Last Call

President Obama gave a press conference today on the economy, and while he made his point that House Republicans have done nothing but yell TAX CUTS FOR JOB CREATORS for the last 18 months, the rest of us are busy trying to make ends meet.  No wonder then that the "liberal media" shredded the President's presser.  WaPo's Ed Rogers was particularly insulting:

If you are president of the United States and you don’t have anything to say, don’t have a press conference to say it.  If you’re the president of the United States and by Thursday it’s widely believed you’ve had one of the worst weeks of your presidency, take Friday off, and specifically avoid having a press conference.

Anytime you are president and you’re speaking in public at an ill-timed press conference after a bad week, try to have something to say, and do a good job in saying it.  I watched the whole thing, but it’s not easy to think of one useful thing that he had to say.  And what he said, he said very poorly.  Was it just me, or did the president seem a little dazed and confused?  He should have had a cup of coffee before the press conference.

I'm trying to figure out how last week was "one of the worst weeks of his presidency" as opposed to early 2009, when the economy was puking up 500,000 jobs a month, or November 2010, when the GOP took over the House and assured that they would do nothing to help the economy for the following two years.  Eddie here seems to think that 69,000 jobs and a recall voted down on a sitting GOP Governor means the President should just know his place and keep his gorram mouth shut, I guess.

But that just gets us to Zandar's Law No. 2: behind every African-American POTUS is an obnoxious middle-aged white Villager who can solve any problem imaginable if the leader of the free world would just listen to them, the Smartest Person Alive.

Perhaps the president and others are huddled in an after-action review meeting in the Oval Office right now. It appears no one at The White House wants to give the president bad news or an honest critique of his performance. Somebody should print this post and slide it under the Oval Office door immediately. 

They should use the really soft paper so he can take it to the Oval Office bathroom and wipe his ass with it.

The President later clarified his remarks today, because apparently the Village needs a lesson is basic comprehension.

“The economy needs to be strengthened,” Obama told reporters Friday afternoon. “That is why I had a press conference. I believe there are a lot of Americans who are hurting right now. That is what I have been saying for the last year, two years, three years.”

Dismissing “political games” around the issue, Obama said Americans should instead focus on choosing a candidate who can articulate a clear solution to the problem.

“The key is, for folks, what I am interested in hearing from Romney, is what steps are they willing to take right now that will make an actual difference? And, so far, all we have heard are additional tax cuts to the folks who are doing fine.”

Instead, Obama proposed “taking steps that would help deal with the weakness in the economy,” pointing to his proposed American Jobs Act, which would aid state and local governments facing layoffs and invest in infrastructure projects to employ construction workers.

What the Village should be asking is "Hey Republicans, why are you going on vacation week number nine this year again if you think the economy is such trouble under this President, and do you have anything other than TAX CUTS FOR JOB CREATORS to help the working class?"

That won't happen, of course.  Better to yell at the President for saying "umm."  Meanwhile, Mitt Romney's response is America doesn't need more teachers, cops, or firefighters.

Romney said of Obama, “he wants another stimulus, he wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more fireman, more policeman, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.”

Cut back on government by firing people working in it.  That will help the American people, surely. 

Silence: You're Doing It Wrong

As BooMan points out, today is the National Right Wing Nutjob Day Of Butthurt as they go Galt in order to point out the injustice of a liberal activist not having his entrails ripped out on national television, and are collectively pissing themselves and drowning in their fake victimization that they are voiceless and howling that they are being targeted for assassination by Obama's army of Nubian Thug Cyborgs or something.

I haven't seen a collective freakout like this since people started buying duct tape by the crate in 2002. It's hard to think of a worse way to try to protect our First Amendment rights than forming an online lynch mob to smear some random voting rights activist and then coming up with all kinds of conspiracy theories about how you're being persecuted as a result.

They've actually terrified themselves. They're convinced that if they say anything further about this poor activist that a SWAT team will show up at their houses and treat them like an anti-NATO activist.

They are oblivious to the real repression that is going on. Actually, I should correct that. They fully approve of that kind of repression because it isn't aimed at them. 

But they will whine and moan and continue to slash their wrists and swear up and down that liberals are going to murder them any second now, so that they should just start the shooting first you see and it'll be totally justified when they do.  They just need other people to do that whole revolution thing for them because Malkin has a mani/pedi appointment to keep and you know how rescheduling those things are really worse than the London Blitz.

So they mean to flagellate themselves into fomenting a crowd of angry old people to yell at Democrats in town halls I guess.  Progress!  Victory!  Justice!

Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

New York congressional GOP candidates Joe Carvin and Jim Russell are running in the primary in NY-17 against Democrat Nita Lowey, and if you're wondering why Lowey really isn't in any danger of losing her job, it's the fact that the GOP hopefuls are a hedge fund tycoon and a "racial separatist".

The Republican primary campaign in New York’s redrawn 17^th Congressional district in Rockland and Westchester Counties is getting ugly — and personal.

Joe Carvin, the Rye Town Supervisor, is resurfacing Russell's writings advocating racial separation. Carvin is married to an African American woman and the couple have two children.

“Effectively, he’s delegitimizing my children,” Carvin told WNYC on Tuesday. “To have him represent the Republican Party for Congress is reprehensible.”

The separatist writings first surfaced during Russell’s last attempt to beat Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey two years ago. The writings include a 2001 article in The Occidential Quarterly, in which Russell denounced “media moguls who deliberately popularize miscegenation in films,”, branding it “sociobiological warfare” against “our youth.”

The article was first reported on by Politico in 2010, and the Republican party subsequently withdrew its support of Russell’s candidacy. Russell called Republicans “hypersensitive” in an interview with the New York Times. But, noting that he wrote the essay ten years ago, he added, “Some of it’s a little bit more strident than I would put it today.”

Carvin, a hedge fund manager, has the endorsement of local Republican party in Westchester and Rockland County. He also has more money on hand than Lowey’s $981,000, thanks to a $1 million dollars he donated to his campaign.

Carvin downplayed his money advantage on Tuesday. “A million dollars is neither here nor there,” he said, particularly in what’s expected to be a low turnout election.

Yeah, gosh, who should you vote for, the guy advocating for the races to be kept apart by law, or the guy who says a million clams is "neither here nor there"?   Why, I think Nita Lowey might win again this fall.

Just saying.

A New Diet Incentive

I don't think I'll be eating out as much as I used to.  Years ago, I got in the habit of reading the newspaper every single day at work.  This included the restaurant reviews.  I learned who was clean and who wasn't keeping the roaches out.  Except that's the weird thing, we rarely had anyone bomb.  After years I got a feel for what was normal, and we rarely varied from the norm.  Until a year or so ago, when restaurants began to complain about their profit margins.

Money's getting tighter, and businesses are cutting corners.  In the last month, the Springfield News-Leader has reported meat kept eleven days past date.  That's a total of eighteen days, because they state clearly that seven days is the limit.  Pests such as gnats or rodents are becoming commonplace.  Several are using weaker cleaning solutions to stretch where they can.  A local chain that is very popular had eight critical violations, the gnarly kind.  In fact, the write-up says the employees will attend a class.

I guess I'm a bit of a worrywart, because I look at food with new eyes.  My husband is currently taking a class on food inspections and health guidelines, and I have learned more than I ever wanted to.  I'd say it was just that it's on my radar, except the headlines agree. From cafes to swanky steakhouses, cutting corners means bad food.  I've had food poisoning once, I'll pass.  We have an epic number of offenders.  I just keep coming back to eighteen days.  Dear GOD.  It's annoying enough to pay prime price for leftovers, but for spoiled death on a bun?  Sheesh.

Illinois Pulls Book Over Same-Sex Parent Reference

An Illinois school district has reportedly banned the otherwise-well-received "The Family Book" because of a reference to same-sex parents.

Think Progress and Joe. My. God. are just two of the media outlets reporting that Todd Parr's children's book has been yanked from a local elementary school's shelves because of a line which notes that "some families have two moms or two dads."

The ignorant hate facts and understanding.  Pretending something doesn't exist does not serve children who most assuredly are growing up surrounded by same-sex couples.  How is it going to help a child who may not know his own sexuality, and now has nothing but rumors and innuendo to rely on?

Is this really where we are?  Really?

I remember seeing my first obviously gay couple when I was pretty young.  I was certainly still in elementary school.  I was curious and asked my mom what I was seeing.  "Sometimes women love women, and men love men," she told me, not making a big deal out of it.  This was long before I understood sexual relations or anything else, they were just a happy couple that was a bit different than everyone around them.

While the adults are trying to pin religious and sexual overtones to everything homosexual, to kids they are just people, and we are obligated to answer their questions when they arise.

Chart Of The Day

Your chart of the day comes from K-Drum:



As you can see here, the percentage of high school graduates not in college from before 2008 found that about a third were unemployed on average.  In the last three years, it's 53%.  The big change is the difference in full time:  employment there has dropped dramatically as the economy wound down, and the difference in unemployment as a result is staggering.  36% of high school graduates found a solid full time job before the crisis.  Now that number is less than half that.

So yes, working class voters are pretty pissed off, and they are going to take it out on the guy in charge.

Abcess Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

Turns out that more than three years after leaving a bag full of flaming financial crisis on America's doorstep, hitting the doorbell, and flying away by helicopter, the country hasn't quite forgiven George W. Bush yet.

According to the poll, released Thursday morning, 43% of people questioned had a favorable opinion of Bush, with 54% saying they had an unfavorable view of the former president. Bush's 43% favorable rating is the same as it was in 2010 in CNN polling, but is up from his mid-30's favorable rating during 2009, his first year out of the White House.

"Don't be surprised if the Obama campaign mentions the name of George W. Bush at every opportunity, and don't be surprised if that strategy works," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "And the mention of Bush's name appears to prompt at least a few people to take a more positive view of their current financial situation."

Bush remains the only living ex-President under water on favorability ratings.  More people like Jimmy Carter (54%), Poppy Bush (59%) and Bill Clinton (66%) these days, and with good reason:  Carter's at least doing productive things in his spare time, Bill is doing the rock star thing, and Poppy Bush is smart enough to keep his mouth shut.

I'd almost feel sorry for the little dipstick, but then I recall every awful year of his Presidency and remember that he really did screw the country royally.

StupidiNews!

• University of Washington researchers have mapped the genetic code of fetuses by using the mother's blood, unlocking the possibility of pre-natal testing for thousands of genetic diseases.
• Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon has added a measure to the Senate's 2012 farm bill that would legalize industrial production of hemp.
• Syrian rebels now claim control of several towns in the northern part of the country from the Lebanese border to the central regions.
• Japanese conservative Toru Hashimoto wants to leverage being mayor of Osaka into a new political party in Japan to challenge the status quo, saying the country once again needs a dictator.
• The Large Hadron Collider is so sensitive, the position of the moon can greatly affect entire experiments along with other terrestrial sources.