President Obama attempts to reinforce "hope and change" on late night comedy

Ok by now you've heard that President Obama went on The Daily Show last night and took questions from Jon Stewart. I watched it, the whole thing and he of course did well. Well I mean if you like their strategy and their message of course. The general gist of it that I took away was that the President is frustrated with this notion that change can happen overnight and that the progress his Administration and the Democrat controlled Congress have made gets discounted or deemed insignificant altogether. Ok, we get it and I can understand his point.

I have always held that his policies likely did "soften the blow" but to what extent remains to be seen, AND I truly believe history will judge some of it as unnecessarily expensive. Obama asserted last night that they "prevented a second Great Depression" and speaking to the healthcare reform, he said it was"as significant a piece of legislation as we have seen in this country's history." Nah, too far and with the "recovery" sputtering, we could very well be looking at the much talked about, feared "double dip Recession" that could still precipitate a Depression. I always maintain that the healthcare reform did the wrong things in some areas and not enough in other, producing a "change" that gets about a C- in my opinion.

Also, many Americans (myself definitely included) still feel that some of the bailouts came with costs that were just too high and the anger across the country with middle class "folks" (a term Obama used literally dozens of times for some odd reason) lies in what appears to be reckless spending and inevitable tax increases if we're ever going to address the record goliath of debt piled on. The Right and the media are the ones attempting to downplay your efforts sir, the rest of us think you and your party in control are simply off your blessed rockers with the damn spending! Plain and simple. Now with that said, will we get anything better from the Right though??

So, all and all a good PR incident, upbeat and hopeful if you want to drink the coolade. But no thanks, I'm more of a crystal clear thinking H2O kind of guy myself Mr. President.

Sarah Palin has a new TLC show?!! Oh yes...America did it

Sarah Palin's new show and what she's about to do, that is capitalize on her national media attention and public interest reminds me of another wayward politician....Bob Dole. Not only did Bob appear in a funny Visa commercial saying "I just can't win" but he also went on to Pepsi and even Viagra commercials. In fact, NOT winning the Presidency may have been the best thing to ever happen to Bob's wallet, right?!

Looking online, reaction to this seems to be mixed. I saw the preview for it over the weekend. Shows the Palin family romping around the wilderness and her sayin how she'd rather be there than in some "stuffy political office." Well Mrs. Palin, I don't think you have too much to worry about in that regard! I'm going to venture a guess that you won't have any political office in the near future to be all couped up in. I definetly don't see eye to eye with Sarah, BUT I wouldn't come down on her for exploiting the populous with a new TV show bound to make her some cash. Everyone else does it, so why not her!

So don't blame Sarah...blame the American people for their fascination with this crap. Seems we collectively are willing to grant star power to even the most seemingly forgettable people (wishful thinking on my part there). I know I'll be tuning in to Sarah Palin's Alaska for some laughs though, won't you?!

Breaking News? NPR Axes Juan Williams, FOX Gives Him a Fat New Salary and a Senator "Reacts"

Don't shed too many tears for poor poor Juan Williams. Shortly after NPR gave him the boot for his comments on The O'Reilly Factor, FOX signed him for 3 years at a modest $2 million. That's about $670k per year to us middle classers...not too shabby, ay?

SC Republican Senator Jim DeMint is already introducing legislation today that proposes a complete stop to public funding of NPR because of this. Take a deep breath on this one too. They get about 2% of their funding from federal sources. So the million dollar or two million dollar I guess, question is - Does this action prove bias and leftward leaning at NPR?

Well as an NPR listener myself, I've actually found their reporting to be pretty balanced. They SAAAYYY that he violated their journalist ethics standards with his "insensitive" comments. I have to admit, the crap he said was pretty messed up. BUT everyone has a right to say what they want AND any organization has a right, if specified in policies and contracts (which appears to be the case at NPR) to fire you for breaking the rules.

So in an effort to take a balanced position, I'm going to say he's probably been pissing off NPR management for years by flirting with terminable offenses and comments and yes this straw broke this Camel's back finally. More of interest to me is the apparent festival a Senator is about to have on the subject with a hastily emotional reaction! Calm down DeMint and get back to working on shit that is FFFAAARRRR more important damnit!

Tea Party's Existence Makes Sense

The actual existence of the Tea Party movement makes perfect sense to me. I by no means consider my self a "Tea Partier" but the fundamentals of good old fashion fiscal conservatism does play my heart strings! Haha. BUT...BIG but...I have been hesitant to jump on board because many self-proclaimed Tea Partiers are also "neo" or ultra conservatives on a variety of topics, a group I have a hard time mingling in.

Nevertheless, in the wake of record deficits BOTH cumulative and each fiscal year with NO END in sight...wouldn't we expect an organized movement against such recklessness? And bravo for Americans organizing and opposing in such a fashion I say! Nothing pleases me more to think that this group might be so strong that they are able to topple the Dems' regime in November. Well I guess that's just my mischievous side talking again. Well you can't fault me for that!

China Might Be Arming the Darfur Region?! What?!

Are you kidding me? What is next with this country, honestly? Now, China is attempting to block a UN report which shows that forces attempting to quell the violence in Sudan's Darfur region may have come under fire from artillery supplied by the Chinese military.

I wondered back when that broke out why the US was not taking a more active role in stopping the skuffle, I mean the mass genocide of literally hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Well there's your answer kids. China apparently is a huge ally of the Khartoum government in Sudan and it's A-OK for them to supply arms to Sudan, as long as they guarantee the arms won't get into Darfur. Riiiight. That sounds iron clad to me?

When are we going to FINALLY stand up to our Chinese financial and trinkets overlords and hold them responsible for their antics? When you ask? When we stop borrowing money from them and pay back the existing loans perhaps? But that's an entirely different rant all together probably.

Good Reality Check

Anti-Incumbent? Yeh...No Crap

Honestly, if you went into a store and the people that worked there treated you like utter dog crap, didn't do their job and didn't give a you know what, what you needed or wanted from them....would you shop their again? A resounding NO

So I say! Out with the old and in with the new! But honestly, how much better are we expecting the next crew to be???