Posts Tagged ‘economy’

Morning Joe: Sarah Palin’s a joke but…

Posted: June 9, 2009 by datechguy in Blame Bush, opinion/news
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Haven’t done this for a while and since I have a 2nd interview this week I might as well get it in when I can.

6:01 a.m. Nasty weather coming for the whole east coast

6:04 a.m. First Gitmo prisoner now in NY. The guy is actually being tried for a pre-9/11 attack on embassies.

6:06. a.m. They mention the Palin interview. Barnicle immediately attacks and they all talk her down….

6:15 a.m. …then proceed to agree that she has a solid points. It is only bad because she said it. They refer to her as Dan Quayle and marginalized.

6:17 a.m. How about that Obama mentions Jesus a lot more than Bush in speeches.

6:20 a.m. They hit Palin over the Stevens was acquitted the democrat should resign.

6:22 a.m. Stormy Daniels is brought up, apparently they know Rule 5.

6:24 a.m. They complement Obama on fighting release of docs.

6:28 a.m. There will be an 8 a.m. web chat with Joe, maybe I’ll ask about the Palin stuff.

6:38 a.m. Newt says Obama owns the stimulus they ask Harold Ford, he says the stimulus was needed.

6:40 a.m. Ford says it is Bush’s fault that the bill was needed.

6:50 a.m. Yankees vs Red Sox tonight at Fenway

6:53 a.m. Willie and Barnicle make a good baseball team.

6:58 a.m. Colbert in Iraq, the “but my ears are that big” is a good joke.

7:00 a.m. Joe on the Today show in a few min, will be simulcasted. Joe’s book is out today.

7:05 a.m. Mika was invited to throw out the first pitch at Fenway.

7:07 a.m. Ford says 54% disagree with Newt’s statement about we’d be better off, but what would they say today if the election was held today.

7:08 a.m. Mika point out that if you check out the words and forget that she said them you would agree. She mentions that it seems unfair.

7:12 a.m. North Korea comes up, nothing about what the president seems to be doing about it.

7:18 a.m. As you can see just because he is part of NBC doesn’t mean he doesn’t get an attack interview from Lauer.

7:27 a.m. Norah O’Donnell boy she is going to be nice to Palin.

7:31 a.m. Mika points out that what she is saying is legit. O’Donnell doesn’t want to go there tweaks her for saying “evolving” vs “devolving”.

7:34 a.m. Barnicle points out the 65th anniversary of D-day and we are talking about kids PC injuries.

7:46 a.m. It’s a start but not in my district says Cummings.

7:48 a.m. Joe: “Do you side with the CIA or the ACLU on the release of info.”, answer “I’m on the liberal side but we have to be careful.” It’s a real difference when you actually have the responsibility isn’t it?

8:00 a.m. Shouldn’t Joe mention the flip in NY?

8:03 a.m. How many House seats has New England lost in the past 20 years? Those house seats have gone south and are Republican.

8:13 a.m. Robinson hopes that Obama can pull off the gitmo prisoner stuff.

8:31 a.m. We can have Colin Powel in the party, but it would be nice if he voted republican.

VDH at SISU

Posted: June 8, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news, personal
Tags: , , , ,

SISU points to Victor Davis Hanson’s article here concerning how talk is nice but it can’t compete with the reality of action:

So it is with foreign policy as well. Obama’s make-over will have positive short-term effects, as he reminds the world ad nauseam that he is black, sorta, kinda from a Muslim family, and the son of an African who is more like the world than he like most Americans-and not George Bush and not a thieving capitalist and not a warmongering imperialist and not (fill in the blanks). (My favorite Cairo line was the apology on Gitmo where inmates have laptops and Mediterranean food, spoken to millions whose societies kill and maim tens of thousands in Gulags on a yearly basis.)

But in the long run?

He hits against human nature. Most of you readers-in business, law, the professions-don’t continually praise your friends, competitors, and enemies (e.g., “Glad you got that job, Home Depot-we at Lowes didn’t really need it; what a wonderful bid you submitted, Hilton, much better than ours here at the Four Seasons; it was my fault here at Goldman Sachs that I didn’t match your better offer at Credit Suisse; I grew up working for the Royals, and can empathize why you Yankees don’t like us; it’s time we at Citibank apologized to Chase for our past cutthroat competition; we are just too arrogant over here at Delta and wanted to let you guys at United know that.”)

Sorry

The world sadly does not work that way. If one were to do that, we know the outcome: a group of rival execs would say “Hmmm, time to steal market share from Citibank, or Hilton isn’t really up to the arena anymore, let’s move in on its Western region, etc.”

Only someone who has not been in the real world, but only marketed rhetoric without consequences (e.g., if Obama had a bad day organizing, or legislating, was he fired?) could believe such things.

Like the farmer in the story all the talk in the world didn’t mean a thing but the reality of action made all the difference. Eventually both economically and militarily reality will set in. Our foes and competitors were always wary of President Bush, particularly after Iraq. They never quite knew what he would do. However they see president Obama and have a pretty good idea what they can get away with.

Reading both articles I can’t help but think of my father and this story… (more…)

How bad is unemployment in Massachusetts (part 2)

Posted: June 1, 2009 by datechguy in employment, personal
Tags:

…it’s so bad that when I called the extended benefits line at 888-998-8418 to get the ball rolling on extended benefits the automated phone message told me to call back on THURSDAY three days from today!

If I wasn’t waiting for a callback from a doctor over a broken wrist for a son of mine I’d hit the local office at once.

I do have an interview on Wednesday, so with luck all of this might be a moot point.

On the brighter side my son who just graduated high school has just gotten a job. He was laid off back in July of last year from the job he had since he was 14. (He started a week before his 15th birthday). He will be starting later this month. So maybe there is hope after all. He was laid off 4 months ahead of me. I hope that doesn’t mean I have to wait till November to find something.

Credit Card Winners and losers

Posted: May 20, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: ,

Well Michael Graham is going on about the changes and charges concerning credit cards.

Since I’m not one to pay fees it means that I’ll be using my card much less if I don’t cancel them. Lucky for me there is this wonderful invention called Cash and another innovation called checks I will be using these new things more often. The end result will be as follows:

The first loser is of course the credit card company. They lose the 3% on every purchase that they were making from the people who accepted cards. Every new purchase and every bill I don’t pay with those credit cards is 3% they don’t make.

Since I will need the cash etc that means less discretionary spending that means retailers and resturants that I would normally have spent money at won’t get it. They Lose.

Since I won’t be earning Amazon coupons I’ll be going there less, I invariablly spend more than the coupon so those purchases go.

And of course the Amazon coupons that I would give as gifts are gone too, that much less those guys get.

There are some winners. Providers of necessary items and utilities win since they aren’t paying the 3% to the companies.

However the gas station loses since it’s cash on hand I won’t be getting the car wash I would get with my fill-up.

And since I’m waiting on the paychecks rather than a time of the month no extra stuff to buy at the supermarket.

This also means that I’ll be paying bills with checks instead of credit cards too so the

Since there is this wonderful invention called Cash and another inovation called checks I will be using these new things more often.

Hey if they don’t want my money I have no problem keeping it.

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