Misery Index

Every year it seems that  people seem to forget that they are humans and turn into something else.  And it seems that just about every year, someone gets killed at a store during opening.

This year was no different.  I think I read that 21 people died on Black Friday due to shopping frenzy.  And one store always stands out in the crowd for injury and/or death on Black Fridays.  That would be WalMart.   (And yes, I am fully expecting a letter from their lawyers on this post.)

In Long Island, a Walmart worker was trampled to death upon opening the store’s doors.  Currently, police were reviewing video from  surveillance cameras to identify who trampled to death the Walmart worker.  Detective Fleming, a Nassau Co police spokesman said criminal charges were possible.

“Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers stepped over him and became irate when officials said the store was closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.

At least four other people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation and minor injuries. […]

Police said about 2,000 people were gathered outside the Wal-Mart doors before its 5 a.m. opening at a mall about 20 miles east of Manhattan. […]

“This crowd was out of control,” Fleming said.  He described the scene as “utter chaos,” and said the store didn’t have enough security.

Is it just me, or should not Walmart also be held accountable for injury and/or death on Black Friday due to the way they handle their sales?

It would seem to me that Walmart, as large of a store as they are, would be able to come up with a way to manage this madness.  Target doesn’t seem to have this problem.  KMart doesn’t seem to have this problem.  Best Buy doesn’t seem to have this problem.  So why does Walmart?  With scenes as depicted below in various Walmarts around the nation, if I were injured on a Black Friday at Walmart, I would sue.  It is the retailers responsibility to not create an environment that creates a mob and environment that is hazardous to its shoppers well being and health.  Would not one think that Walmart not only has a legal responsibility to its customers and employees to create a safe shopping and working environment, but that they would also have a ethical responsibility to the same.  Obviously they don’t, since the below scenes unfold every year at Walmarts around the nation.

And due to this fact, it seems that Walmart encourages and incites a riot mob type environment every year on Black Friday, by not adopting store opening procedures that ensure the safety of customers and employees. 

But just to show that the Long Island death was no localized incident of stupidity on behalf of not only consumers, but also Walmart, with the admission of Nassau Co police saying “the store didn’t have enough security”,  I took a quick cruise around YouTube for Black Friday stupidity at Walmart just to show that it is not a localized and unique incident.

Have a look at just this year alone in 11 Walmart videos from Black Friday, 2008.

So while I’m in the middle of cooking, and the other half is still asleep, why not blog?  :D

In Colorado 3 miles west of Platteville at Miller Farms on Colo. 66, a farm couple opened up their fields to anyone who wanted to pick up free vegetables left over after the harvest.  The couple expected about 5,000 to 10,000 to show up to dig for the free potatoes, carrots, beets, pumpkins, onions and leeks.

Instead, about 40,000 showed up in an estimated 11,000 vehicles.  About 30 acres of the 600-acre farm 37 miles north of Denver reportedly became a parking lot.  It was estimated that 600,000 pounds of produce was harvested on Saturday.  The event was due to be two days, Saturday and Sunday however, the fields were picked clean on Saturday, cancelling the event on Sunday.  The food was gone within an hour, before noon.

“Overwhelmed is putting it mildly,” Dave Miller stated.  “People obviously need food.”  “We had originally planned to take everyone by tractor to the fields but due to the overwhelming response we had to allow people to walk or drive themselves,” said Dave Miller.

“It was completely more than we expected,” said David Patterson, the farm’s operations manager. “It was absolutely insane, but it was one of the most wonderful things we’ve ever seen.”  “It’s an overall sign of the times,” Patterson added.  “Out country is in some bad economic times and there are a lot of people who have lost their jobs.  I probably talked to 50 people who were out here this weekend, just going from group to group chatting, people who’ve lost their jobs.”

Weld County sheriff’s deputies helped direct traffic and the Colorado State Patrol did issue citations for cars illegally parked on the side of the road.  Many families had to be turned away.

The Miller farm opened up free to the public for the first time this year after hearing reports of food being stolen from churches.  Last week in Denver, thieves broke into freezers owned by the Park Hill Grandparents Organization and stole Thanksgiving trimmings – including more than a dozen frozen turkeys – set to be donated.

SOURCES:

• 7 News, Denver [With Video]
• CBS 4 Denver [With Video]
• Denver Post
• Greeley Tribune
• Huffington Post

First, I didn’t plan on posting anything today other than a “Happy Thanksgiving” post, however, upon awakening and looking through my feeds, this was the third thing in my feed list….

The Obama “team” loves to compare Obama to Lincoln.  This time in the Thursday-Thanksgiving edition, which is stated as being a “preview of his weekly address” (oh yippie.. four days, four releases…..), on the YouTube page there is mention of Lincoln:

“,nearly one hundred and fifty years after President Lincoln called for the last Thursday in November to be set aside to acknowledge our blessings.  …”

Obama focuses on  Lincoln and the Civil War in the opening of his now daily “show”, talking about a nation divided during the Civil War.  What is bothersome, is that the Obama team gives the impression that Lincoln is the person to give “thanks” to for making Thanksgiving official and chooses a time in our nation’s history when this country was at war with itself.  In typical Obama team style, they selectively use parts of history for their advantage, not using the entire truth.  And not giving credit where credit is due, as it was nearly 77 years after Lincoln that Thanksgiving as a national holiday was made, with celebration then being every year afterwards, by law and also making a different date the official day with the first celebration of Thanksgiving being nearly 322 years prior to Lincoln.

I find using Lincoln and the Civil War an interesting comparison.  Using the Civil War, which was about States Rights (and not slavery as many think… check your history), and a nation divided with Lincoln stating in “his first Thanksgiving decree.”  This would give the impression that Lincoln is the person to thank for making Thanksgiving official.  Wouldn’t it seem that way?  When in reality, it was George Washington, 74 years prior to Lincoln, at the time our nation’s first president, that created the first Thanksgiving Day designated by the national government of the United States.

Additional important dates in the history of Thanksgiving include; the first Thanksgiving was in 1621, and the first official Thanksgiving in 1923.  The Continental Congress in 1777 gave the First Proclamation of Thanksgiving, one year after our nation’s official birth.  In 1789, George Washington, 74 years before Lincoln, made a proclamation and created the first national Thanksgiving Day designated by the national government of the United States of America.  And a bill by Franklin D Roosevelt declared Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday in November, as some years had five months in November.  FDR is the person who made Thanksgiving on the day it currently is, and signed it into national law in 1941.  That is the TRUE history of Thanksgiving, and on the day we celebrate it. 

The Obama team and/or Obama instead choose to use Lincoln and the Civil War as an example.  A time in our nation’s history when our own country was at war with itself. A times when it was literally brother vs. brother, and family members vs. family members (at least it was in my family with part of my family fighting for the Union, and other family members fighting for the Confederacy). And even Lincoln’s declaration was for a one time deal only.  It had to be changed to a different date in later on in 1941 to the fourth Thursday in November and when it was finally made an official holiday by law. If anyone is responsible for Thanksgiving as a national holiday in the United States, to be celebrated every year, it was Franklin D. Roosevelt, not Abraham Lincoln.

Additionally, in the blog post on Change.gov, the following is posted.  Have you served today?  [Actually I serve everyday, due to being panhandled by homeless several times a day, just so they can go and buy another bottle of booze, or crack, instead of food.] 

“Watch the President-elect’s Address now – then send us your stories about the ways you or others you know serve your community:”

On the page to share your stories is stated the following:

“Share your story, tell us why service is important to you, or let us know what you’d like to see an Obama-Biden administration do to encourage service.”

This is part of Obama’s “America Services” program that he is planning.  Initially, before the Change.gov website was scrubbed, the page stated:

“ Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year.” [As seen to your left]

“Obama and Biden will establish a new American Opportunity Tax Credit that is worth $4,000 a year in exchange for 100 hours of public service a year.”

The page was changed to reflect the following:

“They’ll set a goal that all middle school and high school students engage in 50 hours of community service a year, and develop a plan for all college students who engage in 100 hours of community service to receive a fully-refundable tax credit of $4,000 for their education.”

What the Obamabots keep forgetting is that by making service mandatory or required, especially for children, is that it is a violation of the 13th Amendment, which prohibits involuntary servitude.  This Amendment was passed during the Lincoln administration.  How’s that for irony? 

Section 1:  Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2:  Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Being a historian by trade and at times profession, using “selective information” about history to use to given an “official” speech by our soon to be President, I find this very, very interesting and very, very disturbing.  To use an example that is not correct for the actual day we celebrate Thanksgiving, and to dismiss George Washington, our nations first president who proclaimed the first Thanksgiving day for the entire country, and to forget that it was because of the Pilgrims that Thanksgiving even exists, entirely disrespectful of our Nation’s history by using selective facts, to appear to make a point.  NO matter how hard Obama tries, he can maybe “change” our future, but he can not “change” our past.

If you do care to learn the real history of Thanksgiving, read on.  If you care more about Obama’s truth about Thanksgiving, and believe anything the man says, don’t bother reading on, and just go to YouTube, watch and believe the Obama manipulation of history.

via:  The Consumerist

If you have a Circuit City refund check not deposited before 11/10, it’s going to bounce.

A posting on the internal Circuit City forums from an irate store manager upset over having to shrug his shoulders in response to a customer who had a $2,500 Circuit City refund check bounce elicited this response from the CC accounting team:

Due to the Ch 11 filing, the bank had to put a stop on all checks that had not been deposited.  We WILL be reissuing all bounced checks.  I don’t have an exact date to tell you, but we intend to make good on every single mail refund that bounced.

I wonder when the exact date will be?  Six months from now?  And are they going to issue refunds on the check being returned.  And any subsequent fees associated with said check being returned?

■  Government Bailout Hits $8.5 Trillion [SF Gate] (With a nice graphic)

■  Fox 5 New York Gives Richard Fuld’s Home In CT With a Surprise Visit [FOX 5] (With Video)

■  Bailout Bucks to Banks [ProPublica] (with nice graphic and chart)

■  History of U.S. Gov’t Bailouts [ProPublica] (again, with nice graphic and chart)

■  Obama Defends Cabinet:  The Change Will Come From Me [Huffington Post]

■  Citibank is doubling APRs, even if you have perfect credit.  [Michelle Malkin]

■  Feds Warn of Terror Plot Against NYC Subways [SF Gate], [CBS News] [CNN]

■  Bedlam, Pandemonium, Engulfing the World in Chaos [NightBlogger] (Recommended Read and Recommended RSS Feed)

■  Terrorists:  “Yes, Our Official Website Is Hosted In The U.S., so WHAT?” [The Jawa Report]

■  Iranian Regime Says It Launched a Space Rocket [Gateway Pundit]

■  U.N. Urged to Take Action Against Killer Asteroids [FOX News]  (Maybe there is something to 2012 and Nibiru after all?  Take into account the following reports.)

■  Six Foot Asteroid Entered Atmosphere Night of Nov 24th Over Sudan [FOX News] (Not the Canadian one)

■ 1-Ton Meteorite Falls in Canada on Nov 20th [API] (YouTube, YouTube, YouTube)

■  Lost Tool Bag From Shuttle Can Be Seen in Night Sky [Fox News] (Video)

■  And Finally.. Ever Wonder What Happens To The Turkey That Every Year The President Pardons?  [Yahoo]

OMG… stop the madness….. Three days in a row, three press conferences…. This is getting riduculous.  I don’t need to know every time Obama changes his mind or his suit.  If he’s like this now, and not even president, what is it going to be when he is?  An entire channel of nothing but Obama 24/7?

I mean if it was something important hey, sure no problem.  But just to say you’ve added a couple of new members to your team? 

So is he going to do the same on Thanksgiving?  Welcome to change… oh.. and if you’re really bored over the holiday, why not pick up a copy of George Orwell’s 1984.  Once you read it, then you’ll understand why I recommended it to you.

Transcript from the fourth press conference, the third this week.. in a row.

BTW, rumor has it, UNCONFIRMED, that the way that Obama is going to create 2.5 million jobs, is to fix and rebuild all the nation’s highways, with UNION companies.  Hmm.. haven’t we seen this before with the WPA during the Great Depression?  Except, it wasn’t about unions then……  More details as I hear of them… and of course my ranting and raving.

A few months back, a lot of McD’s franchisees were complaining about having to advertise for the dollar menu.  When the price of everything started going up, they didn’t want to have to pay extra to advertise for items that bring in less revenue.  The franchisees argued that they were paying a higher minimum wage and food costs were skyrocketing.  They were worried that more and more people were “trading down” for value menu items, and at the same time they weren’t getting enough new customers to make up the difference.

[Note:  If you actually get a double cheeseburger from McD’s that actually looks like the above pic, where the patties are actually to the edge of the bun, instead of a half inch smaller, let me know!  I haven’t seen one like that in over 10 years.]

First no more Christmas, its Happy Holidays.  Now taking out Native Americans in Thanksgiving.  What’s next?  Calling Thanksgiving “Food Day” or “National Harvest Day”?  Or maybe just rename all holidays to “Holiday 1”, “Holiday 2”, “Holiday 3”….

Setting:  Claremont, CA.  A college town in eastern LA County.  Known as the “City of Trees” and “PhDs”. 

Claremont kindergartners have celebrated Thanksgiving day by dressing up as pilgrims and Native Americans while sharing a feast for 40 years, until this year.  Children from Mountain View would have dressed as Native Americans and walked to Condit, whose students would have dressed as Pilgrims.

Parents in this town seem to think that having their child dress as a Native American at the first Thanksgiving is offensive.  Michelle Raheja, whose mother is a Seneca, wrote a letter to the school district upon hearing of the 40-year tradition.

“It’s demeaning,” Michelle Raheja, the mother of a kindergartner at Condit Elementary School, wrote to her daughter’s teacher.  “I’m sure you can appreciate the inappropriateness of asking children to dress up like slaves (and kind slave masters), or Jews (and friendly Nazis), or members of any other racial minority group who has struggled in our nation’s history.”

Raheja, an English professor at UC Riverside who specializes in Native American literature, said she met with teachers and administrators in hopes that the district could hold a public forum to discuss alternatives that celebrate thankfulness without “dehumanizing” her daughter’s ancestry.

“There is nothing to be served by dressing up as a racist stereotype,” she said.

Another parent feels completely different.

“She’s not going to tell us what we can and cannot wear,” said Dena Murphy, whose 5-year-old son attends Mountain View.  “We’re tired of [district officials] cowing down to people.  It’s just not right.”

Ya know, I had to check something about Indians and vests, head dresses and bonnets and stereotypes.  Because my memories are that they did wear such clothing…

 

And one thought to ponder.  The very first Thanksgiving was a celebration of “plenty” and “thanks” to the Native Americans from the Pilgrims.  The Native Americans had taught the Pilgrims about planting and growing crops here in America as the Pilgrims were from England, and had never seen such food as corn before.  It is a symbol of thanks to the Native Americans who helped the Pilgrims survive.

Yes, over time, the Native Americans were treated very unfairly, their lands stolen, their people killed, starved and used as slaves however, that was at a much later date, not at the first Thanksgiving.  And I am not trying to minimize the brutality of which was used against the Native Americans.

The first Thanksgiving was a symbol of peace and friendship between the two groups.  Two groups from different continents, different social structures, different beliefs, different ethnic groups, who sat down together for three days in celebration.

Why is it so wrong to celebrate peace between two different ethnic cultures?  How is it disrespectful?  Why do some people see this action as disrespectful?  A symbol of peace is something that we all should wish for between all ethnic groups.  But with attitudes like this, who wish to bring up digressions of the past (and some who forget that innocent whites were also killed by Native Americans) and never let them go.  We can not change the past.  We can not change who we are.  But we can change our attitudes to shape the future.

And the other thing for Ms. Raheja to remember is that the Pilgrims were the minority at the time, not the Native Americans.  It is an attitude like hers that perpetuates hate, continued racism, and causes endless wars.

And ya know, I’d say just let the kids dress up as cranberries and yams, but the people at “Vegetable Cruelty” would probably raise a fuss.  Of course, you could let the kids dress up as turkeys and oysters, but then PETA would have a field day…..

EDIT:

According to Wednesday and Pugsly Adams, there’s a way to handle administrators and teachers who push their personal Thanksgiving agendas.  Borrowed via Fark.

One of the big “media circus” events is the supposed tape of Michelle Obama using the term “whitey” is back.  The “Fight the Smears” website even addresses this “smear” stating: 

“… there is no video.  The entire thing was completely fabricated by people like [Rush] Limbaugh and [Roger] Stone who want to take Michelle and Barack down.  In fact, neither Michelle nor Barack has ever said anything remotely like the stuff Limbaugh, Stone, and the rest made up for their fantasy tape. 

This is the worst, most hateful kind of smear there is.”

Well, there is a group called the “African Press International (API)” who claims to have a copy of this tape.  They claim they have been shut down three times, “leaving us with no Internet site to release information in connection with the tape.”

“Those who were against the release went a long way to block us, but now it is our turn to be the masters.  We are finalising our release plan of the tape and the delivering of Imam’s documents to the authorities.”

They claim they are planning on releasing the tape before Thanksgiving, and they are “closing all the loopholes so that the tape may come out before or by thanksgiving day if nothing dramatic takes place.”

Chris Croker is back again…  NOTE:  People who are easily offended should not take a “gander” at this post.

If you don’t know who Chris Crocker is well.. first your not missing much.  But he’s a big fan of Britney Spears.  Shortly after Spear’s did her infamous “comeback” if you will, on MTV, which was noted to have been absolutely horrible, which it was, he made a rather dramatic little video titled “Leave Britney Alone” to defend her against all the negative comments and publicity against her  And he tearfully expressed fears about his fellow southerner, Britney ending up  like Anna Nicole Smith.

In case you missed it….. here’s the drama queen in all “his” glory a year ago, when he was living in Tennessee.

Yep, I’m still around.  Sorry for the lack of posts yesterday and last night.  With the upcoming holiday, it was a shopping day and then some quiet time away from the ‘puter last night.  But I’ve got morel links and more things to post for you to ponder about in the next couple of days… but I woke up this morning in a pretty good mood until I started looking at the news.  I was rather confused at seeing reports of Obama’s press conference again and thought well, maybe I just need more coffee. 

Then I realized, he has done two press conferences, first thing, two days in a row.  And my first thought was, so this is transparency?  A press conference first thing every morning now?  Is this what we are in for?  If that is the case, then I guess we better plan on a time every morning for our “daily address” from our President-elect.

Plus, he’s doing the Saturday Democratic Address.  So basically, in four days, he’s done three “announcements”.  And what have we learned from these three announcements?  Basically nothing, other than Obama likes to run his mouth about the same thing over and over again. 

Personally, my opinion is that unless its a national emergency, Presidents should be seen and not heard.  Actions speak louder than words. And Obama needs to remember something.  He’s not president until JANUARY 20TH!  NOT NOVEMBER 20TH!

This is ridiculous………….

Where’s my coffee.

So Obama had his second press conference today in which he announced his new economic team, which I will address later.  But lets take a look at some of the questions that he was asked and his subsequent answers, or avoidance, or minimizing, or lack there of or, my personal favorite, changing the subject.  Pick one.

The first question deals with this proposed stimulus package that Obama’s team is going to share with Congress.  One of the most important questions that is on everyone’s mind is where is this money going to come from.  And in usual Obama style, it’s not answered.

He also only took six whole questions during the Q&A session after his announcement.  And shut out reporters from the major TV networks and cable stations. The only outlets that Obama took question from were:

The Associated Press
Reuters
Bloomberg News
The Wall Street Journal
USA Today
The Washington Post

Now, on with the smoke and mirrors show.

Q: [From the Associated Press]  What are the details on your proposed stimulus package:  how much it’s going to cost, where the money’s going to come from, and when do you want to see it enacted?

A:  I want to see it enacted right away.  It is going to be of a size and scope that is necessary to get this economy back on track. 

I don’t want to get into numbers right now. Part of the task of this economic team behind me is to help to shape the details of that plan in consultation with Congress, the Federal Reserve and businesses and thinkers across the country.

But I think the most important thing to recognize is that we have a consensus, which is pretty rare, between conservative economists and liberal economists [how many times have I heard that in the past week from Obama?], that we need a big stimulus package that will jolt the economy back into shape and that is focused on the 2.5 million jobs that I intend to create during the first part of my administration.  [BTW, I have a feeling this 2.5 million job creation is going to be of government jobs, or jobs with Obama’s new “corps” program.  How else can anyone create that many new jobs at one time?  Historically in a recession/depression, and during cutbacks, the only industry that is hiring is government.  Time will tell, yes?]  We have to put people back to work.

Now, that runs in parallel with making sure that our financial system is stable, and so we’re going to have to do more than one thing at a time.  But across the board, people believe that the stimulus is critical, and the first job of my economic team is to shape that economic stimulus package so that it is delivering on the 2.5 million jobs that we talked about and is also providing a down payment on long-term strategies we need in terms of making this economic work for all Americans.

That means we have to invest in clean energy.  We’re going to have to invest in the systems in our – in health care that can reduce costs for families and for businesses.  It means that we’re going to have to invest in the education system to ensure that we’re competitive over the 21st century.  So, not only do I want the stimulus package to deal with the immediate crisis, I want it also to lay the groundwork for long-term sustained economic growth.

So did anyone see the answer to where this money is going to come from? *crickets*

Q:  [Reuters] Mr. President-elect, I’d like to ask a follow-up on the size of the stimulus package.  Senator Schumer said yesterday up to 700 billion was needed.  Today investor Barton Biggs said as much as 1 trillion.  Could you give taxpayers a range of the figure that you’re thinking of?

A:  I’m not going to – I’m not going to discuss numbers right now, Kim, because I think it’s important for my economic team to come back with a recommendation.  But what I want to emphasize is that there is a consensus among – across the political spectrum that we need a stimulus. […]

Now, it’s going to be costly, and one of the things that we know already is that even if we did nothing further for the remainder of this year, that we’re going to see a substantial deficit next year, bigger than we’ve seen in a very long time.  [Thanks AIG, and especially if the Big 3 are bailed out.]

The right answer is that we have to first focus on getting the economy back on track.  We’ve got to first focus on making sure that we’re creating those 2.5 million jobs.  We’ve got to make sure that the investments are made to sustain economic growth over the long term.

 

Hmm… again, total avoidance and refocusing on the fact, which is an obvious no brainer fact, that something needs to be done.  And again, refocusing on the 2.5 million jobs that Obama wants.  And an interesting note.  How to change an economy.  First you need an idea, which Obama has.  Second you need workers, which people need jobs because of the failing economy.  But how do you get people to work for an idea that you may not agree with?  By making the only jobs available with your new “plan” of “change”.  If you want a job, then you need to “come on board the Kool-Aid” ship.  And yes, I am being harsh.  I’ll be the first to admit it.  I don’t trust this man at all.  And yes, I think he’s going to try to change our entire country, and focus more towards a socialist society.  Between his “America Serves” which is back on Obama’s Change.gov website, although worded just a wee bit differently than originally (and I will address the changes later today in a post) which is a violation of the 13th Amendment, between “sharing the wealth”, and between focusing on going “green” and trying to “get along” with certain ethnic groups and religions, I feel I will be sitting around a campfire, wearing a uniform of the Obama bots, singing “Kumbaya”, giving thanks to Obama, and drinking Kool-Aid.

Perhaps I’m paranoid, so be it.  But as I have said, and I continue to say, time will tell won’t it?

And one final thing to remember, is Joe Biden’s speech that he gave in Seattle, on October 21, 2008.  And it’s part of Biden’s “Mark my words” speech, but it’s not so much of the “Mark my words” part, it’s what he says afterwards.

“And he’s gonna need help.  And the kind of help he’s gonna need is, he’s gonna need you, not financially to help him, we’re gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him.  Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right.”

But let’s move on, shall we?

Q:  Thank you, Mr. President-elect.  The current administration has been criticized in some quarters for taking an ad hoc approach to financial rescues.  Can you describe how your new teams’ approach might differ from the approach that we’ve had for the last year?

A:  Well, I don’t want to look backwards.  […]  [Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.]

…But what I want to make sure is that moving forward we are clearly articulating for the American people and the business community what our end goals are – where are we going, what are we trying to achieve?  -- and that there’s clarity and transparency to our plan.  […] 

[I’m sorry, but I can see no transparency between all the smoke and mirrors.

So like a trip, we know we are leaving on a trip, and we know what the destination is however, how are we getting there?  Are we driving a car?  Are we flying?  Are we taking a bus?  Are we walking?  And what route are we going to be taking?  Sorry, that’s not transparency.  That’s signing up for a trip, without asking for the price, asking what mode of transportation one is taking. How long it’s going to take to get there.  What route one is taking.  I think you get my point.  Would you sign up for a trip say to the Caribbean, not knowing how much it costs, how you are going to get there, what route you are taking, but just simply knowing that once the trip is over, you are going to be in the Caribbean.

And what about a contingency plan?  What if this doesn’t work?  As a comparison, with our little trip that we don’t know what the price is, how long its going to take to get there, etc.  but let say you show up the day of the trip and you know you are taking a boat.  What happens if the boat begins to sink on the way there?  Even the passengers of the Titanic, which had a few lifeboats but not as many as it was suppose to have for “decorative” purposes, thought they were on an unsinkable ship.  And when it began to sink, there weren’t enough lifeboats, leading to one of the most tragic accidents and loss of life in history.]

At this point, I’ve heard Obama talk about the environment as a top priority.  Him talk about the bailout of the Big 3 as a top priority.  A stimulus package as a top priority.  Talk about changing 200 of Bush’s plans in the first days of office.  So which is most important?  And is talk cheap, and actions speak louder than words. 

Because honestly, after Christmas, historically, there are always layoffs and this upcoming year will be no different, other than there will be a dramatic increase in layoffs.  And the Big 3 are going to go down, even if we bail them out, unless they change the way they are doing business.  More people are going to lose their homes, whether they own or rent.  More banks are going to fall.  Example, Citi.  A month or so ago, they were going to buy out WaMu and Wells Fargo stepped in.  So if a month or so ago they had the money to buy WaMu, what happened to all that money?  And what would be happening today if Citi would have bought WaMu?  It just goes to show how fast a company can fall.

Sometimes when you are injured, you have to fall down, rest, give yourself time to heal before you can get back up again.  And unfortunately that is what Obama and everyone else needs to realize.

Oh and BTW, Obama is probably going to delay tax cuts.  SURPRISE!  I wouldn’t be surprised to see any tax cuts until 2010 when Bush’s tax cuts are due to expire….

If you wish to read the transcript of the  press conference with Q&A check out the Sun Times.  Or you can watch it below.