Political Junk!

Here's the part I don't understand.We been changing Republican candidates like they are underwear.It's making me a little crazy trying to keep up with it.

Well anyway this is crazy. One candidate is making fun of another. One of them is crying space and the fruitcake. Ron Paul thinks he is a viable candidate . I don't get it.Are we supposed to take any of these clowns seriously. The woman is a goofball. The pizza guy cannot keep it in his pants,one of them has a half $1 million credit line at Tiffany's,the other one created Obama care. He says he's a conservative,and were supposed to vote for him even though he doesn't believe in the same God that every body else believes in.

Newt Gingrich space says he's not good do negative political attack ads. However, all of his competition who are also Republican conservative politicians are spending all their time beating en up on each other. And then when all this is over. We are supposed to forget everything they've said and just focus on the candidate that is the last one left standing. It makes me nuts. It's no wonder the average American will not pay attention to politics and more. How can they? Space you can't take him serious. Space Herman Cain Herman Cain never met a brassiere that he couldn't tame. I told you it's making me loop. When is it going to stop?

I found out today that we had a Republican candidate that dropped out of the race and is now a Libertarian candidate, and I did not even know he was in the race. I used to be a student of politics loved it. I couldn't get enough. I would read about it all day, research it, blog about it, write about it, talk about it, e-mail about it, and generally pontificate until I can watch the eyes on the people that I was talking to start to roll back into their head as the drool come out of their mouth ever so gently and start to leak down their lips.

Now, not so much. I mean think about it was I supposed to vote for Bob Dole? Al Gore? John Kerry? John McCain? Sarah Palin (you have to be kidding right?) . People sit around and weep about how George W. Bush got elected, and the best they can do. Are these dried-up idiots or millionaires that think they deserve a shot at the presidency because they been there longer than anybody else.I'm a Republican.

I just want Obama to go. I don't think he has been good for America. I don't think he was qualified to be the president in the first place. He had no work experience, he had no life experience , he was an unknown state legislator,whose claim to fame was he married a good-looking woman and he had a law degree. He had also written a couple books.I'm still waiting to be impressed. Jimmy Carter has wrote way more than a dozen books and he was still a terrible president. He was a pretty good writer, though.

The point is, just because you're good public speaker that doesn't mean you're qualified to be someone that can make decisions of this magnitude. There are people that believe very strongly space that he was the right man for the job at the right time in history. I am proud of America for having the guts to stand up and say his race did not matter. Space I wish they also would've said "his race didn't matter because he was not qualified for the job. " But we were so head over heels in love with the guy space that we could see our way to the end of the election without destiny getting in the way.

I felt sort of the same way about Hillary Rodham Clinton. My objection to her was not because of her experience level, because I think she would've made a better president than Obama. My objection to her was because I think she's as crooked as her husband was. And I can never forget her famous vast right wing conspiracy speech,where she stood by her husband and blame the vast right wing conspiracy for this mere allegations in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Although if my choice was either Hillary or Obama, I think I would've picked Hillary even though I don't like her. She had at least been exposed to the operations of the White House and understood it and had been a politician most of her adult life. Space I never understood and still do not understand what people see space in the presidency of Barack Obama.

I will tell. I know people don't always agree with me and that's okay. You don't have to. Space we can agree just to disagree. I'm okay with that.

Let's take a little time this election cycle and may be asked to candidates are real important question. What qualifies you to be president. I still have not heard that one answered and I haven't been real impressed with any of the candidates. I have seen so far ..



Thank you for reading my rant.
 Dictated with Dragon NaturallySpeaking space version 11.5–
Big Mike

Politicians are no Help and never have been

Over the years I have had occasion to listen to a great many political speeches and to pay close attention to the descriptions of a lot of political promises. In the final analysis I don’t know why WE ALWAYS fall for the same tired old crap but we always do. Politicians promise us the moon and deliver a piece of green cheese.

It happens every single stinking time.

It just irritates me that a politician can blithely promise anything and it is written off as a “Campaign promise”, and if we were to do the EXACT SAME THING at work, it would be called a lie and we would get fired. See ya, wouldn’t want to be ya !

I’m not going to go back to the beginning of time; however I am sure you will recognize a few of these gems.

• We are going to mark a DMZ at the 38th parallel that will define the two countries so that we can train the local troops, which will allow Americans to come home. This was the idea in 1955 in Korea. We still have thousands of troops deployed there and hundreds of other places around the globe that have very little to do with the original reason we went there to begin with. If you don’t believe me, just answer what the hell we are still doing in Germany, decades after WWII, and have thousands of troops deployed there and Korea and Japan and etc.

• We are going to create “Enterprise zones”, which will encourage investment in poverty stricken areas, thereby preventing gentrification and the wholesale destruction of local neighborhoods. This was the idea behind one plan pushed by Ronald Reagan, and was the force which basically unleashed “Eminent Domain” actions by localities, thereby ensuring the wholesale destruction of local neighborhoods.

• Tax cuts will help those less fortunate to be able to “Insert latest lie”. Tax cuts do not help low income wage earners. It is no help to have your taxes cut $5 per paycheck. When you roll it up it allows a politician to say they have cut taxes by millions or billions of dollars, however the individual person isn‘t helped at all. Someone who has a billion dollars on the other hand? Well I guess it depends upon if you call a 20 million dollars reduction in tax liability “help”.

• The latest round of tax plans, Housing ideas, College tuition programs that all the candidates are blathering about have one thing in common. They are all so full of holes, tests, disqualifiers and so called “means testing” that they are more confusing than a tax form and when you get right down to it, a very low percentage of affected individuals are eligible for their “savior” programs and an even lower percentage will take advantage of it.

Here is why Its just another lie.

If you have to be 100 % caught up on your mortgage payments, have great credit, have “X” dollars in savings then your program is not designed to help people that are “underwater” or “in trouble” on their home mortgages. It is designed to help the doctor that lives next door to the Politician and owns a million dollar (or more) mansion. It certainly will help no one who is currently in foreclosure or bankruptcy , because by virtue of the fact that they have had to declare bankruptcy , it virtually ensures they will have no money, be behind on mortgage payments, and have ruined or wrecked credit.

Who do these idiots think they are fooling anyway? Why don't they just have Ron Popiel do all the political ads? Then at least they would be funny, memorable and you wouldn't mind being lied to so much because you would know it was a ridiculous boast to begin with.

I'd love to talk more about it but my pocket fisherman in the glove box is calling.  We are having fish for dinner tonite and I'm gonna cook. Just put it in the Oven and "Set it, then Forget it!"

I see my wife on the corner over there. ":Hey Good Looking, I'll be back to pick you up later!!". 'Scuse me while I spray my hair on.......

So I was wondering if Its just me

Seems like the more we talk about a recovery the longer it takes. If I remember right this has been going on since early 2007 in some sectors and tanked for sure about a month before the election that saw Obama swept into office. So under two Presidents, three different Congress's and getting ready to be three election cycles, nothing much has changed has it?

Lets see.

• Banks are still foreclosing on people and charging stupid outrageous fees to use our money right ? 

• Jobs are still headed over seas and no one is hiring except Fast Food restaurants ?

• Unemployment is still "Officially" over 10 %, reality is closer to 20 % right ?

• We still have a war going in Afghanistan and whatever you call that mess in Iraq right ?

• We are still TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS in debt right ?

• Bankruptcies are at an all time high still , right ?

• Advertising dollars are still lower than they have been in years right ?

• Meaningless statistics are still being touted as a useful measure of the Economy right ? (Housing starts for one)
• Wholesale prices have began to rise triggering Inflation in  some very important sectors including coffee , Right ?
• Oil prices are still high, Auto sales are still low and not much over last year if at all, right ?
• We are still fighting about the "debt ceiling" (14.9 trillion dollars) right ?
• Access to credit is still tight , right ? Most credit cards are close to 20 % on average, even though large banks borrow money at close to 0 % right ?

OK, so I am obviously confused.
What is it that is better ?

Behold, the future is here

Well, I'm not saying it will never happen again, but I think I am about done writing about politics. It seems as if I write for the benefit of myself and a couple of other people and that's about it. It is almost the same way when the subject comes up in conversation. I'll answer a political question from someone with more than the standard , often repeated answer and slowly but surely the eyes begin their travels. First its side to side, then add in the up and down motion, then a look of panic and I get amused and now I can't stop talking because you look scared and then the eyes begin their travels into the back of your head as you slowly begin to gurgle.

Similar when I write about it. 8 paragraphs with facts and research and opinion and hard hitting concise comments and it gets turned into somebody Else's comment that usually is two words and the last one is either "sucks" or is "You". As in "He sucks" or "F**k you".

So whats the point ?

Its not like I work for Newsweek. I just think about this stuff and thought others would like to share in the dialog.

Guess not.

So until I find an audience for it, in a place where we can be as full of crap as the politicians, I am gonna find other topics I think.

An Important Lesson in Political Math

10 Steps to Bragging about what you are doing for the American Taxpayer

Or how politicians say they are saving you Money , therefore leading to their own re-election because of their historic voting , strong record and pro-business stance.

1. Propose a program that will lead to some dubious untested benefit that does not have to be quantified, qualified or proven. Do not worry about whether or not the program will work as the other party will bash it greatly no matter what you say nor what you do.
2. Come up with a final cost number in the Press release for the announcement of the Program something on the order of "Senator X says 60 Billion dollar jobs plan will help economy".
3. Also somewhere in the statement guess at the number of "jobs" (or other benefits) that will be created as a result of implementing your plan. "Senator X says his job plan will create 2500 jobs."
4. Ignore and do not count any jobs that are lost as a result of the plan and always count low paying non union jobs that replace high paying or unionized jobs as equal positions. For reference please see "NAFTA - What the hell happened to my job , by Dr. Suess"
5. Create rules for implementing the program that keep out the Riff Raff, meaning anyone who has no need for the money created by this program.
6. Add up the final expenses for the program and narrowly define as expenses only those items you really cannot blame on someone else. Assume this number is half of the original estimate no matter what the facts say.
7. Add up the final jobs you say were created for the program and narrowly define as a created job every item for which tips, wages or barter like trading was used to pay anyone like a paperboy, your babysitter or the morning wino you give spare change to on your way to work. Include the homeless bum who holds the "Will work for food sign at the Interstate".  Assume this number is double the original estimate no matter what the facts say.
8. Form exploratory committee and PAC to advise you on important issues. Staff both organizations with your cronies. Loan both organizations your top speechwriters. Have everybody except you put out press releases and articles to newspapers etc, saying what a wonderful job your program did for the American People. Have both organizations distort the facts and further muddy the waters by claiming wild claims like for example Tell one of them to say Your program has cured AIDS.
9. Book several appearances on Sunday Morning Talk shows and talk to Important Newspaper writers, television news celebrities Like Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer. Make no public comments until you begin to speak out on the issues.
10. Announce you are running for President and then ask for time to set the record "straight" in order to counter claim some of the more wild things that have been said in the past few days. Announce that your program saved the American Public 30 Billion dollars (Even though you actually spent 30 Billion dollars) and that it created 5000 jobs and spent less money than was projected in order to do so. Call this productivity at its highest level and then spend some time being humble , admitting somebody got it wrong by saying your program was a cure for anything.

Cue American Flag.

Cue Pictures of Family.

Fade to black.

Ride to Elected office in big black limo smoking fat black stogie.

Life is good.

Obama's New Job Plan - DOA

So the latest is that Obama has a new Jobs plan. Big whoopee. Another stupid political lie.

Supposedly it includes 300 Billion dollars and a lot of spending. Most of it I suspect is smoke and mirrors and a bunch of typical Washington DC Lies.

It will not be released until Thursday  when in a speech before a joint session of Congress he will propose to lift the ailing economy through the familiar and tired yet useful  litany of tax credits, job training for the unemployed , school renovations and a program to prevent teacher layoffs. Also somewhere muddled in this morass of jumbled items is a proposal to ask lawmakers to renew the 2% payroll tax cut and to once again extend jobless benefits to the unemployed. These details are fluid and could change as this is what is called “informed sources”; meaning leaked on purpose to gauge reaction and won’t be finalized until the Administration is ready to give the Speech.

That part pisses me off because what it says to me is that it really is not important enough to be a good plan as long as it looks like a good plan.  That means you and me? We are not important as long as we don’t do enough to make the Administration look good. This is probably one of the biggest arguments for term limits in my opinion. They work for reelection and don’t work for us. Democrats and Republicans alike are more worried about what they say and how it plays out in the press than they ever are worried about doing the right thing and helping the country get back on its ”proverbial feet”.

They are more worried about how it looks than they are about what it does. Actions mean nothing to this crop of Politicians. I could not serve with this bunch. I would be arrested once a week from slugging a few of them in the mouth every time they said something stupid or told another in a long string of lies.

See here is the part they won’t tell you. It may be a “Quote 300 Billion Dollar Program”, but when you look at the overall picture and at the total number of unemployed as well as the impact made by the 2% tax credit continuance which is part of that big number and the other parts you realize it really isn’t all that much money being directed at a trillion dollar problem. It doesn't spend the money creating jobs and won't help you ar me one bit. Just like always.

They are all scared to tell the American public that it will take at least another Trillion dollars to fix this mess.

We have almost 10 % Unemployment in this country. Just using these numbers to calculate against that represents at least 30 million unemployed. This number does not take into account all the adjusting and the people who are not counted in this number like the chronically unemployed, the underemployed and so forth. The 2% tax credit renewal counts for about 1/3 of the 300 Billion (about 90 Billion dollars) and this is not money we will spend at all, it is money we will not collect.

Without even doing any serious math you can see the cost of the program starts out at 210 Billion and the politicians lie about the non collection of future income being counted as expenditure. The tax credits amount to the same kind of thing. Revenue we will not collect and never see is counted as an expense.

Here is why this is important. Let’s talk about it like it is paycheck money.

Let’s say I am your employer and I tell you I am giving you a 25 % raise in the form of a credit. In order to earn the credit you must drive a brand new car that burns Bio-Diesel fuel, seats 9 people, participates in a car pool and is available to the local police department as a loaner vehicle. Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it.? That’s no kind of raise at all is it? It’s not real money is it?

Well this is exactly how congress gives a tax cut and how it counts it as spending. When they project how much it will cost they say enormous sums like 45 billion dollars if it is fully utilized. Then reality sets in and people start to try to use the credit and they find out they do not qualify, because they do not meet the "reasonable conditions" of the program (sort of like the Loan Modification Programs in the housing loan mess huh ? ) .  

It turns out that nationwide only 5% of employees can meet the requirements of the program and the entire program only costs 5 Billion dollars.

If you ask a politician to explain it he will tell you that the American taxpayer under his watch saved 40 Billion dollars and nowhere in his response will he mention that he spent 5 billion bucks to implement a silly ass program like this in the first place.

The next thing is they are going to renovate a bunch of schools. I am asking FOR WHAT PURPOSE?? You have already fired all the teachers. Do any of you numbskulls read the news? What are you going to do, build a bunch of classrooms, and not have any teachers to teach in them?

I can’t wait to see the real numbers associated with this bull**t.

Politicians are all Crooks and here is why

My Dad used to say "Figures Lie and Liars Figure".

He was right I think because so far with all these Politicians all I have heard is a bunch of nonesense and lies.

So far I have heard them talking about a lot of things including the debt ceiling, the Economy in General, Growth, Unemployment (benefits mostly), what all of you are now terming as "ObamaCare" (which is stupid because both parties voted for it), and all the other cliche`d to death platform ideologies like abortion, Social Security, Medicare and Tax cuts.

Nothing has worked, we are still in a mess, nothing has any real traction they have not still ever addressed the real issue, and we get to watch them take several vacations, play golf and , drink beer, sail yachts and fly airplanes and la-te-freakin-da.

Surprise !! Rich people are still rich , Poor folk (like me) are still poor ! Not one damn thing has changed and nothing has gotten any better. Ooooh, wait I apologize, the one 2 lane bridge you rebuilt in my county is the best 2 lane country road bridge that money can buy. They say 17 million dollars was spent here, most of it towards schools, but you couldn't prove it buy looking. What a joke. What we have the most of is plywood windows. I wonder is the stimulus package paid for the wood?

You've talked about home mortgages like they were some kind of can on a grocery store shelf and introduced new programs which were supposed to be designed to help our struggling homeowners. Then you turned around and put the same jackasses in charge of the programs that created the problems in the first place. You bailed out the banks, told them their lending practices sucked and then put the banks in charge of helping the same struggling homeowners they were over charging and gouging to begin with. Oh yeah, that's gonna fix it. Good strategy, sorry I missed that meeting. What a bunch of dip shi**.

Now you idiots act all surprised like you didn't know they added an eighteen inch stack of paper and denied every single person who applied for help. You act like you didn't know they made the process so onerous and so complicated that no one normal person can understand it. You act like you didn't know that this was another boon for lawyers to scoop up the gravy on.

So if I understand the strategy and can analogize it, you spotted a theft, called the police, and arrested the cops. Smooth move !!

I mean, please. Quit lying.

That was the way it was designed in the first place. There was no way this was ever going to work, even I knew that. Hell, It is also why virtually no one has been able to use the so called "Loan Modification programs" why everyone in Bankruptcy was automatically excluded from participation and why now you want to Investigate and Prosecute the misdoers involved in the process. Please. What a load of crap.

Just tell the truth for once.

The Banks do not want to help us. They want to foreclose on us and sell the property to somebody else again. as they are protected against loss by their Insurance. Why the hell should they care, just cause you said so ? They are using the same tactic a Buy here -  Pay here car lot uses. They don't give a damn if you keep the house, they want to sell it and collect fees on it as many times as they possibly can before somebody actually buys it and pays it off.

The Cashier will help you understand this government program.

I have also seen you throw money at the issues without a concern for what the affect was after the fact. You have made medical care more expensive, passed more laws in the past two years than ever before, spent over a trillion dollars on a so called stimulus package and passed some real loopy ding dong laws , not the least of which was your ignorant cash for clunkers program which just made used cars more expensive and put thousands of auto mechanics who could have used those parts out of business because of the stupid asinine restrictions you put on the programs.

All that program did was create and artificial bump in sales that they will not be able to reproduce next year, and destroy a lot of good used cars. It was and is a dumb ass program.

Tax cuts by the way, DO NOT WORK for the middle class. Rich folks love tax cuts, the middle class can't use them, because they don't have any money to begin with. What the heck good is a tax cut gonna do for somebody with 3 kids, a mortgage and a car payment. They don't have any investment money !! The only people you are helping are the idiots who don't need it like bankers and Investment gurus and Millionaires. Normal society doesn't benefit from most of the tax cuts.

I have yet to hear one single politician say anything about the real problem which is this

NOBODY CAN GET A FREAKING JOB !!



Another fine example of Government at work, while you are left hanging.



How about this huh ?



One of you guys stand up and say "The Problem is we need to figure out how to get the American Worker, working again. That is the problem.

Guess what idiots ?



If I had a job, I can pay for my mortgage. If I had a job I can buy a new car. If I had a job I don't need unemployment benefits. If I could get a job I would not file for bankruptcy or be foreclosed upon. I'd pay my credit card Bills, I'd take a vacation, you would not need to spend money on a non-working stimulus package, you would not be bailing out car companies and banks and watching the rest of America slowly close up shop because the banks will not lend any more money because NOBODY HAS A FREAKING JOB !!

I mean, come on. It is not that hard to figure out what is wrong and in my opinion none of you have the guts to stand up and say it and propose something that will actually work. Instead all of you are just interested in not having the blame assigned to you by the opposing party so you can get elected during the next election.

I could care less if any of you get elected again.


You left me hanging when I needed you so I figure whats good for me is good for you.

I just might sit this one out

Okay. New political season and a lot of new players. Usually I am so interested and involved that I drive all the people around me nuts with the details and the strategies and the articles and etc. This season not so much. I know why and its sad but true. So far I have not been able to take one candidate from either party seriously. I just can't drink that much Kool-aid and also, they just don't seem to get it. None of them.

If you are a conservative you know Obama is in the White House and the objective ought to be to throw his but out and elect a conservative Republican candidate that will work on the Republican agenda. To elect one that will work to lower taxes, to make government smaller and to advocate spending less money on smaller government programs. The number one objective is to beat Obama for the Presidency however, lets not forget that. Instead we are worried about gay marriage, abortion (again) and the spending limit. None of those issues will help the economy directly, but hey Its about LOOKING GOOD not being good, right ?

If you are a liberal, your primary objective is to keep Obama in the White House, to continue to push his liberal agenda and to keep control of at least one of the houses of Congress, preferably the Senate, as it is now. Your secondary objective is to make Republican's look like they are trying to weaken America and make them look selfish and self centered so the average American sees Republicans and thinks "Elitist". The idea is to make the Democrat seem like he has the interest of the average American in mind and to paint the Republican as a very short sighted,  pro big-business schmuck and the representative of the rich.

The thing that has me the most concerned is the Republicans don't seem to understand this. They don't seem to understand it and they are acting like it won't take anything special to beat Obama.

I mean maybe they do, but they sure are not acting like their number one issue is to remove Obama after one term. It seems to me that all they have done so far is to pander to the Tea Party crazies and fight amongst themselves and take nothing stands on nothing issues that do not matter in the first place. I don't know about you, but in my household, whether you are for or against Gay Marriage doesn't do a thing to help me pay the light bill. Being for or against some mythical standards (like birth control) does exactly NOTHING to help the average American. It does however make the politician look like they are taking a stand , when they really are not.

I can't take these idiots seriously. So far it seems like this race is The President (Obama) versus the bunch of no-names morons who are pitching new reality shows to the American Public. Most of them we haven't ever heard of and the ones we have are loony !! Give me a break ! They all look like red shirted security guards in a bad Star Trek episode.

One of these geniuses are going to beat a sitting President on the issues? I don't want to get into a point by point comparison of candidates (but you can if you look here http://2012.presidential-candidates.org/ ) but my point is this:

A) There is a ton of candidates , most of whom are unknown and
B) None of them really have the money or experience or organization it takes to unseat a sitting President.

The way I figure it the Republicans have decided to sacrifice this election , let Obama win again, then spend both terms opposing everything he does so when 2016 comes around they Democrats will be out of ideas and gas that they can not mount an effective campaign for the presidency for another 12 years. It looks like Muhammad Ali is writing their strategy and he came up with another version of the rope a dope. They are going to lay on the ropes and let the Democrats take all the blame for the next 6 years and then come back in 2016 and say "See, America, I told you how bad it would be. Now we are here to clean up, but don't expect too much, because it took them a long time to make it this bad.". You could almost call it the reverse Bush Strategy.

This seems true to me because they  have no coordinated response to Obama, have left an old gasbag like Mitch McConnell to do all the talking and that guy looks like he's lying every time he opens his mouth.

Also the candidates they have put forward so far are pretty disappointing. For the first time in forever I am thinking about skipping election day because who gives a crap when it won't matter because there will not be one decent candidate in the whole lot of them? Who are we supposed to vote for in this group of lightweights anyway ? It makes me understand it when my wife tells me I am boring to talk to about politics because of this. I get it when I see the eyes start to roll back into someones head when I start a conversation about Politics.

If you have to be a Washington Insider or a lobbyist to know the candidates, then something is very wrong with not only how we pick candidates but is also wrong with how perverted we have allowed the process to become.

Here is the list (along with the links I got from Wikipedia and others)
Google it or look it up here for yourself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2012
www.livefreeordiealliance.org/2012
www.politics1.com/p2012.htm

Democrat -
Barack Obama, incumbent President of the United States from Illinois
Randall Terry, pro-life activist from New York

Republican -
Michele Bachmann, U.S. Representative from Minnesota
Herman Cain, former Federal Reserve banker and businessman from Georgia
Newt Gingrich, former U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives from Georgia
Jon Huntsman, Jr., former U.S. Ambassador to China and former Governor of Utah
Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico
Fred Karger, political consultant and gay rights activist from California
Andy Martin, perennial candidate from Illinois
Thaddeus McCotter, U.S. Representative from Michigan
Jimmy McMillan, perennial candidate from New York
Roy Moore, former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court of Alabama
Ron Paul, U.S. Representative from Texas
Rick Perry, Governor of Texas
Buddy Roemer, former Governor of Louisiana
Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts
Rick Santorum, former Senator from Pennsylvania
Jonathon Sharkey, perennial candidate from Florida

No kidding. Mitt friggin Romney is the best they could do ?  I am supposed to actually vote for Rick Santorum ? You cannot be seriouis. That guy is a certified lunatic. Michelle Bachman ?, that's the person who wants to take away a VA pension and along with it their health care, if they get  Soc Sec disability payments.

I look at that list and then think , people were actually pissed off that John McCain picked Sarah Palin ?

Its no wonder Obama won.

Shoot, before I would vote for any of these idiots, I would have voted for Palin.

I just can't believe any of these jackasses can stand up and compare themselves to Ronald Reagan .

Here is what it looks like to be well respected, well known and honored . Even if you don't agree with his politics, you can't seriously think the same way about the current crop of wanna be can you ?

What are we becoming ? Or maybe what have we became ?

I Look around see things in the course of a normal day that makes me think "What the Heck was that ?"  Things like :

• We now fight "wars" against groups and ideologies and ideas, not other countries.
• We have "Black Ops" going on in 70 or so countries around the world , fought by "special operators", who shoot and kill people on are behalf and are not called soldiers , at least not in the traditional sense of the word?
• You can protest at the funeral of a soldier who has died in combat, but you have to stand in a fenced in designated area to protest the President or at political functions.
• Things you "tweet", even stupid things, can get you arrested if other people do as you suggest.
• We will pay $1.69 for 12 ounces of water in a plastic bottle and yet will yell our heads off if have to pay $3.50 for a gallon of gasoline.
• It takes a billion dollars to get elected to the Presidency (give or take a few million dollars). The job only pays $400,000 a year. I'm supposed to tell my kid they can be president and somehow convince them that you should spend 200 times what the job pays, in order to get it? Is that Right ?
• A Senator can serve as little as one term (6 years) and has a lifetime pension and health care. The same things for the average citizen if they can even get it, usually takes 20 plus years of service, and can be wiped out by one bad business decision by one ignorant executive?
• Conservatives are getting excited about Michelle Bachman and Rick Perry. I'm just stunned. This the best we can do ? Really ? Seriously ? No joking ? Ahh man...
• Instead of Shows and movies that have plots and make a point , reality TV is what people want to watch ? Are you joking me ?
• California is considered the most liberal state, yet IOWA is the first one to allow gays to marry ? Huh?
• And speaking of gays marrying, these fruitcakes now are calling for Bert and Ernie to come out of the closet and get married? On a kids show? What ?
• Ashton Kucher will be the highest paid sitcom star once the new season of Two and 1/2 men starts showing. Ashton Kucher is a star ? The Highest paid Star? I hear the twilight zone music.
• There are people who actually think that MMA and UFC fighting takes skill and talent?  That think that watching people fall off of padded swinging turn styles into the water is entertainment ? That watching a fake competition about fake tribes on a fake set, in a fake jungle, has anything at all to do with Survival? Shows about crackheads and wino's and gang bangers and prostitutes being chased by the police and booked into jail actually have some sort of value ? People who have drug problems and are crazy are TV stars ?
• 

C'mon and Do the Obama-Pokey with me !

You put your Hope right in, you put your change right out
You wiggle at the flag and freedom and then you shake it all about
Do the Obama-Pokey and never have a doubt
Thats what its all about !!

You put your tax cut in, you put your tax cut out
Then they kill it and then they raise it and make you have a doubt
Do the Obama-Pokey and wallow in self doubt
Thats what its all about !!

You put your bail out in , you put your bail out out
The banks they get healthy and you have to go move out
Do the Obama-Pokey and then you go get the heck out !!
Thats what its all about !!

...and finally

You put your Marine Corps in, you take body bags back out
Fighting and dying in a rocky land that struggles with disease and drought
Do the Obama-Pokey and then you struggle to explain it and then blame it on the other side !!

Thats what its all about !!

Computers are not self sufficient (They should be !)

As my friends can attest, I am a nerd, a geek, a computer electronics maven. You couldn't exactly call me an early adopter though, because I never buy tech in version 1.0, but If they make it I've probably had one or considered it anyway. I have closets full of junk I have not thrown away yet to prove it. Ask my wife. We don't have linen closets, we have electronics closets.

The myth is that you can buy a computer and it just works (insert I'm a PC commercial with Intel sound here) and the facts are that I have never found that to be true. Never. As a matter of fact, I've never had anything that was truly maintenance free and never had a computer or any electronics at all that did not require some level of care to keep it operating. Remember when car batteries had those tops you could remove in order to refill the water? Then along came "maintenance free" batteries. Still had to replace them every 4 years or so huh?

So no repairs and no keeping them full, just plan them to be obsolete on a twice as frequent scale?

The thing that kills me though is that NO ONE considers reliability or repair cost or expected life when buying electronics, televisions or computers. Some of the most studious people I know research TV prices and components until they could sell them, but when they buy a printer, laptop or a desktop computer, the only thing they look at it price. The only thing in the AD is price. The only thing looked at with any diligence is price. I get these phone calls and the only thing I hear is "...And I only paid $XXX for it". Who cares, but, Good for you.

Here's what I mean.

Look at your brand of Laptop or your brand of desktop. Chances are, in the next year you may need to replace a power supply on your desktop or the screen on your laptop. Why? Because on desktops, heat is never exhausted as fast as it should be because it always increases noise level unless you use a more expensive solution (like water cooling) they usually do not have enough fans and almost no one ever takes the back or side off their computer and vacuums the dog hairs out of it.

And the laptop screen, Why ? Because we lug the thing around like a women's purse, forget what it is and stop putting them away in their padded cases and sooner or later fat Uncle Bill will set on it. That's why.

With every new generation of products there is also a planned obsolescence factor and a planned discard/replace factor to consider as well. Yeah the printer was only $18.The ink is $175 a cartridge and you cannot find it 3 years from now, but hey, IT WAS CHEAP !!

Now , go to your computer manufacturer's website and price a power supply for your computer. Chances are you are like everybody else and you have one of 2 or 3 major brands of desktop (Compaq/HP, Dell, Gateway) or one of the top 5 laptops (IBM-Lenovo, Toshiba, Compaq/HP, Dell, ACER). Here is what you will find. Take a stress pill and price a new screen, if you can even figure out which one your system uses.

Parts are expensive. Putting them in is confusing. Having them serviced costs about twice as much as the parts do. Oh, and parts for one model do not fit parts for another model, or brand. HP and IBM used to be famous for using single brand power supplies that would not fit any other machine.Now you start thinking. Since you only paid $XXX for your computer in the first place, should you spend $XXX to fix it ? After all its a toaster isn't it ? A better non brand specific power supply is probably 50 % of what IBM or HP charges for the mediocre system you have, but hey, IT WAS CHEAP !! Don't worry about your files, your software you will have to re-buy and re-install, just throw it away and keep going. Think e-machines at Wal-Mart. Cheap and plentiful too !!



The sad fact is this.

Every Tech company has the ability to add sensors and to standardize parts and to simplify their replacement. Everything could be a plug in module if they wanted it to be that way. That would not keep you coming back to the supply chain to buy a new product though would it ? Every product made could be engineered to be simple to maintain. You ever looked at the back of any TV , Radio or virtually any electronics where it says "NO USER SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE? yeah, well right about there is where the door ought to be that allows you to open it and vacuum it out.

Ah well. I like getting paid.

Keep buying net books and tablets and touch screens.
Keep sitting on them. Keep ignoring the dog hairs.

It s a lucrative business.

Ahhh, the recession is almost over. (right?)

I begin this remark with an understanding that not everyone shares my point of view and really I am OK with that. Many times I don't have my opinion fully formed as I write these blog entries, and like many people I may not know all the facts or my opinion may be colored by my personal circumstances. If this describes you and you don't want to read this , well I understand. I would however like to know one thing though,

How the hell is everybody else doing it? How is everyone else surviving? I just am stupid I guess, because I don't get it.

You see , ever since the economy turned south in about early 2006 I've been trying to figure out what in the hell I am doing wrong.

We'll be driving down the interstate and get passed by a big old decked out motor home or a huge pickup truck pulling a boat and I think "Where in the hell do these people get the money?" Friends of mine go on vacations every 6 months or at least once a year. I haven't been able to take a vacation in about 7 or 8 years. Haven't been able to find the money or a job for that matter to get a new car since 2003. We came about 7 days from having my house repossessed. I lost my position in 2007 and have been basically underemployed ever since. I am extremely grateful for the job I have and thankful my Boss saw some value in keeping me around, but I have to know "What the Hell am I doing wrong?".

On top of that, health issues get in the way of doing physical things. My brain works just fine, my back sucks, so I can't even cut lawns for money. Couple that with the price of EVERYTHING going up and I wonder how we are supposed to hold out and how much longer until and before we just collapse in upon ourselves and start forming the soup lines. Gas is 4 times as expensive as it was in 1999, Milk and Bread are both double or so what they used to be. All my utility Bills are higher than they were 3 years ago. We basically do not have any savings anymore. Its been wiped out slowly but surely , one drip at a time until all that's left is the memory of money. I've combed through expenses over and over again eliminating , reducing, doing away with and cancelling everything we don't absolutely have to have to live and It feels like I am just about out of options. 

Jokingly I told my wife that we needed to buy a new refrigerator, just in case, so we would have a spare house, if worse comes to worse.

Now , its not that bad, but its dumb enough to piss me off, you know what I mean. ?

Then talking heads on TV, newspaper columnists and Internet reporting are all saying "Well its bad, but not that bad." , "Its getting better", "The end of the recession is in sight" and so forth and so on. I wonder in amazement where these guys are looking? I mean if you mean that the recession is almost over for the BANKERS and for the POLITICIANS , then I would have to agree.

The only thing I see at the end of this tunnel is an oncoming train.

Hell you can't use an ATM to check your balance without a fee being charged and just getting your own money out of one can be like getting charged 30 % interest to use your own money. Say you want to make a 30 $ ATM withdrawal. Your bank charges a fee if you use a "Foreign ATM", the "Foriegn ATM" charges a fee for not being a customer of their bank, and you have just paid $6 or more to get to your own money. When you say to your bank, "Why don't you guys have an ATM on my side of the county", they say the business isn't there to support it. Then I look at their balance sheets and see they made 38 MILLION dollars last year on fees and administrative services. Looks like they are doing just fine what with all that hard work they are doing printing receipts and cashiers checks and counting access charges and the like. Oh and don't get me started on "NSF charges". Lord knows it is real expensive to accidentally overpay 12 bucks. It has to be at least three times the value of the charge to make it worth 35 bucks a pop right ?

Personally I don't see how most of those greedy bastards sleep at night. I really don't. They are bleeding us dry like the mafia would and what they do is "legal". It shouldn't be, but heck, there isn't a Washington DC Politician, Attorney, Lobbyist, or Banker alive who understands what it is like to try and live on less than a quarter million dollars a year. They don't have a clue. It pisses me off that we are in such bad shape and they still don't get it. What has to happen to make them understand that we are dying out here, while they keep getting re-elected and keep collecting 30,000 dollars a speech?

There is over 10 % unemployment by the way Washington DC  and the states measure it. That is millions of folks out of work, and barely getting by. What they do not tell you is that this statistic is designed to be misleading. It really only represents those folks who are currently drawing an unemployment check or have filed for it. It doesn't include anyone who is underemployed, unemployed but not filed for unemployment, self employed business owners who lost work or businesses, people that used to work two jobs to make ends meet that cannot find a suitable second job and it doesn't include students who don't work or anyone who has exhausted their unemployment benefits and still can't find a job. It also does not include anyone discharged from the military medically even if they have no other income, every retired person and every homeless person in America even if they don't have any other income and anyone scratching to survive in the underground economy like illegal aliens, the mentally ill, the mentally handicapped etc.

If I had to guess I would say we are actually closer to 20 % unemployed and its not getting any better.  There could potentially be 60 Million people without income and under the gun tonight in America. Does this sound like it is getting any better to you ?

Will someone please tell me how the news coming out of Washington DC about our debt limit and John Boehner and Mitch McConnell fighting with President Obama is helping us right now? If I don't have a gallon of milk, a job, a loaf or bread, or money for gas to get any of it how does what these morons are doing help me? And then , if it doesn't help me , somebody please tell me how it takes care of Senior Citizens, the disabled or injured or disabled military veterans ? In the past 3 to 5 years, what benefit have we gotten by having higher prices for gasoline, food, natural gas, health care, credit, and everything else. What good have we gotten from  a policy of billions of dollars spent on waging war overseas? What good have we gotten from sending hundreds of billions of dollars to foreign countries just to see our jobs and bonds and raw materials go there with them. What good has come of removing any of the price supports for farm products when the end result has been nothing more than higher prices?

So please, feel free, tell me, unload on me, make me feel stupid. "What the Hell are we doing wrong ?"

Getting Old SUCKS !!!

Yeah , yeah , yeah 50 is the new 40. Whatever. I wasn't all that thrilled with 40 !

Man I gotta tell ya, getting Old sucks !

Nobody really prepares you for whats coming and whats coming , well it just ain't pretty. Pretty much after you turn 50 you can just forget about and lose a whole lot of words you used to use describing yourself to others. Words like smooth, fast, fit, tight, agile, mobile uh, none of those words apply. You will never be tight or fast at anything, ever, again. You have wrinkles where just a couple of years ago you didn't even realise it was possible to have wrinkles, everything hurts all the time and all of those bad decisions you made back in the day come back and bite you on the butt.

Tackle football without pads in the park ? No problem ! Right !

Nobody tells you that sleeping becomes a secondary issue. You never get enough, it never happens when you need it and when you want to sleep. forget it. Either a kid needs you to be awake, the place you are trying to sleep in is keeping you awake, its too loud or too quiet or you just lay there watching the headlights on the highway wondering if you will ever sleep again. Did I piss off the sleep gods ?

The best thing is the tendency to notice new symptoms and marvel at how fast things you used to be able to do just...go away. Poof - You don't play baseball no more. Poof- No more football with the kids. Kazaam - climbing ladders all day long is out of the question. Hundreds of things you used to do without a second thought now are major decisions. Go bike riding ? Are you mental ? Lets go play some basketball - Seriously? I gotta go take a nap. Where did this funny mole come from ? Wow - When did my elbows start hurting ? Stupid stuff like that.

It makes you insane because the changes come with frightening quickness and your body forgot to tell you about it. You just wake up one day and you are done with something else.  Ha ha , very funny.

The worst part is how you feel on the inside versus how you look on the outside. How you look on the exterior determines how people treat you. How you feel on the inside determines how you think you should be treated. Hey ! Get that AARP mail crap outta here. WTF?

Here is a couple of examples - 

• A pretty good looking girl comes walking directly towards you and a doorway is in between you. Just as you think "I'll hold this door open for her", she grabs it and says "Here you go SIR I have the door, please go ahead." /deflation sound - ego disappears. 
• You are standing in a checkout line at a supermarket, the cashier greets you and says "Do you have one of our senior cards?" /ooooohhhhh let the cursing begin ! 
• You are at a table in a restaurant. The server walks up and says "Do you need a senior menu ? / aww man , I didn't wanna kill anybody today !

The problem is nobody let me in on the joke. I woke up today with no prior knowledge of all these changes going on every day and let me tell ya, it ain't friggin funny ! I had an easier time with the whole "PaPaw" thing. Its like being buried alive and nobody can hear you screaming from inside the coffin. Like going into surgery and they think you are asleep but you can hear and feel everything going on all around you. Inside I still feel like the same person. I have the memories of playing with my kids, but my grand kids will never know how far I could hit a baseball. Inside I still feel like me, but I bear an uncanny likeness to some old dude I've never met that sorta looks like me. I look in the mirror and think "Why am I looking in the mirror?, Oh yeah. who is this old dude staring back at me ?

I'm sure the best is yet to come. I probably haven't even scratched the surface yet on all the crap that goes on. I haven't talked at all about prostrates, doctor visits or sex.

Trust me when I say , whatever you can imagine is about what happens to some degree. None of it is good and Hugh Hefner is a friggin liar ! I don't care how much Viagra that idiot is taking every day, he is in no way the same man sexually that he was even 20 years ago, let alone half a lifetime removed. Heck I'll bet he takes Viagra in a management sense only to keep it stiff enough so it doesn't dribble on his shoes. He probably sits down to pee. 

Now I understand why all my older relatives sit around talking about aches and pains all the time.

It s all they have left.

Just Five minutes is all

Hey, I'm not Nancy Grace or any of the talking heads that have been screaming for the head of Casey Anthony for the past 3 years. I don't get paid a big salary to sit around and think of cute phrases that will be used on my blog banner to describe this woman. Hell I've never came close to meeting her or any of her family and have only spoken with 2 or 3 celebrities in my life (Magic Johnson, Sam Kinnison, Vince Neil, a couple others), so I ain't nobody famous and I don't have any kind of vested interest in a book deal or movie rights or anything else.

I am sorta pissed off at everybody involved about this Casey Anthony crap though.

I just have a couple of questions? What a bunch of pathetic dumb asses. How do you lose a case like this?

1. How the hell do you take a woman , in this society, charged with this kind of crime, to trial without enough evidence to put her under the jail, for the rest of her miserable life ? How stupid were they ?
2. They still don't know 3 years later why it happened and never got to the point where they know what happened to the baby.
3. I'm sorry, you went to trial without a cause or manner of death? Are you frickin kidding me ? How could they have failed to obtain a conviction for something substantial.
4. If she didn't do it (and she might not have done it WHO KNOWS ?)  Then I have a couple of questions. Who did it? How did it happen? How did the duct tape get on her mouth? Who put her in the grave? WHY AINT YOU LOSING YOUR MIND WITH GRIEF ? WHAT KIND OF MONSTER ARE YOU?
5. Casey if you didn't do it, you cannot be retried for it You are forever free of charges related to her death. Tell us WHO KILLED YOUR BABY ? I could not just let it go and think that getting out of jail next week was the end of it.
6. If it was one of my kids and I didn't do it, I would have to know. WHY isnt she asking these questions? I would do life or take the needle for one of my kids. I just can't understand this loser.

See here is the thing.

I don't think they (every lawyer involved) were interested in knowing what happened. I think the lawyers were just interested in winning. Anymore, that's all they care about. File the most charges, get the most wins, get a bigger desk with a bigger job, bill more hours, buy a bigger house, enjoy life. That's the problem with attorneys. It is rarely about the truth anymore. Read one story about one trial without someone mentioning what it costs to conduct the trial. It just doesn't happen because that cost is also all about what an attorney is paid to bring or defend the action. How in the hell did anyone make the decision to bring her to triual on evidence this weak? I imagine the conversation was sorta like Boss- "Whelp, yeah the baby is gone, must have been the mother right?, Underling -Right. Boss - Well arrest her and charge her and we'll figure it out later. Underling - Duhh, Um Okay Boss. 



Put her in a locked room for 5 minutes with a couple of Marine Corps Drill Instructors or a couple of Navy Seals or a couple of Gangsters. We would know what happened to that baby. I'd beat her within an inch of her life to find out. No good lying piece of trash.

Me ? I couldn't care less what happens to her.I know that sounds cold hearted and cold blooded but as a father I cannot understand this , and do not want to.

It pisses me off. She is worthless and useless and the world be better off if she wasn't inhaling air.

The reason why is because of her actions.

Here is 5 reasons i think she knows what happened to her baby.

1. Did she yell and scream at the top of her lungs that her baby was missing, within minutes of discovering that she was?
2. Did you ever see her cry about her baby being gone? Ever? Especially in the first 30 days ? (Oh wait, thats right, she didn't let on the baby was missing for a month or so, I forgot)
3. Did she get a tattoo showing her love for her missing baby? ( or was it one that said "Glad that little paperweight is gone !")
4. Did anything she ever said about where the baby was make any sense at all to anyone? If she was innocent, then why make up the stories? Why change the details ? Why make up shit that had nothing to do with it ?
5. Does anything she said or did in the 3 years it took to get her through a trial look like the actions of someone that was totally innocent?

Thankx for reading my rant !


bigmike


Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

No More Fourth Ammendment to the Constitution -Say bye bye

This really pisses me off !!

Indiana Supreme Court Guts the 4th Amendment

What a bunch of (expletive deleted) nonsense, bull crap and hooey. According to this decision by the Indiana Supreme Court, there is no 4th Amendment protection prohibiting illegal search and seizure. It only applies after the fact, once they have already torn up your house, beat you down into submission, torn up your car, handcuffed your sorry butt and thrown you in jail, waited 2 years to see a lawyer (a public defender), and if you are lucky got some liberal law organization like the ACLU involved and interested enough to file the paperwork needed to fight it, then and only then do you have any possibility of having the past 2 years erased. Oops, our bad, you can go home now.

Since this will in no way affect any person who can actually afford a lawyer (read "the rich and famous"), you better believe beatings of the Homeless, the Jobless , the Low Income, the Blue class and the stupid will increase immediately.

OK, maybe I am being a tad dramatic, but the point is that this is stupid.

Next thing you know this will be the form you get in the mail after they broke down your front door , only to discover it was the wrong house.

Are they serious ? Have they read the Constitution ? I mean our countries copy ?

The Constitution language says (regarding the 4th Amendment) : ARTICLE [IV.] The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers,and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
 
The Indiana Supreme Court today decided that : INDIANAPOLIS

Overturning a common law dating back to the English Magna Carta of 1215, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Hoosiers have no right to resist unlawful police entry into their homes.

First - Hogwash, Bull Spit and Balderdash, I say Balderdash..

Second - They didn't even need to make a ruling here, which I'm betting will be challenged and over turned anyway. The case in question gave them probable cause, they could have just declined to hear the appeal and nothing would have changed.

Third- This is what is meant by "Activist Judges", where they change settled frigging law from the bench. In affect, writing their own laws, overturning those they don't like.

This is settled law from the year 1215 and they think it should be overturned. I don't even CARE what the merits of the case were, this is settled law. You need either a warrant or probable cause. Now they are saying , nah you don't need a warrant. If we were wrong , sue us later. Have a nice day. Sorry bout your luck !!

What the Hell  ?


Thankx for reading my rant !

-bigmike

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

Gasoline Prices ? WTF?

Here is what I don't get.

In the 70's we had gas lines going down the street and around the block because Gas was supposedly in short supply, OPEC was going to cut off the flow of Gas into this country and the price was skyrocketing from 33 cents a gallon to 75 cents a gallon (or something like that , hell I don't exactly remember either). I was employed at a gas station as a pump attendant at the time and can remember coming to work and being amazed at how long the lines were and how long people waited, willingly or not, to put gas in their car. People were evil, E-V-I-L, concerning how long they waited, what the prices were and whether or not we are going to run out of gas. Gas stations made more money that summer, than ever before.

Also, at the same time, the industry and our gas station switched dramatically. Gone was the dingy interior of the station with its one vending machine, full of crap only the teenagers who worked there liked anyway. Gone were the 6 gas attendants plus the manager who would run to your car, turn on the pump, pump your gas, check your oil, wash your windows and in extreme cases, check your tire pressure for you. Gone were the pumps that has to be turned on and reset with the special key so more gas could be pumped. Gone were all the jobs they harassed us to get done every day, week and month like scrubbing the outside restrooms, painting the pump islands, buffing the office floor, hosing down the parking lot and cleaning the windows.

In its place, within 60 days of the gas lines of the 70's came the "Self-Service" station. 60 days ago I would talk to you at your car window. Now you could barely hear the muffled voice through the speaker of the Fat guy on the stool in the building, behind the locked door. Yesterday I would take your money, put it on my roll, put the rubber band back on it and put it back in my shirt pocket. Now you had to haul your butt outta your car, come up to the window and "Pay before you pumped." We were scared sh**less of the wrath of the buying public for a period of time.

Back then, to put it bluntly, PEOPLE WERE PISSED !!

Fast forward to today.

Since 2000, the price of gas has went from $1.35 to $4.00 (or more depending upon where you live) and no one has said a thing about it. It has risen over $1.00 a gallon in the past year and we haven't said jack!!

Here is the crappy BS full of horse turds explanation we always hear from the big oil compaies when somebody wakes up from their budweiser marijuana cocaine buzz long enough to realize we are paying too much for this product once again. "(...no they want an answer now, No it can't wait,Yes you have to say something to get them to go away....Ok here -) Oh, ahh, ummm, clearing throat, You see the uh, um, price of gas has been um, affected by pressure put on the available supply by an increase in the consumption of gas in China and because of the ummm (what's the word I am looking for ....OH wait I got it !) uncertainty of the continued availability of Gasoline from the middle East, as well as by production shortages caused by planned maintenence being performed at several refineries."

Are you buying these horse turds? Gimme a break. 

If it had anything to do with supply and demand, then the price you pay would be dependant upon the cost of obtaining it and making it. We haven't built a new refinery with any substantial capacity in this country in more than 25 years. The price goes up way too high, and then settles back into place .50-.75 cents above where it was before the rise began and you want us to believe it has anything to do with the cost of producing fuel and nothing to do with manufactured pricing and big oil greed? Gas is stockpiled in several places in the US in various sectors for as much as a year. Yet , magically, the price on the street at every station is just about the same everywhere you go. It is not Supply and Demand as they would have you believe. It is however , Gouge and Exploit. Mostly because we believe this stupid crap.

Take a look at this . Basic Information about Gasoline this site will talk all about how the government and the EPA sees the issue. It doesn't say a thing about why pricing goes up and then settles back down (always) above where it started.

The problem is that every one of their reasons for why the price is up is bogus. Every single one of them.
Take a look at this : No Tension ? Big Supply glut ? Ooopsie !!

What do you think?

Thankx for reading my rant !

-bigmike

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

Yay! The new TV season is being announced this week !!

By this time next week everybody will know whether or not their marginal network beloved show made it for another season or not. Shows will be added, cancelled and moved in record time. None of it will make any sense to average people. Most of us will not care one way or the other because the majority of the shows are crap to begin with and the planet will keep on revolving whether we like it or not.

Sigh. I should be sitting in the front room right now, like many of you, trying to figure out what to watch, if I didn't have a brain at all and couldn't entertain myself that is.

I have observations : (Check out http://TvByTheNumbers.zap2it.com/

Television production networks spend millions and millions of dollars every year trying to figure out how to have the best shows on television. None of them are ever successful for more than 4-5 years and then somebody figures out that some other type of show is better. Next thing you know, everybody is schlock-ing along making the next batch of TV goo for us to watch.

Its pathetic. First there was one good cop , forensic drama and then next thing you know there is 35 of them. What do ya think is going to happen to your content when you start boring me to death with something. You think that makes me want to watch more of it ?

The people who make decisions about TV shows really have no clue why those of us who were watching their crap aren't watching it any more. They are listening to all the wrong people for one. I'll bet none of them has went outside their comfort zones and asked real people questions in a dozen years or more. The reason why is they have been sold the lie about "Research" and statistics that have to do with demographics (age related analysis) and marketability, and sustainability. Problem is that has little to do with engaging content.

All these metrics tell you is that you figured out how to catch our attention for a few minutes in a virtual ocean of choices , and hardly any of your decision making has to do with content. How well you market a show has more to do with whether or not I'll give it a shot than the content does, as I have no idea what you are talking about before I watch it a few times. If I was able to "innately understand the characters" as I heard one of you idiots say this week, why bother marketing it? I can see it now "Hop on Pop - The TV Series".

The people who make TV shows have to bend to the will of dozens of other people in order to get a show on the air. It is a wonder anything ever gets made at all. (Network Exec - "Put a woman in it!! It has to sell product to women !! Flunky TV producer - "But sir Its a Gay prison drama!! ) Its one stupid decision, one cancellation and one more craze after another and real, thoughtful content or real funny content is never given a chance. If it doesn't sell to marketing folks who push their schlocky ads in the precious few minutes that there is in a show to tell the story line to begin with,then zip zam zowie am swoosh , its gone and to hell with it and good riddance. Until that is they start recycling the crap, over and over and over....

Marketing Folks , in turn have absolutely no clue what people like, they only know what we don't turn off. The whole entire TV industry is built around the concept of ratings, which is actually a system that measure the fact that "We didn't turn your crap off, we turned somebody Else's crap off." Is it any wonder we find other things to do ?

I'd just as soon hit my fingers with a hammer than watch some of the absolute crap you people put on and seriously think somebody will watch it. I'd much rather pay my best friend to tighten my testicles in a vice than to watch some of the tripe that you call "TV". "Medium", "V", "Outsourced" ? Seriously? This is the best you could come up with ? How about this. Whenever you have nothing but a snoozer loser to put on, first , send the producers back to the drawing board and tell them "This crap is not good enough". Then instead of subjecting us all to more of your choices made while on cocaine, put up a re-run of the best shows you ever made in the last ten years until they come up with something better.

We don't watch your crap because of a lot of reasons like maybe ; it is too narrowly focused (like on 8-13 year olds - like Hannah Montana), has too many themes going at once (a friendship/romance/action movie) or maybe, wait for it, because it was crap!

Really, there are hundreds of choices and you put a snoozer cheesy show up , nobody watches it and you think the answer is to spend less money, on worse shows, with lower budgets and this fixes the problem ? Jersey Shore is the frigging answer? Top Dog Chef of China next on the Food network. The food network ? Oooh, shows are too expensive to make , so if they are too expensive, we can't charge as much for marketing, which means the show has to cost less to make, which after all cheapens the show and its content, which means you are gonna stop watching it and you are gonna do it all over again with another batch of shows next year !!

You people are absolutely 100 % no kidding bat-shit crazy. Is Gary Busey is in charge of the TV Industry ?

I love the way they all sit around and moan about the loss of the attention span of the average viewer. Oh what a wad of baloney !! If only it were true.

See here is the problem. They all say they recognize that it is 1969 anymore and everybody all say they know that Wally and the Beav aren't plunked down in front of a 3 channel television anymore and that the landscape has changed dramatically. Then everything they do , regardless of what they say, is more of the same old hashed out tore up liquid logic from 1979.

Here are some truths they would be good to get in touch with :

1. We have more options now than we ever had before. When TV was a 3 channel deal, if we don't like what Dad was watching, playing outside on the step with a stick in the dirt was about the only option. How else do you explain playing cards clothes pinned to bicycle spokes ? or shooting each other in the eye with BB guns?



2. Now if your crappy show sucks, we can watch another TV in the house, probably a flat screen TV to boot. Or if we have a blue ray player or a DVD player (or even a CD or VCR) we can watch recorded content or make our own content and bore everybody else with it. Can you say YouTube? Or maybe if it is one of your kids they can yammer on the phone for hours or send text messages to 10 people at once. While they are driving. On their way to the library.



3. We also have phones that deliver content that is not as good as a TV, but the way TV has been going that ain't saying much.



4. Everybody has computers and i-Crap, and MP4G players and all the other cute little made up names for new gadgets. Oh and our phones, they are cameras, they play videos, they take pictures, they have Internet access, and when all else fails they have face book access as well. Angry Birds for cryin out loud, Angry Birds !!



5. Did I say Facebook? Ooh I'm selling cheesecake in my new shop and i need a baking pan can you get one for me. Jesus H. Christ on a crutch !!



6. We could watch out home theatre if we don't want to go to the movies (and apparently we don't like this activity anymore either), and there is all the various streaming content providers like Hula, Netflix, Flixter, etc. BTW-psssst If you didn't know, Sell your Blockbuster stock.



7. Normal options apply, we just can't go very far at $5 a gallon. So yeah, a road trip is in, but not more than 5 miles or so. The small percentage of us who don't spend all our leisure time stoned, drunk or naked have to do something to keep from going crazy trying to find something to watch in the wasteland of TV programming.


8. Did I say Porn ? There is more instant porn available today than ever before and its just getting bigger. Yes Mr. TV man you compete with porn. Get over it. If you didn't it wouldn't keep growing while all your stuff is dying. Well honey, there's nothing on TV, I'm going upstairs !!



9. Two Words. Massive Multi-player. go to google and look up MMORPG. - nuff said.



10. ....and saving the best for last - VIDEO GAMES of all kinds , but especially online game communities. Toasty !! Finish Him !! COD Black Ops ! Halo, friggin Halo !!

So keep your head in the sand and keep thinking if you just make one more reality show or one more schlocky cheezey gag me with a spoon sitcom that everything will get better. While you are doing that Netflix and Nintendo and Sony are getting rich watching you sit on your sorry asses.

Did I say that out loud ?

Thankx for reading my Rant

- BigMike