Comments on: President Obama to address the nation (AGAIN) tonight

By: skudrunner

skudrunner — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:13:14 +0000

Maybe Obama can address the nation again. We need another inspirational speech to send the market into a tail spin. He is so inspiring that millions of Americans are selling their wealth and burying it in the back yard.

By: Grant in Texas

Grant in Texas — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:01:41 +0000

Not only did Bush use teleprompters his handlers even put up phonetic spellings so he could pronounce big hard words correctly (they either never put up NEW-klee-er or he refused to pronounce it correctly as he never stopped saying nuke-ku-ler).

When Bush spoke at the UN, his teleprompter included phonetic spellings for a friend he had already met, French President Nicolas Sarkozy (sar-KO-zee). Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe (moo-GAH-bee) also was on the teleprompter.

Pronunciations were also provided for Kyrgyzstan (KEYR-geez-stan), Mauritania (moor-EH-tain-ee-a) and the Zimbabwe capital Harare (hah-RAR-ray). It’s not like could have practiced the pronunciations earlier, before his speech, but he was busy riding his bike.

By: Grant in Texas

Grant in Texas — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:04:30 +0000

Love this cartoon in my morning’s Chronicle about teleprompters:

http://blogs.chron.com/nickanderson/archives/2009/03/scripted.html

Back in the day before modern technology, we called them “index cards!”

By: Grant in Texas

Grant in Texas — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:48:22 +0000

I was in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia, and Slovenia and was pleasantly surprised. They didn’t have the fine new freeways that are found in Western Europe but their roads were in good repair and they were building new ones, also. I am leaving in May for the Baltic and will visit Estonia and St. Petersburg, Russia, so will get to see how far they have come. The best thing about Europe (found the same was true in Australia and New Zealand in January) is the fine (and cheap) mass transit. I will spend four days in London in May and can take a train or “the tube” to anywhere I want to go only requiring a few blocks of walking from my hotel near Victoria Station where I also stayed in 1976. Looking forward to seeing the changes in London, and plan to take a ride on “The Eye” 1350 ft. high “Ferris Wheel”. Houston will never become a “London” as we tear down, implode our buildings every thirty years. Big argument now about blowing up the old (Eighth Wonder of the World” Astrodome that’s being allowed to deteriorate. It was built by the taxpayers in the 1960’s and given to the Houston Oilers millionaire oilman, owner Bud Adams.

VW since last August has exported their new Jetta TDI turbo-diesel to the U.S. that gets around 45 mpg that my partner is seriously considering buying.

http://www.vw.com/jetta/tdi/en/us/?sem=208416580

By: skudrunner

skudrunner — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:25:47 +0000

You must have visited a different part of the soviet blco than I did because the traffic and roads were terrible. Have you been to the Ukraine and Romania.

Diesels are the way to go but the huggers blast them. As far as the advantages of a socialist country, if you like it they will probably welcome you with open arms. If you go take a couple of liberals with you because I am getting tired of supporting them

By: Grant in Texas

Grant in Texas — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:23:25 +0000

In May 2007, I spent a month in Europe, traveling 5000 miles through 13 nations, several in the old Soviet Bloc I didn’t get to visit in both 1975 and 1976, the last time I was there. (I just booked a two week cruise on the Baltic in May so will get to see how “socialism” as wrecked Scandanavia).

The last 2000 miles I was in a Mercedes turbo-diesel I rented at the Frankfurt airport. I drove it throught the Benelux, France, Netherlands, and back to Germany. I paid $6 a gallon (U.S.) for diesel (gas was $7 U.S. and the Euro was equal to $1.50 at the time) HOWEVER my Mercedes sometimes got nearly 50 mpg, so in reality I spent no more there than here at home in cars that get below 30 mpg. Europeans pay the same for a barrel of crude as we do so the difference is fuel taxes. The highways in Europe (even the old Soviet part) are fantastic now, didn’t hit a bump or pothole in those 5000 miles. Europe has improved so much since the last time I spent two weeks there in 1996.

Below is a map of the world showing the Gini Coefficient which defines the gap between rich and poor. The U.S.A. is worse than any European nation, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Japan and Denmark have the best rating but there the CEOS don’t make 400 times what their workers make either:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Gini_Coefficient_World_Human_Development_Report_2007-2008.png

Dis Chavez as much as you want but Venezuela now has the least disparity in South America. No wonder El Salvador recently voted for liberal rule after suffering under Raygun era right-wing tyrants for decades.

By: Grant in Texas

Grant in Texas — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:21:18 +0000

I noticed a difference in the Obama presser in contrast to the rare such events Bush would hold in the East Room. When the Chimperor would exit the room, he would be surrounded by a
whole legion of aides, PR people and flappers. However, Tuesday night, Obama, after thanking everyone, simply turned and went into a side door and disappeared — alone, without one aide, bodyguard, or flack. Unlike the little Caligula…Bush, President Obama seemed to be sufficiently self-confident to come and go on his own. He is a cool one, seemingly confident in his skin.

I was most impressed today how he conducted himself in the Internet “Town Hall” meeting taking questions from citizens, not the media this time.

By: Grant in Texas

Grant in Texas — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:47:17 +0000

The most respected Gallup had Obama at 62 yesterday, down SEVEN from his high of 69 right after the inauguration. Not bad numbers for all of the vitriolic he continues to get from Limbaugh and his ilk, the Boner/Cantor/Jindal roadshow. You can get each days polling by moving your cursor over the graph line:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/113980/Gallup-Daily-Obama-Job-Approval.aspx

The DOW as I type is UP 150 and now at 7900. It has been going UP for nearly a week and the reich is suddenly silent about the Dow (teleprompters are more important!).

After watching Obama’s Internet Town Hall, just watched the Boner and Cantor “show” live on MSNBC where they revealed their “plans” which contained NOTHING, NO SOLUTIONS, but they did use the air time to blast what Obama wants…calling him “far left” and saying he is kowtowing to MoveOn.org. (always a whipping boy for Rush et al). Yesterday Boner cried that the Democrats aren’t considering THEIR plans. HELLO….didn’t the Republicans LOSE???

By: Insidious Prophet

Insidious Prophet — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:25:30 +0000

Notalib, keep dreaming pal, no matter how much your party obstructs Obama will be a two term president and your beloved party will and has become irrelevant in the eyes of intelligent American people who are tired of the fear, the lies, the hate that comes from the right.

By: Notalib

Notalib — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:02:02 +0000

Actually Insidious America has time remaining before new president is sworn in 3 years, 9 months, and 25 days.

Kay are you really that stupid….never mind I know the answer……the president does NOT create jobs, PRIVATE business does…….but that fact will be ignored and you will just call me a taliban or some garbage because thats all you have in your life.