Obama's expensive infomercial on Wednesday night was a yawn. Instead of a hard-hitting 5 minute spot, it was a rehash of everything we already know. After what seemed like 2 hours, I shut it off to go and sort my socks. What a colossal waste of campaign contributions - that could have been more effectively spent buying votes through ACORN :-)
If there was ever a subliminal advertising spot designed to convince people not to waste their hard earned money on contributions to political campaigns, this had to be it.
Seriously folks, next time you are tempted to write a check for your fave candidate, you must realize that you are actually funding those nasty TV ads and dumbass feel-good spots that we all mock and deride. They take your hard-earned money and waste it with idiotic attacks and self-serving video masturbation.
This is all designed to make you forget that the American Presidential nomination and election process somehow manages to disqualify anyone who would actually be a great leader. We always end up with two candidates, neither of whom would be trusted to properly run your town's recycling and disposal facility (Dump), never mind becoming head honcho of the freaking nation.
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One that same vein, the poor schmuck who is running against John Kerry was in the news yesterday. Jeff Beatty, largely unknown Republican, who has been waging a fruitless campaign to try to knock-off John Kerry in the US senatorial election, finally gets a little press coverage in the Boston Globe. Not because of his political positions, but because his hapless campaign paid a fundraising outfit 96% of every dollar raised on his behalf. This is not money spent on campaign expenses, posters, ads or anything that might help the candidate. This was the cost of raising the money. Paying the guys who solicited just enough money to pay their own costs. Talk about a black hole!
Even Kerry would not be that clueless. This is sad. People give money to politicians thinking that they are helping some noble effort. Yet, the recipients have so little respect for the earned dollar that they squander the money in stupid ways. Next time you are tempted to do something charitable with your money, you would be better off going down to the corner bar, and buying rounds of drinks for total strangers. At least then your money would be doing some good. And you would have a few more friends.
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My conservative friends probably see tonight's festivities as just one more step in the American dance toward Socialism. The slide down a slippery slope will be manifested in the gatherings of youth, who will be dressed in masks and costume and who will go around banging on their neighbors' doors, demanding treats and threatening dire tricks to be played upon the unwilling. Assets will be confiscated. Kid-hating elderly will turn off their lights and cower in their beds. Evil spirits will laugh at our shrinking nest eggs. It is training for the little goblins and pirates to grow into young Marxists who will come to believe that what's yours is also theirs.
Scary thoughts. Some of us will dull the pain with a few beers to help us sleep through it all.
10/31/2008
10/25/2008
Being Right can be Disappointing.
McCain/Palin voter support seems to be slipping away gradually like leaves from a maple tree in Autumn. Although no one openly agrees with polling results that favor the opposition, hardass conservatives must be munching Rolaids these days.
Their candidate has not galvanized the red states, the stock market declines are making voters wonder whether unfettered greed (i.e., Capitalism) is really the best system for America, and the camel is in the tent which is sliding down a slippery slope. Dark days are certainly ahead...
But the majority of you Maalox drinkers should have heart. President Obama will not be raising your taxes. It is those poor shmucks who are earning over one million USD per year that he will be targeting.
Think of poor Tina Fey, whose career stock has risen with her recent return to SNL, playing Sarah Palin, will burst like the housing bubble.
I suggest that Republican loyalists would do well do pray that Obama remains healthy during the next term or two.
Their candidate has not galvanized the red states, the stock market declines are making voters wonder whether unfettered greed (i.e., Capitalism) is really the best system for America, and the camel is in the tent which is sliding down a slippery slope. Dark days are certainly ahead...
But the majority of you Maalox drinkers should have heart. President Obama will not be raising your taxes. It is those poor shmucks who are earning over one million USD per year that he will be targeting.
Think of poor Tina Fey, whose career stock has risen with her recent return to SNL, playing Sarah Palin, will burst like the housing bubble.
I suggest that Republican loyalists would do well do pray that Obama remains healthy during the next term or two.
10/19/2008
Game 7
After giving up and going to bed at 11pm in game 5 and missing the Red Sox comeback from a 7-0 deficit, I realize I am considered a fairweather fan, but here I am again watching game 7 in the 4th inning with my guys ahead.
This is how I entertain myself during the repetitive ads all of which I have seen 30 times already. I cannot figure out how the ad guys have convinced the sponsors that if you show the same ad 30 times the viewers will not start using the time to check on desparate housewives or to go get a beer or update their blogs.)
I feel sorry for those dads who are watching the game with their sons - especially the younger ones -with the Viagra ads. How the heck do you explain floppy weiner to an eight year old?
Worst ads : The dumabass car ad with Brook Shield, They're here! any ad with that punkass asten kutcher, the aforementioned erectile disfunction products and the super dumb phone ad where the guy calls his daughter "dude".
The best one is the e-trade kid who used his profits to rent a clown. And the Verizon dead zone at the motel.
5th inning oh crap we're losing 2-1!
7th Inning still losing. Aybar home run makes it 3-1 Curse them
9th Inning the Sox cannot score with men on base and thus lose the effing game.
Thank goodness. Now I can get some sleep
This is how I entertain myself during the repetitive ads all of which I have seen 30 times already. I cannot figure out how the ad guys have convinced the sponsors that if you show the same ad 30 times the viewers will not start using the time to check on desparate housewives or to go get a beer or update their blogs.)
I feel sorry for those dads who are watching the game with their sons - especially the younger ones -with the Viagra ads. How the heck do you explain floppy weiner to an eight year old?
Worst ads : The dumabass car ad with Brook Shield, They're here! any ad with that punkass asten kutcher, the aforementioned erectile disfunction products and the super dumb phone ad where the guy calls his daughter "dude".
The best one is the e-trade kid who used his profits to rent a clown. And the Verizon dead zone at the motel.
5th inning oh crap we're losing 2-1!
7th Inning still losing. Aybar home run makes it 3-1 Curse them
9th Inning the Sox cannot score with men on base and thus lose the effing game.
Thank goodness. Now I can get some sleep
10/16/2008
Still Undecided After Final Debate
The presidential debate last night was the most revealing dialogue that we have seen to date. The moderator Bob Shieffer did a fine job, and if I may say so, looked somewhat presidential himself.
I liked the format, with the two candidates sitting at the table with plenty of time to answer the questions. This time McCain looked at Obama when he criticized. Obama smiled at McCain's attacks the way you do when your aging Uncle Jimmy starts his crazy rants.
I thought Obama squandered some great opportunities to put our minds at ease about some of the dark allegations about his past associates (e.g., Rev Wright, Resco) but he did credibly discuss his role as Counsel with ACORN which has been flogged by the conservative talk shows ad nauseum.
He seemed calm and collected, while McCain seemed furtive, nervous, robotic and a bit giggly. (Not good presidential qualities). This performance was unsettling to me, because this very morning, I had resolved to vote for McCain on the sole basis of his plan to allow $10,000 in distributions from IRA's to be free from taxes for two years.
Now, I am undecided again. Maybe I should write-in for Bob Shieffer.
In the WSJ today, Danial Henninger writes a great column (McCain's Katrina)
He draws an excellent analogy between the FEMA response to Katrina and McCain's impotence in the "Hurricane Fannie" affair.
However, I think he omitted the most damaging part of the story. When House and Senate representatives added another billion dollars in earmarks to the "emergency" bailout bill, they demonstrated the worst of cynical "business as usual' Washington politics.
It was McCain's moment to "name names" of the miscreant earmarkers and to demonstrate his skill at getting things done. Instead of being the tough crusader against such pork barrel spending, McCain meekly voted for the bill without even commenting on it.
For me, this Homer Simpson moment erased much of McCain's credibility as the self-annointed guy who can fix things.
The Sox are going down in flames, the Patriots glory days are history, and the economy is on a feeding tube. The only good news is that this effing election is almost over.
I liked the format, with the two candidates sitting at the table with plenty of time to answer the questions. This time McCain looked at Obama when he criticized. Obama smiled at McCain's attacks the way you do when your aging Uncle Jimmy starts his crazy rants.
I thought Obama squandered some great opportunities to put our minds at ease about some of the dark allegations about his past associates (e.g., Rev Wright, Resco) but he did credibly discuss his role as Counsel with ACORN which has been flogged by the conservative talk shows ad nauseum.
He seemed calm and collected, while McCain seemed furtive, nervous, robotic and a bit giggly. (Not good presidential qualities). This performance was unsettling to me, because this very morning, I had resolved to vote for McCain on the sole basis of his plan to allow $10,000 in distributions from IRA's to be free from taxes for two years.
Now, I am undecided again. Maybe I should write-in for Bob Shieffer.
In the WSJ today, Danial Henninger writes a great column (McCain's Katrina)
He draws an excellent analogy between the FEMA response to Katrina and McCain's impotence in the "Hurricane Fannie" affair.
However, I think he omitted the most damaging part of the story. When House and Senate representatives added another billion dollars in earmarks to the "emergency" bailout bill, they demonstrated the worst of cynical "business as usual' Washington politics.
It was McCain's moment to "name names" of the miscreant earmarkers and to demonstrate his skill at getting things done. Instead of being the tough crusader against such pork barrel spending, McCain meekly voted for the bill without even commenting on it.
For me, this Homer Simpson moment erased much of McCain's credibility as the self-annointed guy who can fix things.
The Sox are going down in flames, the Patriots glory days are history, and the economy is on a feeding tube. The only good news is that this effing election is almost over.
10/01/2008
The Bailout
Note to readers: Sorry for those of you who have come to depend on my analytical brilliance to decide how you feel about issues of the day, but my PC crapped-out the other day and I have been challenged to find time and opportunity to post. My part-time workplace actually blocks computer access to most Internet sites, and I do not have a "back-up" 'puter ready to go. Today I am using my wife's laptop which I find awkward and clunky. Still, the show must go on!
The stock market has been volatile and the news is grim. Stories of people losing their life savings and businesses threatening to lay people off are now the daily staple of media reports.
In the news today there was a story about a woman who had invested all her money in Wachovia Bank stock. She lived in her own home in an affluent suburb, and was living a good life funded entirely on stock dividends. Now she is living in her son's basement.
People like me - who have already given up full time jobs in favor of retirement - are worried that our dwindling nest-eggs could disappear entirely - and we too will be forced to live in our children's basements. (I have even stashed a couple of hundred bucks in a sock just in case the ATM system fails and I need beer money).
It is not fun to be dependent on a fixed income, (especially if you are not getting fat trust fund checks like Paris Hilton ) or, working a part-time retail hellhole job making small money and putting-up with the odious public.
But, gentle readers, be not discouraged. Life will go on. Business cycles are an historic fact of life and this too shall pass. We will survive this crisis somehow. It will not be fun, but that doesn't mean that you cannot have any fun. As we work our way through these coming hard times I shall share some of my cost-cutting secrets with you my loyal readers - all four of you!
Now to the hard analysis of the bail-out:
This meltdown of credit markets can be traced directly back to the affirmative action goals of the federal government, which mandated that lenders give mortgage loans to people who could not afford them unless the equity value of the property kept rising. Freddie and Fannie were forced to guarantee these shaky loans.....
Combine the government's social engineering experiment with the greed and chicanery of the investment banks and mortgage companies and you get a trillion dollars betting that the houses that were held as collateral in these contracts would increase in value indefinitely, and nobody would lose. Well they didn't, and lots of people lost a lot; then the walls came tumbling down....
The solution:
Much as it will hurt, the government needs to let the businesses that risked their survival on bad loans fail. People will lose jobs. The gov't needs to help small businesses by extending credit to them, but not buying bad debt.
I will lose my stockholder equity in companies like AIG. I hate that, but hey I knew it was a gamble. There should not be guarantees for gamblers.
The people who bought houses that they couldn't afford are no worse off than they were before, and they have had a nice house to live in for a while. The leadership of the failed companies cannot be allowed to walk away with money when everyone else loses. Contract shmontract. Employees of failed companies will need to find work elsewhere. Government representatives who guessed wrong and made the situation worse must resign (and it would be nice if they took the blame in the manner of Japanese tradition of honor (sepicu).
The stock market has been volatile and the news is grim. Stories of people losing their life savings and businesses threatening to lay people off are now the daily staple of media reports.
In the news today there was a story about a woman who had invested all her money in Wachovia Bank stock. She lived in her own home in an affluent suburb, and was living a good life funded entirely on stock dividends. Now she is living in her son's basement.
People like me - who have already given up full time jobs in favor of retirement - are worried that our dwindling nest-eggs could disappear entirely - and we too will be forced to live in our children's basements. (I have even stashed a couple of hundred bucks in a sock just in case the ATM system fails and I need beer money).
It is not fun to be dependent on a fixed income, (especially if you are not getting fat trust fund checks like Paris Hilton ) or, working a part-time retail hellhole job making small money and putting-up with the odious public.
But, gentle readers, be not discouraged. Life will go on. Business cycles are an historic fact of life and this too shall pass. We will survive this crisis somehow. It will not be fun, but that doesn't mean that you cannot have any fun. As we work our way through these coming hard times I shall share some of my cost-cutting secrets with you my loyal readers - all four of you!
Now to the hard analysis of the bail-out:
This meltdown of credit markets can be traced directly back to the affirmative action goals of the federal government, which mandated that lenders give mortgage loans to people who could not afford them unless the equity value of the property kept rising. Freddie and Fannie were forced to guarantee these shaky loans.....
Combine the government's social engineering experiment with the greed and chicanery of the investment banks and mortgage companies and you get a trillion dollars betting that the houses that were held as collateral in these contracts would increase in value indefinitely, and nobody would lose. Well they didn't, and lots of people lost a lot; then the walls came tumbling down....
The solution:
Much as it will hurt, the government needs to let the businesses that risked their survival on bad loans fail. People will lose jobs. The gov't needs to help small businesses by extending credit to them, but not buying bad debt.
I will lose my stockholder equity in companies like AIG. I hate that, but hey I knew it was a gamble. There should not be guarantees for gamblers.
The people who bought houses that they couldn't afford are no worse off than they were before, and they have had a nice house to live in for a while. The leadership of the failed companies cannot be allowed to walk away with money when everyone else loses. Contract shmontract. Employees of failed companies will need to find work elsewhere. Government representatives who guessed wrong and made the situation worse must resign (and it would be nice if they took the blame in the manner of Japanese tradition of honor (sepicu).
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