CBS News: Hot mic catches Boehner and Biden talking about golf

So a guy named 'Joe' and a guy named 'John' were talking about golf one day when a little speech happened:



I'd love to be the staffer whose voice we hear at the end say "the mics are live".

VP Biden Op-Ed: Delivering the accountable government that taxpayers deserve | McClatchy

Check out this op-ed today from Vice President Joe Biden.

Finally, hard evidence … but about whom?

For some reason, the birth certificate issue is even being analyzed down under in Australia. A professor at the University of Western Australia astutely picks up on the reason why seemingly intelligent people plug into ideologies that are deeply flawed:

"It has been a long-standing source of puzzlement among outside observers how the Soviet Union and its satellites could bumble along for so long without reforming their sclerotic economies. Didn’t they notice that the shelves were empty? That Western workers enjoyed a far more comfortable life-style than their Soviet brethren?

No, the Soviet ideologues didn't notice and they wouldn't have seen anything even if someone had forced them to look.

Because ideology trumps facts.

And it doesn't matter what the ideology is, whether socialism, any brand of fundamentalist religion, or free-market extremism. The psychological literature shows quite consistently that a threat to one's worldview is more than likely met by a dismissal of facts, however strong the evidence. Indeed, the stronger the evidence, the greater the threat—and hence the greater the denial."

This reminds me of a lot of the things I’ve heard from conservatives about President Obama and progressive policies, such as:

• "You may have doubts about trickle down, but we do have empirical evidence that socialism and communism do not work."
• "Obama is a socialist. Everything he does and says (when he is talking to his supporters) are excellent examples of socialism."
• "This perpetual welfare we have started with endless unemployment is just giving the incentive not to work for a much smaller pool of people than would be employed in a strong economy."
• "[W]ho passed the health care bill against the wishes of the majority? Who wants to put people in jail if they choose not to have health insurance? Which party is it that wants to regulate everything that exists in America?"

Just to be clear, I'm not implying it's conservative issue alone. There are many liberals that hold ideologically rigid views as well. It's one of the reasons I wasn't disappointed when Keith Olbermann's show went off the air.

Now someone might think that I'm glutton for punishment for debating issues with people this ideologically rigid. The reality is I don't mind because not only does it keep me honest but I agree with these kinds of people more times than they realize. Not with the statements above because although I don't mind strong opinions as long as the person knows they're opinions and not passing them off as facts, like they are here.

It never hurts to look into the opposing point of view, under the assumption that they are the ones that are right, to find something that you may agree with. One thing I've learned is my position tends to stay closer to where it originally was but becomes a bit more nuanced than before.

As far as whether or not Obama is a socialist or communist or fascist or jihadist, etc., forget what everyone else says and just go to the source. It's best way to really find out what makes a person tick, regardless of whether or not you like them.

High-speed rail: the elegant way to travel...

The White House recently had Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood make a trip to Philadelphia's 30th Street station to announce the President's plan to have 80% of Americans access to high-speed rail within 25 years. (So we can be in 25 years what Japan is like today? At least I hope our streets will be that clean by then.)

Great pieces by the New York Times and Washington Post to report the facts of the announcement. The Wall Street Journal made sure to imply some foreign conspiracy about "Japanese-style bullet trains" and the socialist idea of how Amtrak is the "federally subsidized national railroad operator", which it may be but seems somewhat worse when you describe it in such a utilitarian way. (Of course, that probably was their intent.)

Plains, Trains & Automobiles? Ditch the cars and planes for the TRAINS!!

People that know me well have known that I am very much a railfan. As a kid growing up in Queens, I memorized the entire New York City Subway Map when I was only five years old. I would make each stop on a subway line with my toy train without ever looking at the subway map. In fact, my parents would often just send my sister and me to take out-of-town guests sightseeing, often to the astonishment of our guests that two schoolchildren would be showing them around New York City.

On one occasion when I was six years old, I even navigated five of us that went sightseeing back home when our usual train line was suspended due to a derailment. This interest even continued in high school, when some of my friends would make me sit on the train with my back to the map and quiz me on stops, transfer points, and the service hours of specific subway lines, betting that I would get one wrong (I never did; a friend once tried making up station stops with fake street names just to stump me.)

That's why trains mean a lot to me and I am happy to see rail service in this country get the political recognition that it deserves. In January, Vice President Joe Biden penned a nice column in Huffington Post about why America Needs Trains. As a daily train commuter, he spelled out quite nicely how trains are not only greener but can be more reliable and secure than airline travel.

Today's New York Times has another opinion piece about a strategy that the writer believes should have been implemented when high speed rail funding was included in the stimulus. I don't entirely agree with his disapproval of the two projects that were part of the stimulus. After all, very few people outside of the northeastern United States have commuter rail service in their locality or have even ridden on a train for that matter and the exposure of new rail construction and the initial fanfare would be a good introduction for them. However, the writer does make some good points about why the Acela service in Amtrak's Northeast Corridor would be a logical choice for an upgrade to true high speed service.

Read it and feel free to tell me what you think. ENJOY!!!