You're kinda, sorta, basically, pretty much always on my mind. -- psacake.com

America's Obama Obsession

For 30 months the nation has been in the grip of a certain Obama obsession, immune to countervailing facts, unwilling to face reality, and loath to break the spell. But like all trances, the fit is passing, and we the patient are beginning to appreciate how the stupor came upon us, why it lifted, and what its consequences have been.

HOW OBAMA WON
Barack Obama was elected rather easily because, in perfect-storm fashion, five separate trends coalesced last autumn.

1) Obama was eloquent, young, charismatic � and African-American. He thus offered voters a sense of personal and collective redemption, as well as appealing to the longing for another JFK New Frontier figure. An image, not necessarily reality, trumped all.

2) After the normal weariness with eight years of an incumbent party and the particular unhappiness with Bush, the public was amenable to an antithesis. Bush was to be scapegoat, and Obama the beginning of the catharsis.

3) Obama ran as both a Clintonite centrist and a no-red-state/no-blue-state healer who had transcended bitter partisanship. That assurance allowed voters to believe that his occasional talk of big change was more cosmetic than radical.

4) John McCain ran a weak campaign that neither energized his base nor appealed to crossover independents. McCain turned off conservatives; many failed to give money, and some even stayed home on election day. Meanwhile, the media and centrists who used to idolize McCain's non-conservative, maverick status found Obama the more endearing non-conservative maverick.

5) The September 2008 financial panic turned voters off Wall Street and the wealthy, and allowed them to connect unemployment and their depleted home equity and 401(k) retirement plans with incumbent Republicans. In contrast, they assumed that Obama, as the anti-Bush, would not do more bailouts, more stimuli, and more big borrowing.

Take away any one of those factors, and Obama might well have lost. Imagine what might have happened had Obama been a dreary old white guy like John Kerry; or had Bush’s approvals been over 50 percent; or had Obama run on the platform he is now governing on; or had McCain crafted a dynamic campaign; or had the panic occurred in January 2009 rather than September 2008. Then the trance would have passed, and Obama, the Chicago community organizer and three-year veteran of the U.S. Senate, would have probably lost his chance at remaking America.

America's Obama Obsession

0 Comments | Perm-a-link | 10/23/2009

Can Confessions

Have you had it in the can?

What They Said:

LBF says Nice on 9/14/2009
Excellent

1 Comments | Perm-a-link | 9/12/2009

How many Zeros in a Billion?

This is too true to be funny.

The next time you hear a politician use the word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about whether you want the 'politicians' spending YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of it's releases.

A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our governmentis spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain...let's take a look at New Orleans .It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division.

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D) is presently asking Congress for 250 BILLION DOLLARS to rebuild New Orleans . Interesting number...what does it mean?

A. Well... if you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, and child) you each get $516,528.

B. Or... if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans , your home gets $1,329,787.

C. Or... if you are a family of four...your family gets $2,066,012.

HELLO Washington DC!
Are all your calculators broken??

Building Permit Tax
CDL License Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax (Fed)
Federal Unemployment Tax (FU TA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Tax
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service charge taxes
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax (Truckers)
Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Tax
Vehicle License Registration T ax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
(And to think, we left British Rule to avoid so many taxes)

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago...
and our nation was the most prosperous in the world.

We had absolutely no national debt...
We had the largest middle class in the world...
and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What happened?
Can you spell 'politicians!'

And I still have to press '1' for English.

What the heck happened?????

0 Comments | Perm-a-link | 9/6/2009

$1.421 Trillion, where does it go?

Want to know where your tax money is going next year? Here's more than you can handle in the new 2010 edition of the Death and Taxes poster. Zoom in to see how much those F-35 fighters and lasers cost.

The Death and Taxes poster shows every single expense according to the president's 2010 budget request. The circles you see here are proportional in size to their actual weight in the total budget. Each of the figures include the percentage change compared to 2009.

Defense spending is more or less the same, only increasing by 2%. And still, everything else looks minuscule.

Order your poster at WallStats

Source

0 Comments | Perm-a-link | 7/23/2009

GROW UP

If you have reached the age of 25, I have a bit of bad news for you, to wit: it is time, if you have not already done so, for you to emerge from your cocoon of post-adolescent dithering and self-absorption and join the rest of us in the world. Past the quarter-century mark, you see, certain actions, attitudes, and behaviors will simply no longer do, and while it might seem unpleasant to feign a maturity and solicitousness towards others that you may not genuinely feel, it is not only appreciated by others but necessary for your continued survival. Continuing to insist past that point that good manners, thoughtfulness, and grooming oppress you in some way is inappropriate and irritating.

Grow up.

[Read The Rest at Tomato Nation]

0 Comments | Perm-a-link | 5/26/2009

Memorial Day

Today is a federal holiday. Memorial day is celebrated the last Monday of May each year and commemorates Americans who have died while serving in the military.

This holiday began after the American Civil War (1861-1865) to recognize and remember the more than 620,000 soldiers who died during the four-year war, which was considered the deadliest in American history up to that time. After World War I, the holiday was expanded to commemorate all soldiers who died in military service.

To all those who have served and are serving in military service everywhere, we remember and honor you today.

0 Comments | Perm-a-link | 5/25/2009

CDC WARNING!

CDC ALERT

The Center for Disease Control has issued a medical alert about a highly contagious, potentially dangerous virus that is transmitted orally, by hand, and even electronically. This virus is called Weekly Overload Recreational Killer (WORK). If you receive WORK from your boss, any of your colleagues or anyone else via any means whatsoever - DO NOT TOUCH IT.

This virus will wipe out your private life completely. If you should come into contact with WORK you should immediately leave the premises.
Take two good friends to the nearest grocery store and purchase one or both of the antidotes - Work Isolating Neutralizer Extract (WINE) and Bothersome Employer Elimination Rebooter (BEER). Take the antidote repeatedly until WORK has been completely eliminated from your system.

You should immediately forward this medical alert to five friends. If you do not have five friends, you have already been infected and WORK is controlling your life.

What They Said:

RantUser says Would have linked but... on 7/14/2009
I wanted to tweet "CDC WARNING!" but the perm. link under the post fails. I guess Will have to quote you w/o link :(

1 Comments | Perm-a-link | 4/15/2009

In The News

See the front pages of 14 major newspapers all on one page and big enough so you can read the text. This is a neat way to skim the news of the day.

0 Comments | Perm-a-link | 3/13/2009

Together We Can

The Governor of MA is preparing to cut $128 Million from local aid, which in turns the towns immediately start to talk about closing schools, laying off teachers police and firefighters.
How about tightening their own belts?
A normal person could look at the state budget and ask why we can't cut state issued cars and state issued cellphones, not to mention all the perks the politico's get in the state house. A normal person would take a look at all the departments, and cut the pork. A normal person would be able to make cuts that reduce costs and spending while maintaining critical workers like fire, police and teachers (written in that order on purpose!), but our elected officials can't figure that out? Their mentality is you wash my back, I'll wash yours, thinking that minions isn't going to do anything about it.
It's really time for us to stop acting like sheeple and make these elected officials actually work for us or throw them OUT!

There is plenty wrong, but nothing a little common sense (and perhaps some leadership) couldn't cure.

What They Said:

RantUser says typo on 11/15/2009
on page "http://psacake.com/web/fc.asp," Communications Cables Color Codes, first paragraph, second to last sentence:

"The plug was a phono jack type with a tip element..."

the word "phono" is incorrect. It should be "phone." A phono jack is an RCA style connector commonly used in audio applications (derived from phonograph). Phone jacks, as the name implies, originated for use with patch cords for manual telephone switchboards.

1 Comments | Perm-a-link | 2/3/2009

Veterans Day