Photo, above:  Chestnut Hill Quaker Meeting House, Police Suspect Union Thugs Behind Philly Arson  See: Hour 1, Block D:  Jillian Kay Melchior

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Co-host: Edward Hayes, Esq.

Hour One

Thursday  14 Feb 2013 / Hour 1, Block A: David M Drucker, Roll Call, in re:  Sen Hagel's "delay" (not a filibuster, of course) in being confirmed as SecDef. Senators fell two votes short of the 60 needed to get to a final up- or down-vote. Republicans opposed who've won a Purple Heart: Sen McCain.

Thursday  14 Feb 2013 / Hour 1, Block B:  Eddie Hayes and John Batchelor gossip – chat – about the upcoming New York City mayoralty.  Much interest in John Catsimatidis, born in Greece, brought to the US as a small child; worked  in his uncle's grocery on 137th and Broadway, then  opened his own shop, build a grocery chain, took some of those funds and invested in oil, and on he rolled. A dese-dems-dose guy.

Inspector Jeff Bliss, The Bliss Index,  in re:  Burned remains ID'd as ex-cop Dorner: Police used dental records to identify the remains found in the cabin.  Owner of cabin linked to Dorner describes watching fire.   "It's him."  Charred human remains positively ID'd as Christopher Dorner ID made through dental exam.  A camp director, plus the couple whose car Dorner stole, claim the reward.

LAPD Chief Beck and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Statement on Reward:  Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck today issued the following statement about the $1 million reward posted in the Christopher Dorner case: “Now that the search for Christopher Dorner appears to have concluded, we are addressing the issue of the $1 million reward.  More than 20 jurisdictions and entities are involved in this reward, so all of them will be coming together to collectively determine whether any individual or individuals qualify for it.  Our personal hope is that the reward will be distributed, but we must follow the rules and respect the procedures of each entity.”

Thursday  14 Feb 2013 / Hour 1, Block C: . Lara M Brown, Villanova, in re: Obama swings left in retro State of the Union—Glenn Thrush—Barack Obama offered a new political product to the American people on Tuesday night, a brand with a distinctively retro flavor—“Democrat Classic.” Four years after his first State of the Union, Obama rolled out a series of vintage proposals from his party’s amply stocked policy cupboard. Taken as a whole, it marked the latest step in a clear effort by Obama to nudge the nation’s politics to the center-left, a shift from the center-right politics of Ronald Reagan that have dominated American politics for more than three decades. 

Obama: Gun victims 'deserve a vote'

State of the Union 2013: GOP seizes on 'a single dime'

Marco Rubio as the anti-Romney: His desperate need for a drink of water created the immediate headline, but Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) much-anticipated speech Tuesday night had a very serious intent: It was as much an exercise in erasing Mitt Romney’s legacy on the Republican Party as it was a traditional response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. 

Thursday  14 Feb 2013 / Hour 1, Block D:  Jillian Kay Melchior,  National Review,  in re:  Philadelphia, the Chesnut Hill Meeting House: in 2012, unions bid on building a new structure; open shop bids 20% less, so the Quakers accept the open shop contractor.  Just before Christmas, someone burns the structure and causes $500K damage.  Police look toward the union.  Find 143 documented instances where unions have threatened or damaged persons or structures.  Assault on engineers, cranes.

A three-part investigative series coming out this week on union violence, vandalism and intimidation in Philadelphia. It's truly out of control in the construction sector. An engineer was brutally beaten, and it was caught on camera. And then union guys actually went so far as to vandalize a Quaker meeting house, causing $500,000 in damage.

Goon City  Philadelphia construction unions aren’t big on brotherly love.

Goon City — Part 2 How federal law and Philadelphia’s political structure contribute to union abuses. The second in the series addresses how violence and vandalism have become a part of the institution in Philadelphia. Also, how federal law shelters unions from Hobbs Act and Anti-Racketeering charges, despite their mafia-like tactics.

Hour Two

Thursday  14 Feb 2013 / Hour 2, Block A:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: North Korean nuke test apparently was for and paid for by Iran.  No gas signature available yet from Fordow, which was largely blown up, or the underground North Korean nuclear test of Monday.  Sec Kerry spoke of North Korea, Iranians caught trying to buy enormously sophisticated magnets in order to use thousands of centrifuges. Reuters reports: UN nuke inspectors have been allowed to see a few centrifuges in Iran.  P5+1 sanctions haven’t slowed nuclear development.  Ship sent to Yemen by Iran.   Lots of important documents being hustled out of Syria. IRGC chief, a general, in Lebanon: fighting pro-Assad vs rebels in Syria, and supervising Hezbollah operations in Lebanon. Iran also training 7,000 or more in Egypt to create a "crowd control" force for Morsi – these in fact are brutal thugs.  Iran releases photo of its new jet fighter – shown globally to be a fake picture.

Thursday  14 Feb 2013 / Hour 2, Block B:  Amb James Jeffrey, Washington Institute, in re: US policy on Iran.  "Going forward, US policy must distinguish between what it [aims at] and what is acceptable."  If we remove one of our aircraft carriers from the Gulf, that'll be seen as a diminution of US commitment. There's are military option and the dip solution; is there a third way?  Yes the Iranians to see that all the combined pressure means that they need to slow down enrichment; or the president might decide that the US accepts a nuclear-armed Iran.  Since he US has negotiated for twenty years with not much effect, why continue?  We've never really been [serious, so to speak]– ever used strongest sanctions

Thursday  14 Feb 2013 / Hour 2, Block C:  . Jonathan Schanzer, FDD, in re: War in Lebanon? Middle-class Palestine?  Israeli Defense Force on the move, transferring personnel and activities to relevant places.  Also, Sudan, Dubai.  Hezbollah putting up cheap civilian housing with one room reserved to store missiles.     If Israel has to go fight in southern Lebanon again, this time kid gloves will be off.  Fingerprints of Damascus as well as of Teheran in all Hezbollah fights.  More concern abt action along Syrian border?   Damascus-Homs-Tartus: the Assad buffer, abuts the Lebanese border, Iran is looking to buttress it. "Once the knife is at the throat of Israel, they'll have no choice but to take action."

Thursday  14 Feb 2013 / Hour 2, Block D:  David Makovsky, CFR, in re: Obama's visit to Israel. The Fatah-Hamas reconciliation: Threatening peace prospects.

Hour Three

Thursday  14 Feb 2013 / Hour 3, Block A:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Iran.   Kirshner in Argentina going along with Teheran to brush aside murder charges against Valayati, who hankers to be the next Iranian president.    DPRK's nuke tests are under contract to Iran, whose scientists are in situ and will take the technology for an Iranian bomb. Threats to Israel in the Golan Heights.

Thursday  14 Feb 2013 / Hour 3, Block B:  . Jon Medved, "one of Israel’s leading high tech venture capitalists”, in re: Israeli start-ups. Crowdfunding VCs; OurCrowd dot com.  Interested in technology right now: from optics to communications to clean tech, social apps to med tech. Broad variety. Persons make t heir own choices.  Bob Rosenschein, successful entrepreneur has taken two companies public on NASDAQ, has joined in with us now.

Thursday  14 Feb 2013 / Hour 3, Block C:  . Ken Croswell, Physics Today, in re:  The swan’s dark heart – Astronomers discovered what they thought was the first black hole more than 40 years ago but have only recently verified its identity by establishing its distance, mass and spin. These fascinating observations are yielding new insights into Cygnus X-1′s past and future.

Thursday  14 Feb 2013 / Hour 3, Block D:   David Davenport, Hoover, in re: A Forbes op-ed by the Hoover Fellow and constitutional law expert David Davenport, entitled, “Campaign 2016 Has Already Begun in a State Legislature Near You,” in which he outlines how the Electoral College is facing two very different movements to reform it.  He says, “Republicans, who have lost four of the last six presidential elections, are moving in key battleground states to change electoral voting from winner-takes-all to a distribution of votes depending on the popular vote.  And Democrats, still hurting from 2000 when Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote, have been championing a National Popular Vote that would, as a practical matter, do away with the Electoral College and its impact.”

Hour Four

Thursday  14 Feb 2013 / Hour 4, Block A:  Lou Ann Hammond, Driving the Nation, in re: Tesla vs. NYT    That Tesla Data: What It Says and What It Doesn't About three hours into the trip, the reporter placed the first of about a dozen calls to Tesla personnel expressing concern about the car's . . .    The Charges Are Flying Over a Test of Tesla's Charging Network ... Some additional thoughts about a troubled test drive of the Tesla Model S along the East Coast.


Thursday  14 Feb 2013 / Hour 4, Block B:  Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com,

The next flight of Dragon to ISS has been set for March 1.  Asteroid 2012 DA14 might experience seismic activity, an asteroid quake, when it zips pass the Earth tomorrow.   The MIT scientist Richard Binzel imagines what an astronaut floating alongside such an asteroid might see: “The surface could slowly sway or rock by a few centimeters. Other things to look for would be puffs of asteroid-dust rising from the surface and gentle avalanches on the steepest slopes of craters.” In rare cases, “rubble pile” asteroids might break apart during the encounter and then re-form as Earth recedes into the distance.

Thursday  14 Feb 2013 / Hour 4, Block C:  The Tinkerers: The Amateurs, DIYers, and Inventors Who Make America Great by Alec Foege (Jan 1, 2013) - Kindle eBook; 1 of 2

Thursday  14 Feb 2013 / Hour 4, Block D:   The Tinkerers: The Amateurs, DIYers, and Inventors Who Make America Great by Alec Foege (Jan 1, 2013) - Kindle eBook; 2 of 2

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Music

Hour 1: Knight & Day

Hour 2: Persia

Hour 3: The Kingdom, Crysis

Hour 4: Crysis, Star Trek