"Yes We Can" Move On....

I am not sure I have seen so many people succumb to peer pressure so thoroughly in an attempt to be as cool as the new 'in' crowd since I was in High School. Granted that was long ago, when cool meant trying to look like Don Johnson wearing pastels and no socks...

Back in this century, in an effort to leech off of the 'uber-cool' status of our incoming celebrity-in-chief, everyone is getting on the band-wagon and appropriating the divine slogans of The One.

Today Evan Coyne Maloney points out how Pepsi is rolling out some legalized trademark infringement, and doesn't mind if anyone notices the blatant similarities to some other recent advertising.


(Photo: Evan Coyne Maloney)

Hmmm....seems familiar....

Well, Pepsi ain't the only offenders. The People's Choice Awards, and event marketed as uber-cool in its own right, are looking to steal a little of the magic as well.

Their current advertisement with Queen Latifah has the following dialog:

"When the people vote, Change happens. And this January, history will be made right before our eyes."

Hmmm....I wonder what they could be referring to???

Wait, before you shout out an answer, Queen Latifah says:

"You know I am talking about the People's Choice Awards, don't you?"

Ha-ha, ROTFL...

Of course, the ad ends with this smug reassurance...

"Can we pick the winners? Yes. We. Can."

Wonderful. I can't wait to see what slobbering tributes get rolled out at this event...

Well, it it not like I was going to watch this or any other celeberity self-congratulatory love-fest anyhow.

Now, I may need to move fast, as I notice that yeswecanmoveon.org has yet to be appropriated....

Tuesday Night Beer

Tonight I am enjoying a Casco Bay Winter Ale



Not too bad....went well with the 45 degree temps and Beef Stew for dinner.

Peace is Our Profession

Damn, this is the best idea to come out of the lefty Peace movement in years!

Code Pink For Peace

Hat Tip: Code Monkey, Chuck Z, and Uncle Jimbo.

UPDATE: Code Monkey has even MORE on this breakthrough idea to bring Peace to the world!

Obama's deceptive 'Tax Cuts'

According to a link from Instapundit, Obama is continuing his Bush impersonation by an effort to "push forward tax cuts despite economic crisis".

The linked article presents these details:

The incoming administration is considering tax cuts of $1,000 for couples and $500 for individuals that will be delivered by reducing the tax withheld from paychecks. That plan, which would cost about $140 billion over 2009-2010, would put more money in paychecks.

The funny thing is that as presented above (perhaps there are more details), this is not a tax cut. This is simply fewer $$ being withheld from paychecks, but the implications won't be apparent until April 2010.

As presented, this does nothing to change anyone's tax rate. So come Tax Day in 2010, people will find that their refund is reduced by $500-1000, or that they will have to dig up $500-1000 to help pay tax that they owe. While this will make people feel good by putting a *little* extra moola in their checks, it will also set them up for unexpected consequences....

It is possible that Obama could get corresponding lower tax rates passed by the end of 2009 and make them retroactive, but if he doesn't, many Americans may unexpectedly get stuck with lower refunds/higher taxes in 15 months.

Now ultimately this is simply government feel-goodery in action. Accomplishing something that people can already do for themselves. Withholding is optional people! Set your withholding to $0 if you want, but you will need to come up with some extra cash next April. Or if you do a little tax planning, you can adjust your withholding to match your circumstances. For instance, if you get big refunds every year, that means you are giving the government interest-free loans each and every month, until you get that money back a year later. If that is the case, go fill out an IRS Form W-4, and reduce your withholding so that you get more money in your paycheck now.

America, you don't need to wait for Team Obama to do the work for you! But unfortunately, I think many of you want them to.....

Pass the Blame Game

This morning Ace of Spades is pointing out a convergence of two of Instapundit's favorite topics: Chris Dodd and the demise of Newspapers.

It seems that the Connecticut Post does want to give equal time to those whom might view prominent Democrats as the cause of the current fiscal crisis.

“All letters are welcome. But there are code words hidden in some that are signals to stop paying close attention — “Chris Dodd” and “Barney Frank.” According to one school of thinking, these two, more than anyone else in America, are to blame for our current troubles.

If you want to castigate their decision-making, fine. If you want to say they and they alone are to blame for the recession, that’s crazy. They didn’t even take over their congressional committees until early last year, and our problems started long before then.”

That's right, Chris Dodd and Barney Frank were only wet-behind-the-ears, babes-in-the-woods Congresscritters before 2006, and could do nothing to stop the evil Bush profiteers. And people continue to wonder why no one bothers to read Newspapers anymore...

Now, the Post's rant is not entirely without merit, as it is true that there are many fathers/mothers to this crisis. However what the post is really trying to say in the text above is "All the blame lies with President Bush and Congressional Republicans. They have been in power for a long time, how could the Democrats be to blame?".

But, as many rational people know, national level problems of this nature do no pop up overnight, or even in 8 years. Things of this magnitude take years and years of bureaucratic mismanagement, political chicanery, and downright ineptitude to produce.

So to be fair to the Republicans as well, I think that the Post should also post the following graph:

“All letters are welcome. But there are code words hidden in some that are signals to stop paying close attention — “George Bush” and “Karl Rove.” According to one school of thinking, these two, more than anyone else in America, are to blame for our current troubles.

If you want to castigate their decision-making, fine. If you want to say they and they alone are to blame for the recession, that’s crazy. They didn’t even take over the White House until 2001, and our problems started long before then.”

Yes, the Post is right that this mess started before 2006, but that conveniently ignores Dodd's and Frank's (and others) actions (and inactions) before that point.

Christmas Beers

Last night I enjoyed a great beer...

Schneider Aventinus


I heard the clerk tell another customer he thought it was one of the best beers in the world. So what the hey, I bought one. It was pretty darn good. In fact, after 1600 ratings at ratebeer.com, it is in the 99th percentile of all beers.

Hugo's Big Mess

Now that I am back to driving on a daily basis, I have been taking note of the prices at gas stations along my routes.

On interesting thing that I have noticed is that the prices at CITGO are significatnly higher than at other stations (by several to 15 cents). Why might that be? Perhaps it could be due to the ultimate benefactor of CITGO profits?

For those of you who don't know, CITGO is a "wholly owned subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela."

In other words, it belongs to Hugo Chavez.

Given the rapid decline in the price of oil, Hugo's little dictatorship is in desperate need of capital to prop up its tottering leadership and infrastructure.

Perhaps he wants to keep prices a little bit higher than everyone else to squeeze every last cent he can out of his most precious lifeline?

Who knows, but its just my observation....

UPDATE: Instapundit also posts concerning Hugo's massive revenue problems. Glenn had best be careful, or Hugo might nationalize Instapundit too....

Four Horsemen of the Obacaplypse?

The economy is in the dumps. However the incoming Obama administration wants to save this capitalist economy with a dose of big-government socialism.

I have just begun reading the new book "The End of Prosperity" by Arthur Laffer, Stephen Moore, and Peter Tanous.

In the very first chapter titled "The Gathering Economic Storm", the authors point out that the U.S. economy encountered "Four Killers of Prosperity" during the two tumultuous periods during the 1930s and 1970s.

Those 'Four Killers' are:

- Trade Protectionism
- Tax Increases and profligate Govt Spending
- New Regulations and increased Gov't intervention in the economy
- Monetary policy mistakes

Unfortunately, a couple of those killers have already struck, and Obama isn't even in office yet. However, very soon all of those killers will be paroled, and sold to the public as the cure to economic ills.

Lets run through those Killers again...

- Trade Protectionism - Check! Colombia can kiss its trade pact goodbye, and when the newly empowered Unions get their way, NAFTA will be the next big target

- Tax Increases and profligate Govt Spending - Check! Obama has paid lip service to delaying Income Tax increases, but there are many other ways to raise taxes, or if you live in California, "fees". Also, if you think that the Dems won't continue spending gov't oney like drunken sailors, now that the GOP has been kicked out of the budgetary bar, you must be high....

- New Regulations and increased Gov't intervention in the economy - Check! Since the new Dem bogeyman for a lot of this fiscal mess is "de-regulation", you certainly know what will be coming soon to a bureaucracy near you....more rules!! Welcome to the Nanny State...make yourself at home, just don't sit on the furniture.

- Monetary policy mistakes - Check! Already taken care of by the current administration. All Obama has to do is mind the store, and not advocate for a strong dollar.

Laffer, Moore, and Tanous may call them the Four Killers, but I think they will be refered to in the future as the Four Horsemen of the Obacalypse...

Messiah of the Year??

Let me start out by saying, that I have not seen or heard anything concerning who might be Time Magazine's "Person of the Year".

However I think I might have a good idea. Not because the press coverage has been so fawning that it has bordered on idolatry, but by this other sign I saw today. Two signs actually...

One on each door of the entrance at Barnes & Noble (where I was stopping for a last minute gift), which read "Due to high demand, we are limiting sales of Time Magazine's 'Man of the Year' issue to two copies per person."

Now who else would have such a devoted flock such that liberal book store workers would see the need to impose rationing such that everyone might have a chance to get a copy (or two!) to save for historical purposes?

This really is a head scratcher....

UPDATE:

OK, so I couldn't stand to wait, and slipped over to the Time website.


Now, I do have a couple of questions...

1) Who is this guy? Seriously, where is the name? I guess Time can't imagine that *no one* would not know who this grand figure might be. The only reason I ask is that every other Man/Person/Thing of the Year has been identified with a label. Even president's Bush and Clinton, whom presumably everybody knew. Perhaps this mans transcends a name. He just is "The One".

2) Are they trying to say he is transparent, or that we can see right through him? Just curious....

A Weaponized Version of Borat

BUMPED for UPDATE....

Head over to Pajama's Media, and read Michael Yon's latest dispatch and observtions from the Afghan province of Zabul.



The best portion are the descriptions of our new stalwart allies, the Lithuanians. Please note how these allies will actually deign to fight the Taliban...

Maybe when your country spends almost a half-century with the Soviet boot on its neck, its first generation of free soldiers know what freedom is worth — and that you sometimes have to fight for it

Amen...

UPDATE: For anyone who might think that Yon was writing disparagingly about the Lithuanian soldiers, please reconsider. As he states, perhaps he being 'tongue-in-cheek', but if you read his post closely, you should understand that he was being complimentary with his overall assessment. Both Yon, myself (who recently returned from several months in Afghanistan, and others are highly appreciative of the fact that there are some countries who will actually stand up and fight the evil in front of us...as opposed to some other European countries who do not seem to have the will.

Please see Yon's mea culpa letter to the Commander of Lithuanian Special Forces, here.

From the U.S. military...Thank you Lithuania!