The Scott Cox Report |
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 Veteran news talk radioman Scott Cox Show is now stirring the pot online. Come jump into the conversation...
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| Posts from July 2011 |
The New Breed Of GOP Debt Fighters
by Scott Cox
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posted Jul 24 2011 11:36AM
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This phony debt ceiling debate has pretty much reached it's boiling point, with both the Democrats and Republicans trying to trick their constituents into believing they're looking out for them. The fact of the matter is, they could have hammered out a deal months ago, but that wouldn't have been politically advantagious.
We have an election coming up, and both sides are doing their best to convince regular folks that the other party will end America as we know it. The unpleasant truth is we are in so much debt there is virtually no chance of our children seeing it get paid off, let alone us. So it's virtually impossible for this country NOT to be fundamentally different no matter which side wins in 2012.
And neither side wants to talk about the real problem: the outsourcing of America's manufacturing base to China. It's hard to pay your creditors off when they make all the products you buy. America has built it's way out of every recession we've been in. But now any efforts we make just profit China that much more.
We sold out all that manufacturing power in exchange for higher profits and shareholder returns. So the investor class and the companies who make American products in China get richer every day, while regular folks in the middle class pay the price. And guess which group writes bigger checks? So, these bought-off politicians on both sides know what needs to be done, and will put off doing anything as long as there are political points to be scored.
Only, a big chunk of Americans have had it with the inaction.
Perhaps the most painful part of this dog and pony show is the long-term memory loss of the electorate. I think these politicians treat us like three year olds because we nearly always act like them. Democrats should remember then-senator Obama voting against raising the debt ceiling at least as vividly as Republicans should remember the seven times George W raised it in his eight years as president.
And nobody in the GOP, Boehner and McConnell included, said boo about it. In fact, those two anti-debt crusaders voted to increase the debt limit every time. But now, with mounting tea-party pressure, and a legitamate need to cut spending, both sides have switched sides again, and maybe this time we'll get a legitimate package of spending cuts, military included, and who knows--maybe even ask GE if they wouldn't mind paying just a few dollars in taxes for a while.
I'm not betting on it.
I think it's way more likely we'll get a watered-down, pre-fabricated "comprimise" made up of phony cuts that will never really come io fruition, coupled with some kind of equally phoney corporate accountability standards that will also never be enacted. They will, however, buy themselves just enough time to placate voters until they have to go through this again. And depending on the outcome of the 2012 elections, everyone will have changed sides again. Fantastic.
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The Padre Gets A Fresh Sack Of Taxpayer Money
by Scott Cox
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posted Jul 14 2011 9:08PM
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Hey, if you're a regular patron of the Padre Hotel, I have great news! They're getting valet parking. For people who never go there, like me, the news is not so great. They're getting valet parking, and we're all paying for it.
The Bakersfield City Council just voted to spend $107,000 to build a staging area for the Padre Hotel at the corner of 19th and H Street. But, they say it will be used for "community events." So I guess we'll totally get our money's worth. Next up is a $431,000 project that will provide sidewalk and alley improvements for the property. Nice. Look, I wish the owners of the Padre all the success in the world, I just don't think the city needs to be investing in private businesses.
For starters, it is stunningly unfair to the other hard working, tax-paying businesses in town, especially downtown. They're all stuggling to make ends meet while the city pumps money into the competition. I was against our investing in the Maya Cinemas for the same reason. That had to sting a bit for the owners of the other movie houses in town.
If the Padre Hotel was such a great investment opportunity, they would've been able to get investors to invest (that's why they're called investors). Now, I don't know if all the buzz around town about the Padre Hotel's financial issues are true or not, but it seems to me, the more cash the city pours in, the worse it's going to be if it should fail. I hope they don't end up in a desperate state, throwing more and more money into the hotel to stave off the embarrassment of admitting they shouldn't have gotten into the hotel biz in the first place.
If the Padre Hotel is going to make money, let it. If it isn't? Pull the plug before any more of our cash gets "invested" in a place that I don't want to go to in the first place. It's careless, it's irresponsible, and even in a booming economy, it's grossly unfair to other local businesses.
And here's a little bonus for all you struggling downtown businesses: the staging area we are all contributing to will host public events sanctioned by the city, and direct even more business to the Padre Hotel and away from you.
Props to Councilmember Russell Johnson, who was the lone dissenter on this terrible idea. We owe him our thanks for his no vote. And one last thing. These city planners, who at the onset of this boondoggle said it would benefit all downtown businesses by drawing people downtown, were completely full of it. I go downtown quite a bit and I haven't noticed anybody leaving the Padre Hotel to cruise around downtown.
But then, maybe valet parking will help...
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Our Rich History Of Letting Clearly Guilty People Go Free
by Scott Cox
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posted Jul 10 2011 9:44PM
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A lot of people were clearly outraged at the Casey Anthony verdict, probably because she was clearly guilty. A bunch of people have texted me the now infamous picture of Ms. Anthony next to a shot of OJ Simpson, who, by the way, was also clearly guilty.
Lloyd Grove of "The Daily Beast" wondered if we have dumbed down our country to the point where we can actually empanel a jury of citizens too dumb to sort this stuff out, or, worse yet, be misled by defense attorneys to the point of being brainwashed into rendering these cosmically ridiculous verdicts.
Ive heard from attorney friends this verdict is a sign the system works, and that in this country we don't let our citizens get railroaded by the all-powerful court system, let alone by public opinion. I can sort of see their point I guess, but it's a lot easier for me to draw a straight line from "Jersey Shore" to "The Kardashians" to "So You Think You Can Dance?," and figure out where our national mentality is going.
Factor in the power defense attorneys have in jury selection, and I'm pretty sure I could gather up a jury that would've aquitted Bin Laden. I hope I'm wrong, but I think we're building juries from pretty weak materials these days. Either that or the prosecuters are getting less and less competent, which is scarier still. Either way, this is the third one of these cases in recent memory (let's not forget our old pal Robert Blake) where the person who clearly did it just walked away.
We have a great justice system in this country, but it relies on the faith of the people to work, and that faith is being eroded. And now we add insult to injury by making/keeping these murderers famous. Casey Anthony is gonna walk out of jail Wednesday, and my guess is she'll be doing the interview circuit pretty shortly thereafter. Or reality TV. Or porn. And it's all legal, because she's "not guilty." Nice.
And don't think for a second that the media won't stoop so low as to make her a huge celebrity. Remember OJ's book "If I Did It"? Did you know that Newscorp paid him 800 grand to write that book? That's right, Rupert Murdoch and his crew found a way to make a murderer rich. The project got scrapped after some chapters got leaked to Newsweek and a horrified nation cried foul. Well, those same people, or others just like them are looking at a profit motive in Casey Anthony. And the craziest, saddest thing is, they'll find it. Look for her soon on a bookshelf or TV near you. Soon.
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