A man who knows something about business and job creation

Yes, BO, he built it.

This is from the YouTube page...
"Home Depot Founder Bernie Marcus shares his concerns for our nation and how frightened he is by what Pres. Obama's policies mean for America, especially for our children and future generations. In particular, the lack of job creation and rising home foreclosures are limiting the American dream for millions of families.

As someone who has taken Home Depot from one store to one of the largest companies in the world, and as someone who has hired millions of people over many years in business, Bernie is in a unique position to know which policies can bring about economic growth and prosperity and how badly Pres. Obama's policies are hurting us."

Modern day Rome is burning, and modern day Nero(s) are still fiddlin'

Tom Coburn, Senator (R), of Muskogee, Oklahoma (yep, a gen-u-ine Okie from Muskogee) publishes what he calls the Wastebook. It's a compilation of wasted tax $$$. The 2012 Edition is available online. All 202 pages of it. I've skimmed through it and found waaaaay too many funny/ridiculous/outlandish/dumb/scandalous/unbelivable "projects" to even pick out a few to tell you about.

The Senator even uses 66 of the 202 pages citing and linking to the "Official" details of each and every "project."

And some folks wonder how we piled up $16,000,000,000,000+ in debt. (please take note of those 12 zeros!)

Our politicians are pondering. That's usually not a good thing.

The Prez is dealing with another dilemma. "He Who Personally Takes Down Terrorists," is looking around for somebody(ies) to off as payback for all the trouble he's had to deal with over BenghaziGate. (It's cramping his plans for playing palsy with celebs and raking in campaign $$$.)

As usual, in the case of a dilemma, tough decisions must be made. Time must be taken away from golf. (poor baby) And, as usual, the tough decisions don't involve helping Moochelle (as I've seen her referenced) decide which pants to wear. (Do these make my posterior look big?)

He needs a specific target...

"And if the administration does find a target, officials say it still has to weigh whether

the short-term payoff of exacting retribution on al-Qaida is worth the risk that such

strikes could elevate the group's profile in the region, alienate governments

the U.S. needs to fight the group in the future and do little to slow the

growing terror threat in North Africa."

Please take careful note of the verbiage. They're worrying about alienating somebody? And that any action might do little to slow down things? Give. Me. A. Break. You want payback? Get it. Cowboy up. You wanted the Big Job, you got it. T.C.B.

Is this what being the Prez is about?

The Prez did another of his "appearances." This time it was a phone interview with an airhead in Miami. He weighed in on something referred to as "the Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj feud." (I don't watch it or care about it, but I noticed something about the two ladies being on some TV show.)

“I think they are going to be able to sort it out,” President Obama, 51, joked to Yo.

“I am confident. I am all about bringing people together, working for the same cause.

I think both outstanding artists are going to be able to make sure that they’re

moving forward and not going backwards.”

The president went on to say that he knows Carey, whom he described as “a wonderful lady,”
as well as her husband Nick Cannon because the singer had “done some events for us.”
And while he doesn’t know Minaj, 29, personally, he noted that he listens to her on his iPod.
So how would he do on “American Idol”? Not well, Obama laughed, adding,
“I’m going to keep my day job.”

The Dueling Ditzes

I feel so good, knowing our Prez is confident this Major Problem will be resolved. By the parties involved. Even though he's "all about bringing people together," and won't have one single thing to do with bringing these two parties (or party-ers) together. If they ever do get together. (no jokes, please)

And, I love how he managed to get the "moving forward and not going backwards" worked into the "interview."

“I’m going to keep my day job.” Maybe. Maybe not. 20 days and counting.

Mitt's got a very real problem!

And I'm not sure he's aware of it. Yet. Lindsay Lohan, even though she voted for the guy in office now, says she's disappointed in the employment numbers and she...

"...also hinted at mysterious underlying motives for supporting the GOP candidate and turning her back on Obama under wraps.

"It's a long story, but you're going to have to wait for that," she remarked, adding that she would have liked to watch the Ryan vs. Biden debate, which had taken place just a couple of hours earlier, but for an unspecified reason, was unable to.

Last month, the troubled actress went as far as to tweet the President requesting he "cut taxes for those who need it: middle-class families, small businesses" as well as "those that are listed on Forbes as 'millionaires'."

Can you imagine the poor guy picked to deliver this bit of endorsement news to Romney?

"Lindsay-freakin'-Lohan is endorsing you, sir. Yes, sir, the one out there in LaLaLand. The one with the drug problems. The one that can't keep her clothes on. The one with an arrest record. Yes, sir, that's her. No, sir, there was no mention of a campaign contribution. She's broke and her mom is about to go Chapter 13."

A young Lindsay. Before the insanity set in.

Think this will influence any polls?

Of Politics, Politicians and Google searches

Someone in an office somewhere with time on his/her hands decided to play the "Let's Google something" game. Always good for a few minutes of time-sucking and, frequently, a few laughs.

"Team Obama got a good chuckle Wednesday when it was revealed that a Google Image search of the phrase “completely wrong” yielded a series of photos of GOP challenger Mitt Romney. A spokesperson for the search giant says that there was no partisan tinkering involved in the alternately hilarious or embarrassing results, depending on which side of the aisle you sit. Instead, the gallery is a result of Google analytics, which surfaces images tied to phrases used most often in news headlines and search terms. In this case, the algorithms were responding to the glut of coverage of Romney’s statement last week that he was “completely wrong” to call 47 percent of Americans “victims” dependent on the government."

Since I, as advertised, do not take everything for granted, I Googled "completely wrong." My results page showed "About 686,000,000 results (0.21 seconds."And yes, there was indeed a glut of Romney coverage.

My intrepid investigative instincts kicked in and I did what comes naturally to a person such as myself. I Googled "completely right." Naturally, different results. "About 1,200,000,000 results (0.21 seconds)" The resulting suggestions were a very mixed bag. I did note though, the top of the list reference wasn't Rush Limbaugh.

My "right" search

Here's your chance... Ask a question at the next Presidential Debate

Courtesy of the nice folks at Yahoo! Answers. Seriously, they want to know...

"What question would you ask Gov. Mitt Romney and President Obama at the second presidential debate.?

We're partnering with the Commission on Presidential Debates to gather questions for possible inclusion in the Oct. 16 town hall event.

Please leave your question below, and be sure to tune in to the debate at news.yahoo.com on Oct. 16 at 9 p.m. ET."

First, you establish the Ground Rules

I'm working on mine now. Follow the link or put yours in the comment box and I'll get it in the pile with the others. Might just be interesting. No prizes offered, but the opportunity to ask something they might not be prepared for. Wouldn't that be a hoot!

Admirable goal

This has been a Public Service Announcement. I love doing Public Service work. I think we should have a National Public Service day. We could hold Town Hall meetings. Figure out how to get our Public Servants to serve the Public more. And better.

Of numbers, polls, pollsters, and politics

I have little faith in polls. I question their accuracy and I frequently distrust what they purportedly reveal. To my disappointment, poll results never seem to disclose the how the questions were phrased. They tell me the question and usually, who(m) they questioned. The question and how it's phrased, along with the choice of replies is a piece of crucial information.

You've probably heard the saying about how a competent District Attorney can get a Grand Jury to indict a ham sandwich. I feel the same about polls. I've participated in polls and the choice of replies was usually two. If neither is what I wanted to reply, "Sorry, that's not an option." Not an Option? What kind of poll asks for an opinion and then tells me my answer is "Not an option?" Jeeze, Louise! Are you "polling" or Brainwashing?

The Gallup folks used to be the Standard for polls. If Gallup said it, you could book it. A few years ago Scott Rasmussen came along. Then I heard about Quinnipiac University's polls. Both have good reputations for accuracy.

Yesterday I learned of the political research center of Suffolk University. Their accuracy has been rated at 96%. Impressive. They've announcement they are pulling their resources away from Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, because, in their words, "...we’ve already painted those red." Meaning, their results, to them, accurately forecast a Romney win. 
 
If I were in charge of a political campaign I'm not sure I'd make rash decisions based on polls. They are frequently a good tool for decisions, but not the only one.

Disclaimer: This is not intended as an endorsement of any candidate or political party. It's just my observation and comments on items in the current news.

P.S. This gives me an idea for a later post. About numbers and math. Stay tuned.

Last Night's Debate and Big Bird

Maybe I should have tried watching more of the debate last night. Seems I missed the highlight of the evening. Romney talked about PBS funding and set off a firestorm on the innernetz. Twitters were twittin', gifs were being giffed and Facebookers were liking a new account.

I'm not sure if all this helped or hurt him. Probably depends on which "news" program you watch.

Tonight's Debate

It's now 39 minutes since they started. I planned to watch and, maybe/hopefully learn something. Jim Lehrer has completely lost control and I've lost interest.

Don't we, the voters, deserve more than talking points and 2 guys ignoring, basically, the questions asked and the opponent's answer? Why do candidates think if they keep saying something over and over and over, we'll eventually agree with them?

They argued debated tonight about "studies" by economists. Hell, try getting a group of economists together sometime and see if you can find a consensus. Lot's of luck with that! And we keep hearing every year about this economic theory/plan versus that economic theory/plan only to find ourselves deeper in debt. Nothing working. Including people.