A local Washington DC bar is in a lot of trouble this week due to a recent poorly chosen marketing campaign (pictured above). They were advertising a Thanksgiving party (which in itself sounds like a pretty lame way to drum up sales around the holiday season – when people should be spending time with family), but they did so in such a callous, ignorant fashion that the area and the internet as a whole is resounding with charged responses.
Please take a moment today to remember our soldiers and heroes from the past… and pray for our soldiers and heroes of the present.
This morning I stumbled across a column written by Joel Stein for Time Magazine.com that made me vomit in my mouth. Apparently, Mr. Stein’s douche-bag of an editor thinks that hockey (more specifically NHL hockey) is not relevant enough to appear as part of a Time Magazine publication.
This editor gave Stein one last chance to prove that hockey was worth writing about. You can see Stein’s final(?) article here. There is also a place on the page where readers can vote on the issue (“yes” to ban him from writing about hockey, “no” to keep him writing about the NHL and hockey).
The Associated Press released an interesting article exposing the truths behind President Obama’s recent claims regarding the economy and the budget for his first term.
It’s definitely worth the read if you’re interested in holding our leaders and elected officials accountable for their promises and failures.
The highlight of the article for me was Obama’s claim that:
“We will recover from this recession. But it will take time, it will take patience, and it will take an understanding that when we all work together, when each of us looks beyond our own short-term interests to the wider set of obligations we have to each other, that’s when we succeed.”
Now if that doesn’t sound like Marxist inspired socialism, I don’t know what does… loosely translated, Obama is saying… “When we all share our wealth for the good of the country, that’s when we succeed.”
Great…
St. Patricks Day turned violent and deadly in Ireland on Tuesday, as drunken people rioted across the country, torched cars, and attacked emergency personel.
Officers of the Police Service of Northern Ireland donned full riot gear, including flame-retardant suits, to drive about 1,000 students from Queen’s University (the major college in Belfast) back into their rented red-brick homes.
The Irish Republic’s police commander, Commissioner Fachtna Murphy, said that [from last Friday through Tuesday night], police had arrested 346 suspected drunk drivers and 72 for dangerous driving, while eight people died in crashes.
The Dublin Fire Brigade said its officers were pelted with stones, cans and bottles in several public housing projects overnight as they dealt with 46 fires, mostly smashed-up cars that had been set ablaze.
Ambulance crews dealing with more than 200 emergency calls — including a dozen stabbings involving knives or broken bottles — said they also suffered physical and verbal abuse as they responded to booze-fueled bloodshed.
So, this AIG backlash is really starting to catch momentum. People’s outrage just continues to snowball, and I have a real good feeling that more than a few representatives will see their careers on Capitol Hill end soon because of this issue.
Today reports came out which indicate that Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) inserted a loophole in the stimulus legislation that allowed million-dollar bonuses to insurance giant AIG to go forward. Former GOP congressman Rob Simmons is taking full advantage of all the negative press surrounding Dodd by announcing this week that he will be running against Dodd (pictured above) when he comes up for re-election.
Government Leaders are furious regarding recent news that bailed-out company, AIG is issuing $165 million in bonuses.
Congressional Democrats vowed Tuesday to all but strip AIG executives of their $165 million in bonuses as expressions of outrage swelled in Congress over eye-catching extra income for employees of a firm that has received billions in taxpayer bailout funds.
House and Senate Democrats were crafting separate bills to tax up to 100 percent of generous bonuses awarded by companies rescued by taxpayer money.
Great… this is exactly what the United States and it’s free market economy need: the Government stepping in and deciding how much people get paid to do their jobs. Here we go… deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole.
Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the 29-year old Iraqi reporter who threw not only one, but both of his shoes at President George W. Bush in December 2008 was sentenced today. Al-Zeidi received three years in prison for the charge: assaulting a foreign leader.
For those of you who missed the massive coverage of the incident when it happened… you can see the incident in the youtube clip below:
Many people in Iraq (and the middle east as a whole) consider Al-Zeidi a hero worthy of accolades and not imprisonment, while many people in the United States and around the world consider this to be quite comical. I am not of either camp.
President Barack Obama, signed a bill today that he acknowledged was “imperfect,” while also insisting that this bill must signal an “end to the old way of doing business.”
“I am signing an imperfect omnibus bill because it’s necessary for the ongoing functions of government,” Obama declared. “But I also view this as a departure point for more far-reaching change.”
In Political news today, it’s become evident that Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi is already considering another stimulus bill.
Pelosi accused the Washington media and cable news establishment of taking an overly critical approach toward the first stimulus package — and expecting too much too soon…
… Right… because we shouldn’t expect anything our government does to work effectively, right Mrs. Pelosi?
In recent political news, President Barak Obama has repealed all restrictions on Federal funding for stem cell research that the George W. Bush Presidency established in August 2001 because of what was described (at the time) as “fundamental questions about the beginnings of life and the ends of science.”
In layman’s terms, the Bush administration had problems with the fact that much of stem cell research involves the destruction of human embryos. This was a moral issue for our previous President that he felt was not worthy of any compromise, so he banned the Federal funding of such practices (funding of course, which comes indirectly from each and every tax payer in the country).
In a recent post on Americasright (a fairly conservative blog written by a young Philidelphia-based lawyer), we see just how clueless our new President and his wife seem to be.
While I’m absolutely sure that the British press is blowing this issue somewhat out of proportion, the fact remains that it’s just an example of how our new First Family seems to be a bit like a fish out of water in the White House. While England is I’m sure familiar with Obama’s humble beginnings, I’m sure they probably expected more from our country and our President’s chosen aids, when it comes to educating him and his family on proper etiquette.
Let us hope and pray that the First Family does not repeat these same mis-steps with the leaders of countries with which we are NOT currently “friendly.”
In the news this morning, it was released that The United States Congress has proposed hefty increases (in many cases) to numerous domestic spending programs… this increase in spending will be in addition to the increased spending that’s already been proposed (and passed) in the recent $787 billion stimulus package.
Now I’m not necessarily against domestic spending… but when I read that “Congress also awarded itself a 10 percent increase in its own budget, bringing it to $4.4 billion,” I feel as though I’m in need of glasses or something.
Last week, I addressed a recent political cartoon that appeared in the NY Post which many people (with too much time on their hands – possibly due to the rising unemployment rates), took a great deal of offense to.
Today, the NY Post released a public online “apology”to try and quell the ridiculous outcry and protests that have occured in the last few days.
While the appology is carefully worded and doesn’t really appologize for the cartoon itself, the release of any statement regarding this blown out of proportion issue is more than should have been released.
Today, President Obama pledged to cut the nation’s ever-growing budget deficit in half by the end of his first (and boy do I hope last) term as President of the United States.
I know there are people out there who think that he’s “The Savior,” and there are people out there who think he can do anything, but seriously… there’s absolutely no chance in hell that Obama will be able to cut the nation’s budget deficit (which is a projected $1.5 trillion this year) in half within four years.
Less than two (seemingly long) weeks ago, Obama’s administration made a bill into law that will cost the nation $787 billion dollars. This massive spending package is completely separate from any other existing government spending programs, that will cost additional money to maintain.
Consider that the economy is currently shrinking. The United States’ gross domestic product (GDP) at this point is fairly consistantly less each month than it was the month before. So our country is making less money, and we are spending much, much more money (via our President’s Stimulus Package), and yet somewhere in all of this, we’ll have the available resources to cut the budget deficit in half?
I hope everyone is watching this situation closely, and holding Obama to the promises he makes, because there is no way he can pull this off… not without people working… not without companies making money… not with businesses moving over seas… not with the addition of 787 billion dollars of debt… not with the housing market completely upside-down. It just won’t happen.
It was 64 years ago today that the United States raised it’s flag on the top of Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima. The battle for the island took place from February 19, 1945 through March 26, 1945… and was a crucial step for the United States in ending Japan’s involvement in World War II.
Remember our soldiers and heroes from the past, and pray for our soldiers and heroes of the present.
Economic Stimulus Bill plans to protect “vulnerable” Polar Bears!
President Obama promised today that he will “call them out” when asked what would happen if stimulus spending was spent wastefully. “Them” of course referring to State and Local officials and agencies.
Ahhh… That’s good. I for one feel much more comfortable knowing that the president wagging his finger and saying, “shame on you” is the only consequence for elected officials blowing billions of taxpayer dollars. I can kick my feet up and relax knowing that he’ll call their mothers and get them into trouble.
Here’s a thought. Why not take the time to establish protocals and rules to regulate how the money is used so that it isn’t used improperly? What? No? There’s no time for that? Oh ok… well let’s just rush right through things then. Good deal. It’s only 787 billion dollars. Who cares if we don’t get it right?
Take a look at the below picture. A long look. Analyze it carefully. Make a personal judgement as to what it portrays and what it means to you (before continuing to read the rest of this post).
Speculation that Obama’s next target in the economy would be the housing market seems to have come to fruition today, as numerous media outlets have reported that Obama has indeed created a proposal to offer aid and relief to some 9 million American home owners currently facing forclosure.
I for one foolishly suspected that The President might let the dust settle a bit following the signing of a bloated, $787 billion “stimulus” package within the last week (view my take here) before taking more action in the economy and spending more money. Thus, I was mistaken and a bit too optimistic it appears…
Late last week, on Friday the 13th of February, both houses of the United States Legislature gave their stamps of approval to a “stimulus” package which is intended to jump start the United States economy by creating jobs, and developing the country’s infrastructure. It bears a price tag of $787,000,000,000.00 and is the largest government intervention into the economy that the world has likely ever seen.
