Northern Canada and Siberia have been altered (gasp) to show higher readings…for years. A midwinter meltdown would ensue, if this story was actually taken up by the news machine, but they’re too busy with Dirty Laundry from Brian Williams right now. Meanwhile billions of dollars are being spent on wind and solar, and electric car subsidies. Not to mention the legislative roadblock ordered up by Obama Crony Warren Buffett on the Keystone pipeline, due to concerns the EPA has over its environmental ‘impact’. Carbon Credits anyone? Hot Air indeed. More bad news for the IRS and for taxpayers. Thousands of taxpayer numbers and social security numbers have been hacked, and have been used by hackers to file early returns. People are discovering the problem when they file their taxes and get the message, “Your return has already been processed”. The actual taxpayer then has to go through the process of ‘proving’ to the IRS that they have been the victim of identity theft. This, with an agency that is so poorly run they don’t answer the phone, or even respond to letters, and sometimes when they do, they get confused. Solution? Give them more money. Oh Hell No! The solution is a new tax system that does away with the byzantine tax code and the poster child for government inefficiency; The Internal Revenue Non Service. Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has kicked up a firestorm after giving his commissioners huge raises. The head of the unelected Met Council now earns well over one hundred thousand dollars a year. Other commissioners will make as much as $155,000 a year. Dayton says these people need this money to take care of their families. Keep in mind the average Minnesotan earns somewhere around forty eight thousand dollars a year, with no pension. State employees can double dip pensions, and their pension is based on their income. Remember, taxpayers pay their salary and fund their pensions. Governor Dayton catches a break though. It was revealed this week that the average dock worker on the west coast earns $147,000 a year, plus benefits paid by the employer and an eighty thousand dollar a year pension. What’s in your wallet? Sponsored by Baklund R & D. 

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The Bob Davis Podcast

Podcast 116

I’m getting an ominous feeling about the next couple of weeks. MH370 is still a mystery. Russia is massing troops at the Eastern gate of the Ukraine and the White House seems confused. What does the US intend to DO about this, if anything. SHOULD the United States do anything? With winter over, the story line is now it was the worst winter ever in the upper Midwest, which feeds the story line that our slow economy is the result of … bad weather. Now the Met Council is fighting with the City of Minneapolis, the new Mayor of Minneapolis Betsy Hodges, the residents of Kenwood and Lake of Isles Neighborhoods, environmentalists, and bike nazis. It doesn’t get any better than this! Plus, court protection for pets in distress, NASA studying the fall of Rome, Brad Pitt’s modernist ghetto in New Orleans and much more! Sponsored by XGovernmentCars … now with Mustangs!

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