He's Not The Only One

I just wanted to say one more quick thing that I left out (and that everyone else always leaves out) about the college students attacking Rick Santorum for a) being against gay marriage and, b) asking about how polygamy will fit into our laws if we're going to be OK with gay marriage. (Contrary to popular reporting, Rick Santorum was not comparing gay marriage to polygamy. But that's how it has been reported in most of the articles that I've read. And that's because...? The media sucks, that is correct.)

I want to speak to that chick that was asking Mr. Santorum the initial question about why he was against gay marriage. I want to speak to her (and the rest of the sanctimonious college students who booed Mr. Santorum during his town hall thingee that he did over there in Concord, N.H.) and I want to ask her one question. OK, fine. I want to ask her several questions, but only one that pertains to this discussion. The pertinent question is: Do you know that President Barry is against gay marriage? Because he is.

Not only is President Barry against gay marriage, but Vice President Biden (aka Joey Veep) is against gay marriage also. Not only that, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (who was very nearly the Democratic party's nominee candidate for President last time around) is also against gay marriage. They're all against it. But no one ever talks about that! No, whenever this subject comes up with any candidate out there, if they're against it, it's portrayed in the media as if they're some sort of pariah who is so out of touch with the rest of the world. And every person who asks these questions of these candidates acts the same way. Would all of those college students who were booing Rick Santorum been cheering the President? Of course they would have. Because they just don't get it.

For some reason, the media portrays gay marriage as something that is just universally accepted by everyone in the country and if you're against gay marriage that there is something wrong with you and you are in the minority. And I'm not pointing this out because I'm against gay marriage. I'm not. I'm pointing this out because no one else will! Out of the fifty states in America, there are six (plus Washington D.C.) where same-sex marriage is legal. And in all six of those states, same-sex marriage was legalized through legislation or a court ruling. It was not legalized through a vote put to the people. In the states where a vote was put to the people? Yeah, those states didn't vote in favor of it. Yet Rick Santorum gets booed and the media portrays him as being out of touch. Oh, someone's out of touch here. And while that might include Rick Santorum (but for reasons other than this), it includes a whole lot of other people that don't even know how out of touch they are. Media, I'm talking to you!

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The Stupidest Thing of 2012 So Far

Wow. It is only January 2nd and I have already read the stupidest thing I've read all year. And it's quite possible that it's going to win out as the stupidest thing that I read all year. The thing is that I really can't tell where the stupidity arises from. I don't know if it's from the person who wrote the article (please note my omission of the word 'journalist) or if the article was written in such a way as to appeal to the sort of soft headed moron that might be reading it. Whatever it is, there is so much wrong with it that it's hard to know where to begin. But let's see what I can do.

According to the huffy folks over yonder at The Huffington Post, President Barry has signed the defense bill "despite serious reservations". Now while that may sound idiotic, I'm guessing that the reason that he ended up signing the thing is because, like all other bills, there was a whole bunch of crap in there that had nothing to do with defense that needed to be pushed through. And actually, that part of how bills are drawn up in Washington is completely asinine. Why there is stuff in a defense bill that has to do with unemployment benefits is beyond me. But as ridiculous as all of this is, that's not the stupidest part yet.

No, that honor goes to this part of the article: "Indefinite military detention of Americans became the law of the land Saturday, as President Barack Obama signed a defense bill that codified that authority, even as he said he would not use it."

::: blink ::: ::: blink :::

You have GOT to be kidding me. President Barry just signed a bill that allows for the government to detain American citizens as long as they want to for whatever reason they want (or don't want) to have and I'm supposed to feel better because he said that he isn't going to do that?! Please, someone, anyone, tell me that the last part was not actually uttered and included in his justification for signing this thing as a way to make anyone feel better. Do these people realize that Barack Obama is not our king? Do they realize that eventually, whether it be this year or four years from now, someone else will be President of the United States? Do they realize that any and all future Presidents can use that authority regardless as to whether President Barry says that he will or will not? Do they realize that if that law is on the books (and it is) that someone will one day use it?! Why am I the only one flipping out over this?!

See, this isn't one of those things where the brain dead argument of "If I'm not doing anything wrong then I don't have anything to worry about" doesn't come into play at all. That's the exact problem with this law! You don't have to be doing anything wrong to have something to worry about. All you need to have is some overzealous a-hole in a position to detain you and that's it. You're screwed. You're indefinitely screwed. If that doesn't chill you to your very core then might I suggest moving somewhere a bit more oppressive than the United States? North Korea, perhaps? You'll love it there.

I cannot believe that President Barry went ahead and signed that bill with that new law in it. What good is our Constitution if there can be federal laws enacted that will essentially strip away all of our rights that are guaranteed to us under said Constitution? And while I'm mad at President Barry, I'm absolutely appalled at Congress, as voted something like 94-6 in favor of this provision. All of those people who voted for this need to be thrown out of their office on their ass as soon as possible. For God's sake, please do not vote in November to re-elect any of these jokers that are currently in office and making decisions like this. Lord only knows what they'll come up with next time.

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Not Everyone Left

This morning, I received a rather disingenuous email from President Barry. It read as follows:

Mary --

Early this morning, the last of our troops left Iraq.

As we honor and reflect on the sacrifices that millions of men and women made for this war, I wanted to make sure you heard the news.

Bringing this war to a responsible end was a cause that sparked many Americans to get involved in the political process for the first time. Today's outcome is a reminder that we all have a stake in our country's future, and a say in the direction we choose.

Thank you.

Barack

Yeah, um, let's talk about for just a second, shall we? Do you know where the largest United State Embassy is in the world? Yeah, it's in Baghdad. Why is this not mentioned more? What do you think we're doing by building our largest embassy right there in the middle of Iraq? No, really. What do you think? Because I can't figure it out. Regardless, our presence in Iraq is now permanent due to that embassy. Yes, I realize that the embassy is not a military base. My point here is that I'm tired of this withdrawal of troops from Iraq being portrayed as the US being completely absent from Iraq because that's simply not true. And it doesn't sound as good. I imagine that it might raise some questions that people don't want to answer during an election year as well.

And about the troops. Sure, the troops have "exited" Iraq. But everything that I read about this "exit" makes it sound as if there are NO Americans left Iraq who are working for the US government. According to CNN, "The United States will still maintain a presence in Iraq: hundreds of nonmilitary personnel, including 1,700 diplomats, law enforcement officers, and economic, agricultural and other experts, according to the State Department. In addition, 5,000 security contractors will protect Americans and another 4,500 contractors will serve in other roles." Wait a minute. 5,000 security contractors? What sort of security and for whom? I thought that we were "out of Iraq". Oh, that's right. For some reason, the White House and the State Department don't consider non-military personnel to be worthy of mentioning. Hmmm...I wonder who those security contractors operate under? Someone has to be giving them directions, right? Am I supposed to believe that it is someone other than our government? Because I'm really not going to do that. They can call it whatever they want to call it, but to keep saying over and over that the US is "out of Iraq" is really borderline lying. Really borderline.

So there you have it. At least 10,000 contractors and embassy related personnel are still in Iraq. The world's biggest embassy is in Baghdad. But President Barry and the State Department are going around touting the departure of the US from Iraq. And for some reason, the media is buying right into that hype and continuing to report it that way. That's because the media sucks. Sucks bad.

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No Change

I have a question for President Barry's senior advisor David Plouffe. For lack of better phrasing, "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

See, in an article over there at Politico, they go through some of the things that Mr. Plouffe said on Good Morning America yesterday. He was asked about the Occupy Wall Street protests. He was also asked about the Republicans and what they're doing these days. And then he was asked about "...challenges facing Obama’s reelection efforts". His reply is disconcerting at best and I'm not sure if there was any follow up to what he said. And what he said was this: "I mean, some things aren’t going to change between now and next November. We’re obviously in a tough economy. We’re going to have a very close election, as most presidential elections are. So we’re going to fight for every vote and that’s what we intend to do." Wait. What?

Did he really just say that "some things aren't going to change between now and next November"?! Uh, next November is over a year away. Not much more than a year, but still more than a year none the less. What, exactly, is not going to change? Wait. Let me rephrase that. What things (as in "more than one") are NOT going to change in the next year? And why are they not going to change? What sort of campaign starts out by stating that there will be upcoming stagnancy? Not a good one if you're asking me.

That this is coming from Change-y McOptimism's camp is disconcerting to me. Look, I am tired of paying almost four bucks for a gallon of gas. I am tired of knowing so many people that are out of work. I am tired of how much groceries are costing. I am tired of NOTHING getting better and NO ONE doing anything about it. And now here comes along David Plouffe who flat out states that things just aren't going to change in the next year. Great. Now what? (And before you offer any suggestions, I certainly hope that occupying Wall Street isn't one of them. That's not going to help matters. I appreciate the effort, but it's useless.)

So if some things are not going to change in the next year (as stated by someone who really would probably know) then who in the hell am I supposed to vote for? The Republicans don't have squat over there and I won't be voting Republican for President. But how can I vote for President Barry again when it seems as if nothing is getting done and things are not better. I distinctly remember being promised change! Things still suck! That's not change. Do I want four more years of suckitude? Oh, wait. I guess that should be five more years of suckitude. Well I don't want either one. So now what? No, really. I'm asking. Now what?

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Is He Supposed To Look Like That?

I watched President Barry's jobs speech yesterday. The whole thing would have been over in about ten minutes if Congress had just kept their collective asses in their seats instead of jumping up like a bunch of Jack-in-the-boxes after every other sentence. (And the jumping up is always accompanied with the oddly-obligatory applause as if President Barry had just won a washer/dryer on The Price Is Right.) And his whole speech sounded a lot like he was trying to say that he wants to enact another stimulus program. (The first rule of the stimulus program is apparently to not call it a stimulus program. I think because we just tried one of those rather recently and it didn't seem to do very much good. I can't imagine why another one would help.) But I was having a hard time paying attention because I kept getting distracted by something. Behold!

Is the Speaker of the House blacker than President Barry? I'm pretty sure that he is.

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She Won't Win, Old Man

Well. Pretty much, I can't stress enough how glad I am that we did not elect Old Man McCain as President and instead went with now-President Barry. Who knew that McCain would turn out to be as delusional as I think he might have proven himself to be yesterday? (Don't get me wrong. I don't think that the guy is senile or anything like that. But I was never fully convinced about how in tact all of his critical thinking faculties really were. I have a much better idea now and the answer is "not entirely".)

It's pretty easy to see. Here's what went down": McCain was on something called "Fox News Sunday" yesterday and was asked if former almost-half-of-a-term governor of Alaska, the super hot Sarah Palin, could beat Barack Obama in a 2012 Presidential election. Let's not forget that Palin was McCain's running mate in 2008. Let's also not forget that they lost fairly handily. President Barry won with about 66% of the vote. I know that from all of the pre-election hooplah with how he was supposed to be our savior and all that you would have thought that it would have been around 96%. But still, 66% of the vote is a pretty good ass-whooping.

According to the Political Ticker blog over yonder at CNN, McCain responded "Of course she can. She can. Now, whether she will or not, whether she'll even run or not, I don't know...But she certainly is a major factor and I believe she can be very competitive." Wait. Those...those are just a bunch of words and I'm not sure that they make a lot of sense. Let's break that down a little bit and try to figure out what's going on there.

So he starts out stating "Of course she can. She can." Sooo...is he saying that it was HIM who was the problem in 2008? Because if I had to pick an office for Sarah Palin to be in, I sure as hell would rather have her as a Vice President than the freaking President. It's nothing personal, but she just doesn't have the knowledge that she would need to be President. You could have someone who is comatose for your Veep and it'd be all right. Look at Joe Biden. He looks barely conscious most of the time and I'm perfectly OK with that. If he was President though, I'd be moving to Canada, America's Hat.

So McCain has just stated that Sarah Palin can win against Barack Obama. Then, in the very next sentence, he says "...whether she will or not... I don't know." What does that even mean? He's not even a sentence removed from saying that she can win before he says that he doesn't know if she will win?! That's not flip-flopping. That's putting your opinion in a blender and watching it go 'round and 'round really fast and when it stops, it ends up resembling nothing like what you shoved in there in the first place. He JUST said he thought that she could win! I guess it's the little things that start to go first.

And what's all this about her being a "major factor"? A major factor in...what? Yeah, a lot of people like her. I get that. She's very likable. (Even if you don't personally like her, you can't argue that she's not likable. She is. You might not agree with some of the things that she says (like if she insists that it's Tuesday when it's really Friday), but she's likable.) But what is she a major factor of? An election? Her own candidacy? I don't know what that means. Could her endorsement of a Republican candidate help boost that individual to a victory over President Barry? I doubt it. If it could, then Old Man McCain would be President right now. If you can't boost the guy on your own ticket into office, good luck doing it with someone else.

Seriously, if McCain is this delusional, not just about Sarah Palin becoming President, but about Sarah Palin beating President Barry in the next election, then we really dodged a bullet with that guy. Again, I like John McCain. But it won't take many more statements like that one for him to go from being the aging Senator of Arizona to that doddering old man in the desert. I'm just saying.

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That's Not Racism!

Oh, most of news media. How I despise you so. Please stop feeling the need to make things that are completely innocent into something that is falsely inflammatory. David Gregory, I'm talking to you.

Fox Nation gives us the low down of when Newt Gingrich was on Meet the Press on Sunday with Mr. Gregory. Gregory played a clip from a speech that Newt gave in Georgia on Friday. The gist of the whole thing was jobs. This is what Newt said: "You want to be a country that creates food stamps, in which case frankly Obama's is an enormous success. The most successful food stamp president in American history. Or do you want to be a country that creates paychecks?" OK. Seems like a bit of a slam, but I'm OK with it. I know what he's trying to say. (He can't blame it all on President Barry though, even though he's trying.)

You want to know what David Gregory thought he was trying to say? I don't know if you do. Let's find out. David Gregory actually had the nerve to say: "First of all, you gave a speech in Georgia with language a lot of people think could be coded racially-tinged language, calling the president, the first black president, a food stamp president." Oh, for cryin' out loud. WHAT?!

Racial?! Racially tinged language?! How do you figure, Dave?? Because it was in Georgia? Well, that doesn't make any sense. Because there are a lot of black people in Georgia? No, that doesn't make any sense either. Is it because David Gregory is trying to start some sort of racial controversy that does not, in any way, shape or form even exist? I don't know if that's the motivation behind it, but it's more logical than the other two possibilities that I mentioned.

I am appalled. That's one of the more ridiculous and inane things that anyone has ever implied racism to be. Do I have to keep reminding people that he's HALF WHITE?! He's the first half white president, NOT the first black president! And if you do want to go with his being partially black, why don't you call him the first half black president?! Oh, because that wouldn't have enough opportunities to imply racism now, would it? Morons. Knock it off, David. You know better than that. The video of this asininity is below. It should make you angry and annoyed. If it doesn't, you're doing it wrong.

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He's Not A Kenyan, He's A Socialist

Well, Wednesday was interesting. That was when President Barry released his long form birth certificate because he finally realized that not doing so was causing the entire country to go off the rails. The final straw in the insanity which is the birth certificate issue seemed to have been Donald Trump making a big deal about it. And I find it odd that the emcee of a reality TV show (in which D-List celebrities are compelled to complete some wacky task in hopes of staving off elimination) brought this issue out of the woodwork of the crazy and into the mainstream woodwork of the trying-to-not-act-crazy.

I think I understand how it got to this point, though. I mean, I agreed with President Barry not releasing his long form birth certificate before now because he had already released sufficient proof. And besides that, it made people that continued to question it sound like blathering idiots. What he didn't count on (and what I hoped wouldn't happen) was that people started to actually listen to the blathering idiots and started to convince themselves of that nonsense. The next thing you know, you have the majority of Republicans and a good handful of Democrats believing that President Barry was born in another country. That's not going to do anyone any good.

But do you know what might not do any good either? Releasing the long form birth certificate just as he did. Look, people are going to believe whatever they want to believe with certain things. They're especially prone to being intellectually dishonest if they don't like the guy that is the current President. It happened with Bush (Gore had the most votes and Bush wasn't really President) and it's happening again with President Barry. It happened with Presidents before these guys (I vaguely remember a couple of Clinton conspiracies after Vince Foster offed himself) and it will happen with Presidents after these guys. And no matter what the truth, those who were in the wrong aren't going to admit it.

And I don't even know if Donald Trump really believed the crap that he was spouting to begin with. He said a lot of things before this was re-resolved that he won't cop to now. But that's because he's a crazy carnival barker-esque narcissist. Let's see how he's taking the reality that President Barry was actually born in Hawaii. When surrounded by reporters, one guy managed to get this question off to The Donald: "You said yesterday, "We hear that it is missing." Before that, you said, "You won't believe what my investigators on the ground are saying." Do the people in this country now need to doubt the information that you're being given? Were you making this up? Where did this information come from?"

A reasonable question. Too bad that there wasn't a reasonable answer. "Noooo. I think that what you're going to see...First, we have to look at the certificate. But I am really happy that this has finally taken place because we have some issues that are..are unbelievably important."

Wait. What was that? That's not an answer. Never mind the fact that we DO have issues that are unbelievably important that are not getting the attention that they deserve because of this issue that TRUMP BROUGHT UP HIMSELF! Yeah, try to put that aside for a moment. The reporter realized that it wasn't an answer either when he said, "You didn't answer my question, sir." Trump's response? Guess. Just guess. "I think I did. No. I did. I did answer your question." Oh, for cryin' out loud.

Ummm...no. No, you didn't. See, you weren't so much answering as much as you were just talking. And while there does have to be talking in order to get to the answering, just because there is talking doesn't mean that you're actually doing the answering. No, you just reiterated how freaking proud of yourself you were. And I still don't get that. Here you were, going around saying that you doubted that he was born in this country. Then we get MORE proof (as proof was given a long time ago) that he was born in this country. So, you're proud of the fact that you looked like an ass for doubting it? You're proud that you claimed that the birth certificate was missing? That gives you warm fuzzies inside, Donald? Wow. OK, then. Not even an "I'm sorry. I was wrong." Interesting. You suck. Both as a human being (which I'm only giving him the benefit of the doubt about) and as a jackass.

I haven't seen any recent polling to see if the events that unfolded on Wednesday are going to change anyone's mind. While I am hoping (probably against all hope) that it has snapped some people back into reality, I'm afraid that it hasn't. No, I'm afraid that those who are hardcore are going to look at the newly released birth certificate and have the following questions:

I wish I could say that I thought that this was all done, but I know that it isn't. So, for what won't be the last time, let me reiterate: President Barry wasn't born in Kenya. He's not a Kenyan. He's not a Muslim. He's a freaking socialist! Keep your eye on the ball, people! FOCUS!

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Department of Redundancy Department

I don't know how I've made it through this week. I swear that it is just one more ridiculous things after the other that I keep hearing about. I'm going to need to start posting videos of cute little kittens if this keeps up. Today's exercise in futility is President Barry's newly formed Fraud Squad.

See, President Barry decided that it was about time that someone look into why gas prices are so freaking fracking high. And according to the Huffington Post "...President Obama unveiled a new working group to combat any fraud or manipulation in the oil and energy markets that may be contributing to near-record gas prices." Uh-huh. Hey. Wait a minute.

Are you telling me that we don't already HAVE something like that in place? I could have sworn that we did. We have the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, but it's hard to tell what their role actually is. Apparently, they're supposed to see if "...Wall Street speculation was helping drive up oil prices". I'm not quite sure why they need a commission for that, as I could tell you that it most likely has a lot to do with it. After all, isn't that kind of what happened just a few years ago when we were in a very similar petroleum predicament? But get this: Even if that is the reason why gas prices are going higher, the CFTC has "...not yet issued key regulations intended to rein in Wall Street gambling on food and energy prices." Which kind of begs the question, "What in the hell are you people freaking waiting for?!"

Hard to say. And for some reason, President Barry thinks that his new Fraud Squad (I don't even know if it has a real name, but that's what I'm calling it because who doesn't like a rhyming name?) is going to get to the bottom of things. As far as what their duties are supposed to consist of, let's see...oh. Here we go. According to the above cited article, completely useless Attorney General Eric Holder, "...who is in charge of the new inter-agency taskforce, specifically instructed members of the new taskforce in a Thursday memo to look into "the role of speculators and index traders in oil futures markets". Well. That sounds like something. Wait a minute. Why does that sound familiar? It's almost as if someone was already in charge of doing the thing that he specifically told the NEW Fraud Squad to look into. OH, that's right. That's because that is "...something the CFTC is already required to do".

Oh, you have GOT to be dry shaving me.

Look, I realize that I may be a little worked up here, but if there is already something in place to do something, why would you make up a completely new thing to do the same damn thing that is already supposed to be being done?! Are the people who are on the CFTC incapable of doing their job? If so, don't build a whole new commission! FIRE THEM! And all of this the day after President Barry saying that the first thing that he wants to cut is government waste. I don't know about you, but to me, having two departments that are doing the exact same effing thing is government waste. It's certainly pointless.

I know several people in the private sector who have taken on the duties of at least two employees WITHOUT a raise because their company was making cutbacks. Also, I know several people in the private sector who feel like their ass is constantly on the chopping block if they can't get done the things that they're supposed to get done. How about, instead of forming the Fraud Squad, if Eric Holder and his moustache tell the CFTC to get off of their collective arses and start looking into things. And setting some new regulations to help reign in all of this wouldn't hurt either. Way to go, President Barry. Well, at least he's consistent. Consistently doing nothing. Is it November yet?

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Change Is Hard

Well. It seems like lately I've been seeing just little snippets of things in the news that get me so riled up that I immediately want to build the wall around my walled off compound even higher. Either that or finally look into some permits for those alligators swimming around in the moat. All I know is that I keep hearing things that just seem to be completely asinine. And I really do try to avoid using the word "stupid" around here, but it's starting to get stupid. Really stupid.

And it doesn't take much for the stupidity to be completely obvious. I was just reading over at AOL News about President Barry's speech that he gave to a bunch of supporters in San Francisco. There were about 200 people there and they each paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $35,800 to be there. Thus, the stupidity begins. Over thirty-five grand? Really? The only way that I'd pay that much to hear someone speak is if they had brought that person back from the dead. And even then, I'd still have a pretty short list. But I digress. According to the article, President Barry "...told supporters...that "change turned out to be a lot tougher than expected." Oh, for God sakes.

Really? Are you effing kidding me? He didn't realize how tough this was going to be? Apparently not! No! I guess that he just went into all of this thinking that it would be a complete piece of cake to get everything all whipped around and back into shape, eh? Riiiiight. Because there didn't seem to be any sort of obvious discourse between the two parties up until now. Is he on glue?! Change turned out to be tougher than expected. I'm dying to know what, exactly, he expected! That suddenly, the first half black and half white (why does everyone forget that he's half white?!) guy elected President by the adoring masses (half of which couldn't tell their arse from a hole in the ground) realized that this might be a bit of a monumental task to accomplish is amazing to me. I've been wondering how disillusioned this guy really is and I guess now I know. Very. He is very disillusioned.

I could just end this right here with just that quote and I think that my point would have been handily made and done so hands down. Or something like that. But I'm going to throw in one more quote that President Messiah uttered at his ridiculously overpriced chicken-or-fish fundraiser. He also said, "There are times when I've felt the same way you do. It's a big, complicated, messy democracy." Wait. So he only feels the same way that "we" do sometimes? SOMETIMES?! I just paid $4.13 for a gallon of freaking unleaded at a blasted AM/PM! That's supposed to be the cheap stuff! But you know what? $4.13 for a gallon of freaking unleaded IS cheap! He only feels the way that I do SOMETIMES?! Screw that.

I had no idea that he was living in such a bubble. I thought that he would have had at least a little bit of insight into how all of us little people live our daily lives. I thought he would have had a least a little bit of empathy for how bad it sucks for some people right now and how it has continued to suck ever since he got his half-black and half-white arse elected. But he's evidently completely clueless. Was he that sucked in by his own "Yes, we can" mantra and thought that it would be just as easy as that ridiculous chant was? Sadly, that appears to be the case. Now if you'll excuse me, with gas prices being so ridiculously out of control, I'm going to look into buying a horse for transportation. That should give you some sort of an idea as to how much faith I have left in this guy that things are ever going to get better.

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All Encompassing Government Waste

Yesterday, President Barry had a little sit down with the Internet on Facebook. I call it a "sit down". You may call it a "town hall". Whatever you call it, I'm still not really sure what the point was. I'm sure that people wanted to think that he was trying to reach out to the young and hip crowd that uses Facebook and has actually taken the time to "Like" him on Facebook. Granted, of the 19 million-plus people that "Like" him on Facebook, only about 23% are 25 and under. About that same percentage of people who "Like" him on Facebook are 45 and older. You know what that means, right? It means that people all across the age spectrum "Like" President Barry. (Translation: It doesn't make a fat rat's ass worth of difference.) Big whoop.

And look, I didn't expect any revelations to come out of this thing. But I at least thought (or maybe I just hoped) that perhaps he could have gotten past the first question before tossing out a bunch of BS, not unlike a monkey throwing his feces its a cage. I thought and/or hoped wrong. Here's how it went: The first question he was asked (and I'm paraphrasing here) was to the effect of "What cuts would you make to help out our country financially?" It's a reasonable question. So why in the hell couldn't he give a reasonable answer? I don't know either, but he didn't. Instead, he just skirted the question and went on with something else. Do you want to know what he said? Seriously? His answer to "What would you cut?" was "Government waste."

::: blink ::: ::: blink :::

Government waste? Um, was I the only one who heard that and thought, "No s***, Sherlock."? Government waste? That's the best he can come up with? He can't get ANY more specific than that? Government waste? Well, I should hope to hell that he wants to cut government waste? Who doesn't?! But that's the best answer he can give? With NO specifics? Does he mean government waste like the entire Department of Energy? Does he mean government waste like the Department of Education? (Oh, come on! Doesn't it seem a bit redundant when you consider that there are Departments of Education at the federal, state, city and county level? How many freaking departments do we need? And why do we need a federal one? For funding? Fine. Let them fund. I'm fairly certain that it doesn't need to be as gigantic as it is to just dole out funds.) Who knows?! He just said "government waste".

We're so screwed. And we're so doomed. The problem is that whenever a program or a department gets started in this country, it never goes away. The spending never stops. It doesn't matter how useless or outdated or duplicitous that it is, it will never go away. I don't know why that is. All I know is that we're scroomed.

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Donald Trump: Birther

As if Donald Trump wasn't whack-a-do enough, he has now come out with a rather birther-like stance about President Barry and his birth certificate. I guess this is getting press because allegedly Donald Trump is thinking about running for president. I don't really think he's going to, but I think he likes to be out there, stroking his own ego, and let others stroke it as well. (Yes, I know what sounds like, so keep your comments to yourselves!) I'm going to get behind what Jon Stewart told Extra TV when Stewart was asked what he would think of it if Trump did run for president. "A gift from God. That is, if he's to continue this, it would be a gift from God. He would be, in fact, gold-plating my living room. I'd be excited to see him do that." And while my living room wouldn't end up gold plated like Mr. Stewart's, I'd still have one heck of a good time with that one as well.

It came to light on 'The View' last week that Mr. Trump was more of a nutjob than I had previously thought. Personally, I can't watch 'The View'. All of those shrews talking at the same time in those shrill voices? And offering opinions based upon absolutely nothing other than their estrogen? No thanks. But I did catch the clip where The Donald said that he had "a little" doubt about whether or not President Barry was born in this country. He said something to the effect of there must be something on his birth certificate that he doesn't want people to see. He also thinks that it is weird that no one remembers him from early in his life. Where to begin?

First of all and for what I wish was the last time, he already has produced a copy of his birth certificate. There was also an announcement in the Honolulu newspaper after his birth. And finally, if there was anyone on the planet who would prove that he was not born in this country and thus ineligible to be president, it would be Hillary Clinton. Do you really think that she didn't have every single resource at her disposal working on this issue when she was campaigning for the Democratic party nomination? She wanted to be president so bad, she would have done just about anything short of murder in order to get it. (And really, I'm not even so sure that was ever off the table.)

But back to The Donald. Now, in an "exclusive" with Newsmax, Donald Trump has "...released his birth certificate" in an effort to...um...well...I don't know what the point of that was. One of the "points" that he makes is where he states "I went to the best college and I was a great student, and it is inconceivable to my brain that no doctor, no nurse, nobody has stepped forward to verify the birth, other than the governor. He remembers? The governor? A birth 50 years ago? Come on. He’s taking a bullet for his party." Oh, for cryin' out loud! Really?

That's the best that he can come up with? First of all, President Barry is 50. It would not be inconceivable for the people who were in the delivery room with him to be dead at this time. After all, his parents (who were a fairly integral part of the process) are dead. And I find it absolutely insane that when the governor says that he remembers the birth of Barack Obama (if that is what Donald Trump is referring to there) that it isn't good enough! That's what Trump wants, isn't it? For someone to come forward and say that they remember? Someone did! But on top of that, you know why it doesn't matter? Because he already HAS produced his birth certificate! What part of that don't those people understand?! (By the way, strangely enough, people have talked about remembering his birth. You can look at this article over at Snopes.com. Feel free to pass it on to Donald Trump if you happen to see him.)

But back to Donald Trump's birth certificate! When President Barry did provide a copy of his birth certificate, it looked like this:

OK. There it is. Also, there was this announcement (49 years ago) that appeared in the newspaper:

That's good enough for me. But Donald Trump, in some sort of weird effort to prove something, releases his birth certificate and it looks like this:

Are you kidding me!? THAT is acceptable to Donald Trump as something that proves someone was born in this country? I could make that on Photoshop in less than ten minutes! I could probably do it in less than five minutes provided that I already had a template and a nice star sticker on hand. Is it filled in with pencil? What the what is that anyway?! I have never seen a birth certificate that looked like that. Are we sure that Donald Trump was born in this country? What's underneath that sticker? What is he trying to hide?!

I find it amusing that this is still an issue with some people. Granted, I find it more annoying than I do amusing, but it's still amusing none the less. I guess that people don't realize how ridiculous they sound when they talk about not believing that President Barry was born in this country. They also don't seem to realize that when you sound like a gigantic fruitcake, it does very little to further your cause. That is, unless your cause is furthering fruitcakes. In that case, you're golden. But in the real world, you're a bit of a doofus, Mr. Trump.

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Country....

I apologize for this being late (Mark), but I had nothing. Nothing. Completely blank. Blanker than usual. I think it might have been the State of the Union address that numbed me out. That was one thing about George W. Bush that you could always count on. Whenever he spoke, there was no guarantee that it would make any sense. That alone was reason to watch/listen. It's going to be hard to top "human-animal hybrids". So I think that it must be the mundane-ness that numbed me out. And here's why:

I did a little research (ie, I looked at something else besides porn online) on the whole State of the Union address. I went as far back as Reagan and in every single President's State of the Union address, a phrase similar to "Our union is strong" was uttered. Every time. And that's when I realized, what else do I expect them to say? Can I really picture President Barry standing up there all stoic and saying, "Country...We. Are. Effed." No, I can't. I could kind of picture Bill Clinton doing something like that, but we kind of did all right under him (which is probably how he likes it!).

But that's five Presidents in a row who claimed that and it probably goes back as long as we have recorded speech. The point here is maybe we're strong, maybe we're not. (Personally, I think we're a little soft. But again, who's going to tell you that?) But not claiming that we're strong would be like all of the commentators not claiming that a State of the Union address is a "historic event". Is it? Historic? Every year? I find that hard to believe. I find it hard to believe in general. I believe that some of the events that occurred throughout the year are historic. But the recap of them? THAT is historic? Come on. (Not to mention that at least half of the commentators say "an historic event". It's not 'an'. It's 'a'. You don't say "an hotel", do you? No. Stop saying "an historic". Morons.)

And who is to blame for making it into a speech? It's so long. Wait a minute. I take that back. The speech wouldn't be so dang long if everyone would hold their applause and keep their butt in their seat. It's like watching a room full of Jack-in-the-boxes. (No, not the fast food chain with the oh-so delicious Breakfast Jack. The childhood toy of yore is what I was referring to.) Every single sentence that comes out of the President's mouth gets a round of applause from the peanut gallery and they all jump to their collective feet. Why? All he said was "Good evening"! He gets a standing O for that? Sit down and let him finish so that we can be done with this already! I'll bet you that if you didn't have to wait for all of the clapping and all of the standing and all of the sitting that he'd be done with that thing in twenty minutes. But no. No, now we're all locked in for at least an hour. I pass the time by trying to figure out how John Boehner got to be so orange. (And in case you're still wondering, it was Woodrow Wilson who is responsible for bringing the State of the Union back in the orated form. Jackass.)

See, it doesn't have to be a speech. It's apparently mandated in the Constitution by Article 2, Section 3 that the President, "...shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union". From time to time. I find that hilarious. What say every now and then you let us know how things are goin'? I mean, I know it doesn't sound as good the way that I said it (and without the fancy script it really loses a lot), but that's essentially what's going on there. It says nothing about a speech. Future presidents, current president, please make a note.

So how great would it be if the President just dropped off a letter to Congress? Oh, it would be fabulous! (Besides, the text of the speech always leaks out ahead of time, so it's not like we don't know what he's going to say.) You know what would be even greater? If it said something like "We're doing good over here. Hope y'all are doing good, too. TTYL. Barry." Wouldn't that be fabulous? I think it would be great. If nothing else, it might possibly get all of the media folks to stop saying that it's "an historic event".

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