How would the Heritage Foundation cut the U.S. budget?

The conflict.  On the one hand, our budget deficit is spiraling out of control.  On the other hand, we need to spend more to keep our economy from shrinking again.  We're damned if we do and damned if we don't.  I foresee the U.S.G. headed towards a milder version of Britain's massive public spending cuts.

Every cut is going to tick off some constituency.  With Republicans in control of the House, it is safe to say that the Pentagon budget is safe.  So who will lose?  The link below is to the conservative Heritage Foundation's hyper-aggressive proposal.  It makes for some interesting reading.  Comments from policy wonks are encouraged.  Some notes:

• If it weren't for 9/11, we would not have spent so much money (easily over a trillion) on Iraq, Afghanistan, health care and disability benefits for wounded veterans, and homeland security.  OBL did a real number on us nine years ago.
• Other than corn belt voters, is there anyone else in this country (or the world) that thinks farm subsidies are a good idea?
• Cutting community development and job training programs will just mean spending more later on prisons, hospitals, and welfare benefits.
• Government backed student loan programs should be under more scrutiny.  Institutions of higher learning are jacking up tuition faster than Veyrons on steroids.  A lot of these degree programs/mills have dubious value in the job market and are essentially rip-offs.
• Repealing "Obamacare", according to the proposal, will only save $5B.
• Eliminating Title X Family Planning ($327M)-- Is that a good idea?
• It cost $133M to operate the National Endowment for the Arts.  How much aid money are we giving to Egypt and Israel?

Link here.

Women On the Verge of A Nervous Breakdown Peugeot 505 taxi

The most bad ass car blog in the solar system

The link is at the end of this post.  You'll have to scroll through these pictures from said blog first.

Link.

French nuclear powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle

France is the only country other than the United States that has a nuclear powered aircraft carrier.  The CDG carries older Dassault-Breguet Super Etendards, newer Dassault Rafales, and Northrup Grumman E-2 Hawkeye Airborne Early Warning aircraft.

This video has some incredible footage of Rafales landing and taking off.  Note the Bond-esque background music.  Beginning at 6:07, there are shots of planes landing and taking off at night.

What I did on election night

I went to my county registrar's office and watched ballots being counted.  It was eye opening and really satisfying.  Without sounding cliche, I was watching democracy in action.  There were more than a handful of observers there, including journalists, volunteers and employees of various campaigns, a candidate and his friends, and a few concerned citizens.  The amount of logistics and planning involved is breathtaking.

This bad boy scans 18,000 ballot envelopes per hour (it scans the names and signatures on the envelopes). 

And to all of you who think your vote doesn't make a difference, consider these contests, which are still too close to call:

1. State Attorney General:
Kamala Harris: 3,302,221
Steve Cooley: 3,293,191

2. U.S. Congress 11th District:
Jerry McNerney: 82,124
David Harmer: 82,003

From a Kia to a Tesla

B's Tesla is also red.  This picture is courtesy Hooniverse.

My eccentric friend B just bought a Tesla Roadster Sport.  But that's not the most interesting part of the story. It's that his penultimate car was a 1999 Kia Sephia.  I'll put up a post about his automotive journey tonight. It's an amusing and a bit frightening tale about the cost of car ownership.

Jerry Brown taco truck v. Meg Whitman's $141.5 million

Jerry Brown should win the election tonight and become governor of California.  His campaign spent $24.8 million, which is relatively frugal.  As evidence of his no frills campaign, here is a shot taken outside his victory party venue, the Fox Theater in Oakland.  Rather than catered food for the press, there's a taco truck outside selling $1 tacos.

And then we have Brown's opponent, Meg Whitman.  Her campaign spent $160 million.  $141.5 million of that came out of her own bank account(s).  What did she spend all that money on?

• $961,000 for charter jets
• $845,000 for lawyers
• $11.6 million for political consultants
• $10.5 million for mail advertising
• $106.9 million for broadcast advertising

What could Whitman have bought instead for $160 million?

• 66 Bugatti Veyron Super Sports (at $2.4 million per car) or
• 1,095 Audi R8 V10s (at $146,000 per car) or
• 13,206 Chevy Aveos (at $12,115 per car) or
• 3,200 teacher salaries (at $50,000 per year per teacher) or
• 64,000,000 meals for the homeless (at $2.50 per meal) or
• 160,000,000 taco truck tacos (at $1 per taco)

Staggering.

Russia-Japan Kuril Islands row

I meant to write a deep analysis about this, but I've got a long, long day today volunteering.  I'm a part of a voter protection team on this Election Day.

Long story short.  The Soviets occupied the islands north of Japan.  A peace treaty after World War II was never signed between the two powers because of these islands.  Medvedev recently became the first Soviet/Russian leader to visit the Kurils.  The Japanese are pissed.

Read more about it here.

Original Vector W2

Last weekend, I posted a picture of a Vector I saw at the 1990 LA Auto Show.  Well, Jurgen is the authority on Vectors.  He has been a fan of Vectors since 1982 and he has tracked down 18 of the 19 Vectors ever made.  He is in the process of scanning every brochure, poster, and magazine article about the car.  So I asked him the story behind the car in the picture.

It's the original W2 prototype.  Over the years, creator Gerald "Jerry" Wiegert painted it different colors and modified its exterior components.  Underneath the skin of that car in the 1990 photo is the original 1979 chassis.  This particular car ended up with over 100,000 miles on the clock, more than any other concept car.

In 1993, the same Indonesian firm that bought Lamborghini bought Vector in a hostile takeover.  It was then that the car's engine and dash were torn out (and never replaced).

Now, Wiegart has the company and this W2 back.  It's stored in Wilmington, California.

Wow.  Who knew?

In 2003, Jurgen was able to get five Vector W8s to appear at the Concorso Italiano together:

If you have old Vector pictures, brochures, or magazine articles to contribute, you can contact Jurgen at vectorfiles at googlemail dot com.

McDonald's ad destroys VW Corrado

Why?!