Drunkblogging the State Of The Union Address

As is my custom, I will be drunkblogging the State Of The Union speech tonight. 

Obama has already signaled that he's going to raise the minimum wage for all Federal projects to $10.50 per hour, thereby guaranteeing that government will never, ever, ever do anything more efficiently than the private sector. 

He's also going to talk about getting training programs going for the long-term unemployed.  I will bet you the shriveled remains of my liver that he's going to propose more money for America's Community Colleges.  (The first president that I can remember making that proposal was Bush the Elder.  I think every president since then has followed suit in at least one SOTU speech.  I don't think anyone in the Oval Office has ever successfully implemented anything successful in our JuCo system.  But as a series of throwaway lines in a speech, it sounds great, right??) 

I'm writing this intro at work.  Gonna stop at the liquor store on the way home and get a pint of Kentucky Deluxe bourbon, just to brace myself for the horrors that this evening will bring.  The drunkblogging will all be on this same post, beginning beneath the picture, and I will update every few minutes. 

God help us all, we're in the hands of a man with delusions of adequacy.  What I wouldn't give to hear a president say "The State Of The Nation Is Good, and it's because I've decided to be the least activist president since Calvin Coolidge". 

Ok, John Boehner has entered the building....   (I'm watching this on CNN, by the way.) 

While we're waiting for Obama to show up and read what's on his Teleprompter, let me throw in a few vital charts about some of tonight's subject matter. 

Here's what the minimum wage has done to black kids, and Obama is going to try to get a few more confirmed kills of black teenagers by asking that Congress raise the minimum wage to a level higher than anyone would dream of paying to a black teenager.....

Yeah, that chart shows all teen unemployment, not just minority.  So shoot me. I couldn't find the other chart.  I'm drunkblogging this, remember? 

The Supreme Court justices just entered the building. 

CNN was talking about Willie Robertson, the star of "Duck Dynasty" being in the room.  Jake Tapper had to interrupt to say that Joe "The Gaffer" Biden showing up.  CNN got back to Willie Robertson ASAP.  LOL.  Lots and lots of Congressmen are going out of their way to have pictures made shaking hands with Willie Robertson.  I don't know if anyone is falling over himself to get a pic made breathing the same air as Biden. 

I really hope that The Teleprompter Jesus has the nerve to talk about Global Warming.  The entire Gulf Coast, from Texas through New Orleans and Mississippi is iced in.  NEW ORLEANS is having traffic problems because of the ice and snow.  NEW ORLEANS.  The icy weather goes all the way into Virginia. 

They just showed former Saturday Night Live comedian and current Senator Al Franken.  And I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. 

They just showed a zoom shot of  Kentucky Senator and Pork King Mitch McConnell.  I just threw up in my mouth a little more. 

Now they're showing closeups of Willie Robertson, star of "Duck Dynasty".  For the benefit of readers in Europe and Asia, this is Willie Robertson....

He's the star of a reality TV show about a family that has made millions by manufacturing duck calls. 
For the benefit of readers in Europe and Asia, this is a duck call.  Hunters use them to lure ducks within shotgun range. 

Willie Robertson has done far more for the country than Barack Obama.  He's created things that people want, and he didn't steal any of the money used to do it. 

John Boehner is calling the session of Congress to order. 

Dr. Jill Biden (she's made a career out of studying what the hell is wrong with Joe) has now entered the room.  Michelle should be next....

I was wrong. The Supreme Court Justices are next.   Ruth Bader-Ginsburg looks like she might not make it to the beginning of the Rodham administration....

Ok, now Michelle has entered the room, to riotous applause.  I wish Sasha and Malia were there.  By all accounts, the Obamas are raising a fine pair of young ladies. 

Here comes the cabinet.  John Kerry is there with his long face.  Chuck Hagel.  Susan Rice.  Soon-to-be-indicted Eric Holder (we can only hope). 

They're talking about who didn't show up from the Supreme Court.... Alito, Scalia and Thomas.  Alito has apparently chosen NOT to be caught on TV mumbling that the Leader Of The Free World is full of bovine excrement...

I haven't mentioned yet that Obama is probably going to spend some time tonight defending Obamacare.  What's goofy is that there now are more people without insurance than there were before the implementation of Obamacare.   And what, exactly, was the point of Obamacare???

They're zooming in on Kathleen Sibelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, the department that totally screwed up the U.S. medical system. 

John Boehner and Joe Biden are standing at the podium, acting like they are anything other than political whores. 

A brief side note.....  My mother-in-law moved in with me several months ago.  She has some Evan Williams bourbon in one of the kitchen cabinets.  She would never drink it, but uses is for cooking. 
I don't think I bought enough Kentucky Deluxe to get me through the task at hand.  Should I get into it? 

The really long answer is.... YES.  Obama just entered the building, and your elected representatives are falling all over each other to shake hands with him.  God help us all. 

I'll replace the Evan Williams tomorrow.  Desperate times demand desperate measures. 

Ok, I just checked my Statcounter.  This blog post is going out on a couple of Twitter feeds.  Gotta bring my "A Game". 

Obama is bringing up a teacher.  An entrepreneur.  And an autoworker.  He's going to say that because of them, the STATE OF THE NATION IS GOOD. 

No, that didn't happen.  Don't presidents usually begin their speech by stating that "The State Of The Nation Is Good"??

He said that the Autoworker helped "wean us off foreign oil".  Who gives a shit if we're using foreign oil, U.S oil, or oil that's imported from Hogwarts???  Oil is fungible.  (Look it up).  Presidents have been using that foreign oil line since freakin' Nixon.  Fools always applaud it.   

They just cut to a shot of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.  I just threw up in my mouth a little more, and some escaped to the front of my shirt. 

He just slammed Ted Cruz's puny little government shutdown of some national parks, and got some huge applause. 

He said that we've had some severe cuts to education.  Horseshit, Horseshit, Horseshit.  We've got the most overfunded education system we coulda dreamed of.  Teachers are retiring with full benefits before they hit 55 years old.  That ain't sustainable. 

Godalmighty, I'm sick of this man's voice. 

He's blaming his problems on Globalization and technological advances.  Corporations are making money.   Inequality has deepened.  Too many Americans are working too hard just to get by. 

He doesn't mention that it's because we're having to spend 1/3 of our money on his government- mandated bullshit. 

Michelle is getting a Standing -O just because he said her name.  She's brought down childhood obesity rates. 

So why in the hell does this dumb bastard subsidize the leading causes of obesity - sugar, wheat, corn, rice, and other carbohydrates? 

He just stood up for "marriage equality" - a position he didn't hold until last year. 

He just mentioned that John Boehner's father was a bartender. 

And that he, his own glorious self, was the son of a single mother. 

He wants to restore that promise of the American Dream.  He's lying.  He's still going to keep screwing things up.  He's going to keep glorifiying bartenders and single moms while vilifying entrepreneurs. 

Now he's yapping about creating tax incentives for companies that keep jobs in the USA.  We have the 2nd highest corporate tax rates in the free world.  He's lying about those tax incentives.  He'll do without that money right about the time he stops smoking. 

He's talking about creating manufacturing jobs.  He's not mentioning that his Labor Relations Board stopped Boeing from opening a new plant in the Carolinas. 

Ok, this is the part of the State Of The Union address that I always hate the most....  he knows that free trade is the way to go, but he wants to subsidize everyone who can't compete with free traders.  Pick a side, Barack, pick a side.  Be a Luddite or a Free Trader.  Pick a side.   

Now, on to the next worst thing....   The glorification of small businesses.  I like me some small businesses.  Presidents always point out that most of our job growth is from small businesses.  They say this as if it were some glorious piece of wisdeom, because it is true.  It's true for the same reason that most of the growth in forests is from trees that aren't grown yet.  Doh !!!

Now he's talking about some paper-thin material...  much like the content of this speech....

Ok, on to the "energy independence" clichés.  Can you imagine the president of, say, Spain, talking about "energy independence"?  Ever heard The Vatican spokesperson deliver a rant about "energy independence"? 
Since when does this fake self-reliance show strength?  We need energy independence like we need microchip independence, or like the people in your household need to manufacture their own soap or shirts or deodorant or dog food.  We are strongest when we can get the best possible deals at the lowest price.  It's called "comparative advantage" and "competitive advantage" and everyone who passed Economics 101 knows this.  (Obama failed this class at Occidental College.  Look it up.)

I knew he would do it!  I KNEW HE WOULD DO IT !!  Everything from Texas to New Orleans to Washington D.C. is snowed in and iced in, and THE STUPID SON OF A BITCH BROUGHT UP GLOBAL WARMING !!!!  HE'S TALKING ABOUT GOING SOLAR.   HE'S TALKING ABOUT WHAT HE'S GOING TO DO TO STOP GLOBAL WARMING !!!  We're in a situation where the warmest part of the USA is snowed in and he's talking about Al Gore's con game.  God loves me so much.  I know it because she let me be alive to hear this crap. 

GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY I LOVE BEING ALIVE SO I CAN HEAR THIS DAMN FOOL STAND AT THE PODIUM AND SPEAK !!!! 

Barack Obama, much like his supporters, has no sense of irony.  The entire Southeast is snowed in, and he just said "Climate Change is a fact".  Does he not own a thermometer?

He's talking about the rescue of our automakers.  That's like rescuing Blockbuster Video.

Ok, on to immigration. I do love me some immigrants.  Maybe something good can happen here....?

Never mind.  They just showed a closeup of Chuck Schumer.  I just threw up in my mouth a bit, and it went projectile.  Threw up all over the den. 

He's going to bring up America's Community Colleges.  He's going to bring up America's Community Colleges....

He just asked Joe Biden to train workers to fit the jobs that need to be filled.  This is the same clown that he asked to ensure that no stimulus money would be mis-spent....

Here it comes.... America's Community Colleges.... Say it, Barack, say it....

Dammit, he's not going to do it.  He's moved on to Unemployment Insurance. 

Unemployment Insurance is much needed because of Obama's policies that punish success. 

(A quick proposal....  Lower the corporate tax rate to zero.  Cut the number of government employees by 1/3rd.  Watch the USA grow like a weed.) 

O God.  He's into education.  Here's my favorite chart.  Spending has tripled, and test results have flatlined.....

Dammit, I think I deserve some credit for getting this dismal crap posted so quickly.  Hit the ads on my website, ok???

He's babbling about high-quality Pre-K funding, despite the fact that government studies have shown that any advantages provided by Operation Headstart disappear by the 2nd freakin' grade.

OMG....  here go the rants about how to guarantee that "no American middle-class kid is priced out of a college education".  Government subsidies of college educations are the #1 reason that college educations are expensive.  Subsidize something, and it's more expensive.  You learn that in Econ 101.  Barack flunked that class at Occidental.   

On to gender equality.  This man is a lying son of a bitch.  Women with the same education as men, and who work as many hours as men, make as much money as men. 

Here's the most damning contradiction in this fool's speech....  He just finished talking about gender inequality in wages, and followed it up by saying that women ought to be able to have a kid, or take care of her kid, without sacrificing her job.  So....who you gonna hire? Who are you gonna pay the most? 

BTW, there's  more gender inequality in Barack's White House than there is in our society in general.  Will throw some links in here later on.  He pays his men a lot more than his women.  Will find it later.

Some pizza guy just gave his employees a raise to $10.00 per hour. 

You know why?  Because they were worth it. 

I'm trying to raise two of my employees to $13 and $14 per hour. 

You know why?  Because they are worth it. 

Now Barack is going to raise ALL Federal employee contractor rates to $10.10 per hour. 

You know why?  Because it will get him votes and applause. 

He's encouraging every employer to give out raises.  You know what?  Next time you're at the grocery store, pay more than you have to.  Pay $20.00 for your newspaper.  Pay $10.00 for a gallon of gasoline.  Do silly shit, just to feel good about yourself. 

New subject....

Tomorrow, Barack is going to create a new way to save for retirement???   A new program called My IRA  ???

Hell, I thought Social Security was supposed to do that.  WTF WTF WTF ????

Christ almighty riding sidesaddle on a Shetland pony.  What is he talking about??  I can't wait to read the spin on that tomorrow. 

 Here's the good part... He's going to defend Obamacare, which just might have created a situation where we have fewer Americans insured than we did before it's implementation. 

Thanks to Obamacare, no American can be turned away by an insurance company for a pre-existing condition.  That's like saying nobody whose house has been burned down can be turned away by a homeowners insurance company.  I know that sounds harsh, but that's the dude's logic. 

Gonna take a break.  Gotta get some Evan Williams. 

Obama just issued a throwdown to Republicans to come up with an alternative to Obamacare. 
If the Republicans need help, they can go here.  I wrote it myself....

Voting Rights Act. 

Citizenship. 

Cliches. 

Gun Violence.  I wonder if Barack is aware that Eric Holder masterminded a program called "Fast And Furious" where we sent a buttload of high caliber weapons into Mexico to see what would happen?  And Federal Agents got killed with them?

Military.  Automatic standing ovation.  We have 6% of the world's population and 45% of the military spending.  Yeah, they're good people, but hell, how much military do you want to pay for? 

He says our longest war (Afghanistan) will soon finally be over.  He's lying.  Our longest war is Richard Nixon's War On Drugs, which he still chooses to fight.  BTW, has anyone noticed any increased in criminality in Colorado or Washington state?  The two states that recently legalized weed? 

Holy crap... the man is acting as if he finally understands that our presence overseas just might create more terrorists.  He's capable of learning!!  He's capable of learning!!!  Helen Keller's teacher probably felt this way when she got Keller to understand the concept of "water". 

"American Diplomacy has rallied more than 50 countries to prevent nuclear materials from falling into the wrong hands."  Bullshit.  Barack Obama, John Kerry, Hillary and others have access to nuclear materials.  Anyone thinking that those are good hands, well, they probably need to read a lot more. 

They just showed a closeup of Robert Menendez, the congressman of underage Caribbean prostitute fame.  I just threw up all over my laptop.  You people owe me. 

Something about keeping Iran from getting nukes.  The bourbon is weighing heavy on me, and Barack's voice is weighing heavier.  The cadence he uses, his sentence structure, all of it is so freakin' tiresome....

OMG.... his favorite clutchphrase..... "Let me be clear". 

He's still talking about Iran and nukes.  Do I detect some saber-rattling here?  Are we gonna have boots on the ground sometime soon?  

CNN just zoomed in on Jason Collins, the NBA's first openly gay player.  I'm all for marriage equality, gay rights, and getting government out of marriage.  But why in the hell is Jason Collins in the halls of Congress for this speech?  Obama only finished "evolving" on the gay marriage issue last year.  WTF?  WTF? WTF? 

Something about veterans getting the healthcare that they need, and getting jobs.  How about leaving them in the USA, you bastard?  Let's not cripple and maim so many of them.  Let's stop creating terrorists.  The military-industrial complex is killing more people than the muslims.  End it, end it, end it all. 

The soldier sitting by Michelle is getting a shout-out.  He was injured, but is learning to speak and walk again.  This pitiful little political hack is going to make a political point, comparing himself, and his programs, and his agenda to this wounded soldier.  I can't believe what the f**k I just heard. 

Standing ovation from Congress.  What a cheap, smarmy little bastard we have filling the shoes of Washington, Jefferson, Taft and Coolidge. 

I'm going to spend the rest of the night praying for the damnation of The Republic.  "

Now he's into the "Teachable Moments" of his speech.  He's still comparing his agenda to the recovery of the wounded soldier. 

I'm going to go into my bathroom and finish throwing up. 

"God bless you, and God bless the United States Of America". 

I'm done.  Hope I never have to watch anything that manipulative again.  

A quick prediction about the upcoming State Of The Union address

Tuesday, January 28th, The Idiot will give another State Of The Union address.  I can't decide if I'm going to drunkblog it or not. 

Most of what he's says will prove him guilty of this economic fallacy:

Hide and watch.  The man has never created a dime of wealth on his own, he's never grown anything, never created anything that he could trade for your money except a storybook of his own glorious life. 
As a lawyer and as a politician, Obama's career choices have been in fields that are about taking things by force - through the courts or at gunpoint. 

Wait and see, wait and see.  

50 Years After JFK, Crazy People Can Still Get Guns

We got past the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination with a minimal amount of fake emotion, chin-stroking, and blame-shifting.

The day's worst cartoon was probably this one, lamenting that crazy people can still get guns. 

Yeah, they can.  And that's why I'm keeping mine. 

 

2013 Photo Of The Year

Barack Obama often lies by claiming that he's overseeing "the most transparent administration in history". 

Horsecrap.  His administration isn't even remotely transparent (one of my least favorite buzzwords, BTW).

Thanks to the NSA and Homeland Security, you are the one who is suddenly transparent. 

They know you're reading this.  Log off quickly. 
 

American Exceptionalism

Vladimir Putin took to the pages of The New York Holy Times a few days ago, bent Barack Obama over his knee, and gave him a firm spanking.  Most of Putin's editorial was about Syria, but some of it addressed the issue of "American Exceptionalism". 

Here is Putin's money quote:

 I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is “what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.” It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.

Yeah, France thinks that is exceptional because of the French food and lifestyle. 
Italy believes that it is exceptional because Italians have the misguided belief that no one else in the world can make decent wooden chairs. 
The Chinese pictogram for "China" literally means "Middle Kingdom", as in "China is halfway between earth and heaven", which is taking exceptionalism to the next level. 
Great Britain believes that it is exceptional because it really used to be exceptional, and ruled half the globe from a few buildings in London. 

Here's how Wikipedia defines "American Exceptionalism":

American exceptionalism is the theory that the United States is "qualitatively different" from other nations.  In this view, America's exceptionalism stems from its emergence from a revolution, becoming what political scientist Seymour Martin Lipsett called "the first new nation" and developing a uniquely American ideology, "Americanism" based on liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, republicanism, populism and laissez-faire.  This ideology itself is often referred to as "American exceptionalism."

IMHO, here's the only thing that has ever made the USA exceptional - the opening salvo from the Declaration Of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

We are exceptional, and have prospered, and gotten richer than the founders could've imagined, because our government was founded on the idea that government is to serve us, and not vice-versa.

We have the right to Life,

Liberty,

and the pursuit of Happiness (not a guarantee, but we can sure chase it and occasionally run 'er down.)

 It's not our insane foreign policy that makes us exceptional, it's not about us being Jesus's favorite tribe, and it's not about our willingness to go to the Lands Of Brown People and blow up their wives and children. 

We have certain rights, and the government is supposed to acknowledge them - Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  Whenever the government is "destructive of these ends" it is the "Right of the People to alter or to abolish it".   

The current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue believes that we are a collective, and that there is such a thing as "Group Happiness" and this plays hell with those of us who march to a different drummer. 
He believes that we have the right to organize, to confiscate, to re-appropriate, and to transfer property. 
He believes that we have the right and responsibility to abide by the will of the majority, no matter how harmful the majority opinion reveals itself to be. 
He believes that we have the right to bomb other nations (in an "incredibly small" and not time-sensitive way) in order to please our military contractors. 
He has no concept of the difference between democracy and liberty.   

Barack Obama's idea of American Exceptionalism is radically different from anything that might have made us exceptional in the past.  We are now buried in debt, we are governed by con-men, and we now have to read accurate and timely lectures from KGB strongmen in our paper of record.

We are on the path to becoming the next Bulgaria.  American Exceptionalism was nice while it lasted.   

The Recent History of The Middle East

Sent by The Whited Mama:

 

Never Let A Non-Crisis Go To Waste

Ok, this is some good stuff.  Please hang with me through the preliminary throat-clearing....

Here's The Economist magazine, formerly a cheerleader for Anthropogenic Global Warming, but now drifting toward well-founded skepticism for the second time in the last few months:

GLOBAL warming has slowed. The rate of warming of over the past 15 years has been lower than that of the preceding 20 years. There is no serious doubt that our planet continues to heat, but it has heated less than most climate scientists had predicted. Nate Cohn of the New Republic reports: "Since 1998, the warmest year of the twentieth century, temperatures have not kept up with computer models that seemed to project steady warming; they’re perilously close to falling beneath even the lowest projections".

Mr Cohn does his best to affirm that the urgent necessity of acting to retard warming has not abated, as does Brad Plumer of the Washington Post, as does this newspaper. But there's no way around the fact that this reprieve for the planet is bad news for proponents of policies, such as carbon taxes and emissions treaties, meant to slow warming by moderating the release of greenhouse gases. The reality is that the already meagre prospects of these policies, in America at least, will be devastated if temperatures do fall outside the lower bound of the projections that environmentalists have used to create a panicked sense of emergency. Whether or not dramatic climate-policy interventions remain advisable, they will become harder, if not impossible, to sell to the public, which will feel, not unreasonably, that the scientific and media establishment has cried wolf.

Read the whole thing if time permits, and remember the key sentence in that 2nd paragraph.  The reality is that the already meagre prospects of these policies, in America at least, will be devastated if temperatures do fall outside the lower bound of the projections that environmentalists have used to create a panicked sense of emergency.

Now we take you to Barack H. Obama, in full-blown Chicken Little mode. .   

President Obama will announce Tuesday in a speech at Georgetown University that he plans to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from existing power plants, according to individuals who have been briefed on the plan but asked not to be identified.


In a statement Saturday afternoon sent via the White House Twitter feed, Obama said that he plans to fulfill the pledge he made in his second inaugural address to “respond to the growing threat of climate change for the sake of our children and future generations.”


“This Tuesday, I’ll lay out my vision for where I believe we need to go — a national plan to reduce carbon pollution, prepare our country for the impacts of climate change, and lead global efforts to fight it,” the president said. “This is a serious challenge — but it’s one uniquely suited to America’s strengths.”

Remember this, children.  Please, please, please remember this one thing.  The damn weather isn't cooperating with the models.  Climate isn't changing as predicted.  Obama knows that if he's going to get in another expensive boondoggle for supporters, he has to act fast. 

Here's some more of his statement.  For "economic opportunities", you can safely substitute the word "graft".  Or perhaps "kickbacks". 

In Saturday’s statement, Obama emphasized the economic opportunities that could come from tackling carbon emissions.


“We’ll need scientists to design new fuels, and farmers to grow them,” he said. “We’ll need engineers to devise new sources of energy, and businesses to make and sell them.”

Ok, enough of that damn fool.  Let's move on to another one, a senator from Hawaii. 

Senator Brian Schatz’s (D-HI) filed an amendment for the immigration bill Wednesday that would allow stateless people in the U.S. to seek conditional lawful status if their nations have been made uninhabitable by climate change.

I'll believe that I contribute to Climate Change when senator Brian Schatz’s (D-HI) starts travelling from Hawaii to D.C. in a canoe carved from a coconut tree.  Christ Almighty, do these people have no sense of shame?  At all? 
Here's more.....

Again, let me be clear about what this amendment does. It simply recognizes that climate change, like war, is one of the most significant contributors to homelessness in the world. And like with states torn apart and made uninhabitable by war, we have an obligation not to deport people back to a country made uninhabitable by sea level rise and other extreme environmental changes that render these states desolate.

The sky isn't falling, people.  It simply isn't.  We have weather.  Good, bad, and normal. 

There is no crisis.  But we're not going to let the non-crisis go to waste. 

2007 Obama debates 2013 Obama on Civil Liberties !!

Here's an interesting video of what Obama's 2007 teleprompter told him to say vs. the same machine in 2013. 


This document still matters, you know....

Obama to observe a moment of silence

Barack Obama will observe a moment of silence in honor of the Boston bombing victims, with no one present, no press, no outsiders, no one except the White House photographer who will be there to document the moment when Barack shut the hell up. 

Go here. 

Tragic moment last week or not, that is funny. 

I don't care who you are, that is funny. 

Picture of Barack using Teleprompters to address 6th graders came from here. 

Barack Obama on the Boston Marathon bombing

Someone programmed The Teleprompter Jesus to make the following statement about the Boston Marathon bombing: 

"On days like this there are no Republicans or Democrats....We are Americans, united in concern for our fellow citizens ... We still do not know who did this, or why. But make no mistake, we will get to the bottom of this."

Let me fix that for you, Barack. 

"On days like this there are no Republicans or Democrats, only subsidizers of Lockheed-Martin, Bell Helicopter and Northrop Grumman.  We are hostages of the military-industrial complex, united in concern for saving jobs at General Dynamics and this is the price we pay for full employment in those industries.  We still do not know who did this, but if you had a foreign army in your nation, you would probably do the same thing and set off a few bombs yourself.  But make no mistake...I'm not going to chance my stance on undeclared wars, the military-industrial complex, the American empire, or colonialism." 

Hope this helps. 

Did FDR end it? Or just extend it?

Here's UCLA economics professor Lee Ohanian on whether or not FDR's general goofiness eventually ended the Great Depression, or merely extended a recession into a full-blown disaster for the nation. It would be nice for the Teleprompter's Programmer to take note of this.

Reaction Wordcloud to the State Of The Union speech

Go here. 
This is the worldcloud of responses to last night's State Of the Union address.  From USA Today. 

Does Barack Obama hate black people??

Here's the late senator Jacob Javitz on why he supported minimum wage legislation:

"I point out to Senators from industrial states like my own that a minimum wage increase would also give industry in our states some measure of protection, as we have too long suffered from the unfair competition based on substandard wages and other labor conditions in effect in certain areas of the country – primarily in the South.
....Although probably no northern senator today would dare admit it, many who vote for increases in the minimum wage understand that one consequence will be to destroy  jobs for the least skilled workers, a disproportionate number of whom are black.”

And now, thanks to the good intentions of our government, we now have a black teen unemployment rate of  40%.

Here's a summary of the situation....  I can teach you how to play a piano, but if you pay me more than $7.00 an hour, you're getting ripped off.  I'm not much of a piano player, or teacher.  But if I had to, I could make some money teaching piano for $7.00 an hour.

My neighbor down the street is a really good piano teacher.  She gets $10.00 an hour.  One street over is another guy who gets $15.00 per hour.

If you raise the minimum wage for piano teachers to $12.00 an hour, who does it help?  Me or my neighbors?

It helps my neighbors.   I ain't worth $12.00 an hour as a piano teacher.  Nobody will ever pay me that, because I'm not worth it.  All it will do is guarantee full employment for my neighbors.

That's what happens to inexperienced and low-skilled labor when a Washington Messiah raises the minimum wage.  They get priced out of the market.  Just hide and watch what happens to the black teen minority unemployment rate if The Teleprompter Jesus gets his way with this proposal from his Union Of The Statists speech last night :

"Even with the tax relief we’ve put in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line. That’s wrong," Obama said. "Tonight, let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour. This single step would raise the incomes of millions of working families.

Never mind the question of WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WITH TWO KIDS IF YOUR SKILLS AREN'T WORTH MORE THAN MINIMUM WAGE????
The real question is this....

Why does Barack Obama hate black people?

Don't get me wrong...I love the minimum wage, because I'm white.  My daughter is white, and also has established plenty of work experience.  She was offered jobs at more than 40K per year at the age of 20.  Minimum wage legislation will ensure that we're the last to be laid off.  We got skills!!!  

But does Barack Obama really hate black people?  Or is he just not very smart?

The ObamaCare Poster Contest Winner

This one is beautiful, ain't it? 
Go here to see the other contestants. 
Go here to see what that photogenic idiot is likely to accomplish for medicine in California. 

Obama shoots clay pigeons. Hilarity ensues.

The White House (i.e., "you") paid to have some pics put on the official WH website.  Pics of Obama shooting skeet.

They were accompanied with a schoolmarmish warning that the pics "may not be manipulated in any way".

Hilarity followed shortly afterwards.

Go here for other funnies.

Damn.....

Looks like the NRA has settled on a strategy....

A long rant about Paul Krugman

If Barack Obama/Nancy Pelosi/Harry Reid and Co. were to break into Fort Knox, throw all the gold into the Atlantic,  then shoot the CEO of every Productive (i.e.  non-green) company, and then, as a follow-up, pour radioactive waste into every functioning oil well in North America, I wonder what Paul Krugman of the New York Holy Times would do to justify it.  Because he would find a way to justify it.    

If the only way to hire one more government bureaucrat involved adding 3 trillion to the national debt, selling our children to China as household slaves, and worsening the condition of every low income family in the nation, I wonder what Paul Krugman would write to justify it. 

Because he would find a way to justify it. 

There are people in politics that I admire.  I think Ron Paul is as close as they come to being an American hero.  But he plugged in the occasional earmark here and there.  Ask him why, and he'll say that that's how the game is played.   It's what the system requires.  He shouldn't have done the earmarks. 

He also should've paid more attention to his newsletters in the 80's, and not allowed any racist commentary to get in.  If you want to be president, you've gotta keep your eye on the ball. 

See???  I just criticized Ron Paul.  I think it helps my objectivity a bit. 

I think the world of former New Mexico governor and LP presidential candidate Gary Johnson, and would probably volunteer to be the mother of his next child.  But I totally disagree with his stance on privatizing prisons, and I don't care how much money it saved the state of New Mexico.  The government should have a monopoly on initiating force.  It's that simple.  I think Gary Johnson is wrong, wrong, wrong on this issue. 

But Paul Krugman?  If Barack Obama were to start locking up people for bing left-handed, confiscating their illegally earned left-handed incomes, and sending them to Montana for "re-education", I truly believe that Paul Krugman would write a column about how this will eventually help the economy. 

Jesus Christ Almighty, what a puppet....

Who Was The Most Intriguing Person Of 2012?

What makes someone intriguing?

What makes you take a few minutes to swing by someone else's workspace to hear what they have to say? 

I have some employees and some co-managers that I try to contact as often as possible.  They're usually up to something different, something out of the ordinary. 

There are others who depress the living hell out of me, because when I ask them about their night, what they did with their lives, etc., they say that they went home and watched "Dancing With The Stars".  To each his own, and all that, but we have a limited amount of time on this planet to define ourselves. 

I think that former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson is intriguing.  I think he has ideas about government that are different from almost anything else out there.  Get out of other countries' bidness.  Reduce the size of the military.  Cut government by 43%.  End the Drug War.  End the ban on gay marriage.  Gary Johnson will say these things in short, concise sound bites.  Try to find a recording of someone from the Obama/Boehner team saying the same things in words anyone can understand.   

I've hung out with Governor Johnson a couple of times and listened to him explain how he could have easily cut New Mexico's state government size in half, and no one woulda noticed. 

Gary Johnson climbed Everest with a broken foot.  He paraglides.  Hops on his bike and goes a hundred miles every now and then.  I sat beside him at our Joe T. Garcia's fundraiser, and they brought him a special order, one that someone had obviously arranged long ahead of time.  This platter of meat made an Atkins Plan look like something from a donut shop.  A serious carnivore, that Gary Johnson. 

On the other hand, there's Barack H. Obama. 

I swear, I think I can finish his sentences for him.  At this point, I wouldn't go out of my way to hear his opinions on the NBA draft, much less his opinions on the economy, the unemployment rate, foreign relations, or the national debt. 

He's an absolute failure on all of those issues.  Why his blather is of interest to anyone is beyond me. 

CNN just named Barack Obama the "Most Intriguing Person Of 2012".   

Simon Jester is back !!

The Simon Jester blog is back. 

Go here. 

Always good stuff. 

A typical example of their fine work.... (I woulda said "and the 12-year-old behind you has to pay for it", just to increases the guilt, but hey, it's still greatness.) 

Keep Calm And Finish Him