How jobs in Europe and Asia will fix our economy.

You know what America needs?  More jobs.  Apparently, in Obama's 7 billionth speech last night, he said something about how investing in high-speed rail trains was teh ultimate fix to our broken economy.  Which is funny, since I thought that a health care bill was teh ultimate fix to our broken economy.  Or, wait, was it the stimulus program?  Although I could have sworn there was something about carbon credits in there.  Or maybe it was Hope And Changeâ„¢?  I get all jumbled up sometimes.  The story changes so often, it's no wonder that Teh Won can't keep it straight.  Or a silly little tattooed right-wing extremist tea-bagging blogger.

While Big O was talking about how awesome building trains was going to be (seriously, man?), the AP was deciding that they are kind of done with all this Obama worship.  I know, it's fucking bizarre, but I think we should take what we can here.

 But the jobs to design and make the rail cars and engines, signaling and track for the fastest trains will mainly go abroad to the European and Asian companies because it will take time for the U.S. to develop its own domestic high-speed rail industry, rail experts said. There will be U.S. manufacturing and engineering jobs for slower trains often described as "higher speed" or "midspeed." Much of the domestic high-speed work, however, will be the kind of construction and earth-moving work typical of highway projects, they said.

 European and Asian high-speed trains average over 110 mph and some reach top speeds of around 220 mph. There is nothing equivalent in the United States. Indeed, most of the grants announced by the White House Thursday will go to rail projects that aren't in the same league as the fast trains being built elsewhere.

 For the U.S. to decide to build high-speed train systems using primarily U.S. companies, "would be like Bangladesh deciding they want to have a space program and only use technology they have developed and manufactured themselves," said Anthony Perl, chairman of the National Research Council's intercity rail panel.

 The technology gap between true high-speed trains and the slower trains in use in the United States is equivalent to the gap between the planes flown by World War I flying aces and today's jets, said Perl, an American who teaches transportation policy at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.

 Some of the equipment purchased for high-speed rail like train cars might be manufactured abroad and the parts bolted together in assembly facilities in the U.S., he said.

 "There will be some jobs that come out of it, but unless people are prepared to double the cost and take at least twice as much time to ramp up the capacity to supply this high-speed technology in the U.S., it's not there," Perl said.

Good, solid B+, my friends.  Solid B+.

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The Clothes Have No Emperor

I'm not sure if that's p-shopped or not.
Via the fine Reverend Right, don't tell FrnakJ I didn't link this at IMAO.

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Barack Obama, world unifier

Maybe this guy's just the crazy brother of the heads of parliament and the judiciary, I dunno. 

"When Barack Obama was sworn into office he talked of verbally engaging Iran," the U.C. Berkeley graduate was quoted as saying. "What has changed is that today this [the equivalent of the N-word in Farsi] talks of regime change in Iran."

Update: definitely evidence that "what we've seen is a dramatic difference in terms of how the United States is perceived around the world," according to Valerie Jarrett.

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Obama fails again!

With everything else going on, it's no wonder that this particular story has been largely ignored.  After all, who wants to discuss the fact that one of Obama's first acts as President was to announce that Guantanamo Bay would be closed by, oh, tomorrow?  Here's my favorite observation of the article:

Since Obama took office a year ago, more than 40 detainees have been removed from the naval base in Cuba — sent off to their homelands or to other countries. If the administration cannot quicken that pace, it would take until a hypothetical second Obama term to actually empty the site.

Good, Solid B+.

Posted by: Ember at 08:58 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Hateful, Homophobic, Bigoted, Right Wing Politician Invites Legislator Who Endorses Imprisoning Gays Into His House

Oh, did I s ay "right winger"? I meant Barack Obama, the President of the United States. And who is the guy he's allowing into the White House? How about a dude in Uganada who wrote the law whereby gay folks can be imprisoned or executed?

David Bahati, the MP who authored Uganda's anti-homosexuality bill, is expected to attend a prayer breakfast with US president Barack Obama.

Bahati told the Ugandan newspaper Sunday Monitor he would be attending the National Prayer Breakfast on February 4th.

The event usually attended by the president, who the newspaper described as a "gays-tolerant liberal president".

The breakfast is organised by The Fellowship – a secretive conservative Christian organisation which is also known as The Family. Its members include politicians, religious leaders and corporate executives.

Bahati may be asked to speak at the event, which will also be attended by Congress members and Cabinet secretaries. Previous speakers have included Tony Blair, Bono and Mother Theresa.

Uganda's president Yoweri Museveni signalled last week that he was stepping back from the bill, which would execute gays in some circumstances.

He said his country must consider its "foreign interests" and cited world leaders such as British prime minister Gordon Brown, who had expressed his concern about the proposed legislation.

Bahati, the MP for Ndorwa West, has refused to back down, saying his bill will "protect the traditional family".

Wow. Funny, I don't recall seeing this splashed all over the American Media.

Meanwhile....

Yeah, I know. I know. It's the McCain folks. But at least they are doing more than the Clintons, Obamas, Carters, or Kennedys.

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Who's this guy campaigning for?

Hey, Barry, that's not helping:

President Obama warned Massachusetts voters Sunday from following Republican Scott Brown's old pickup truck around the state, saying if elected to the U.S. Senate, Brown will drive health care and the rest of the Democratic agenda off track.

Um, yeah, that's kind of the whole point, now isn't it?

Obama is personally popular in the state, but his job approval rating is 48 percent. Only 36 percent of Massachusetts voters approve of the health care bill wending its way through Congress.

Let's hope that the other 64 percent goes out and votes like crazy on Tuesday. One detail from the article that gives me hope that this might actually happen is that the rally "was not the typical Obama function" with the auditorium "only partly filled." For a contrast, see here for photos of today's Brown rally in Worcester, courtesy of Andy at The H2.

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Let's store 'em at Gitmo!

Looks like we're using Guantanano Bay for Haitian earthquake victims.

I'm trying to come up with a good reason for this, here are a couple of thoughts...

1. Obama in all his prescient wisdom realized months ago that Haiti would be devastated by an earthquake and so he wanted to make sure we provided a safe haven not far from home, which is why he is trying to move the current detainees to the US.
2. Obama hates black people, so what's not good enough for terrorists who want to kill us is plenty fine for innocent Haitian refugees.

I'm sure someone here can come up with the real reason.

Posted by: Alice H at 05:46 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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No Olympics, no World Cup

Obama's influence in bringing the Olympics to Chicago is apparently spreading to other sports.  Despite having a Major League Soccer team that missed the finals by a penalty kick, Chicago has been dropped from the cities included in the 2018/2022 World Cup bid.

Miami and Tampa Bay, both of which lost their MLS teams in 2001, are on the bid list.  Four cities that have never had an MLS team are on the bid list.  If I'm counting correctly (and this was just a quick glance), the only other towns that have an MLS team that aren't on the bid list are Columbus, OH (not my idea of a tourist destination) and Salt Lake City (maybe due to the severe lack of beverages).

Posted by: Alice H at 04:28 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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And I thought I was a nerd.

Six years ago, I took a management job that I'd been wanting for about six or seven months.  When asked by my supervisor what my availability was, I told him I could work every day, any time, except for Tuesday nights.  After all, Tuesday night was "Buffy" night, and a girl has to have her priorities.

One Tuesday, someone had to go to the hospital, and I was called and asked if I could come in to work for a few hours.  I groaned.  I complained.  And, at the end of the day, I put a tape in the VCR (how old school is that), put on some nice clothes, and went to work.  I watched "Buffy" a few hours late, that night.  The world went on.

I had a similar policy during "Battlestar Galactica"; I think the standing rule was, if you call me on a Friday night during BSG, you better be getting robbed.  At the end of the day, though, if I got a call from one of my stores, I still answered it.  Yes, even during BSG night.

Some things really are more important than a television show.  I know, it's crazy talk, especially if you ask the "Lost" fans who are terrified that their season premiere may or may not be getting bumped for something as totally lame as the State of the Union address:

These fans would truly be lost without their favorite TV show — and they're taking their case to the top.

 Fans of the ABC series about marooned plane crash survivors fear President Barack Obama will give his State of the Union address Feb. 2.

 That's the same day as the three-hour premiere of the final season of "Lost."

Twitter comments Wednesday included "Leave my LOST alone, Skippy!" and "Come onnnn, Obama..pick another day."

 The Facebook group "Americans Against the State of the Union on the Same Night as LOST" asks "When will it end?" It notes that Obama already bumped "A Charlie Brown Christmas" for his Afghanistan speech in some markets.

 The White House isn't saying when Obama will speak. An ABC spokesman wouldn't say whether the network would consider moving the premiere.

DISCLAIMER: I do not watch, nor have I ever watched, "Lost".  Yes, yes, I know, I know, many people think that damages my sci-fi-tv-nerd-cred.  I don't care.  I was busy watching a million other brilliantly nerdy shows when "Lost" first premiered and haven't taken the time to go back and watch it since.  Get over it.

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The Obamas just can't control anything.

Seriously.  I was willing to overlook the fact that the White House was a little up in arms over a PETA advert that had an image of Michelle Obama alongside Oprah Winfrey, Tyra Banks, and Carrie Underwood that read "Fur Free and Fabulous."  After all, the president of PETA said that they didn't bother to ask for permission for the ad since they knew the White House would tell them to fuck off, and what does PETA care?

But, when only twenty-four hours later, I see yet another story of someone using a picture of an Obama - this time, Big O himself - without the White House's permission, someone's got to stop and say what the fuck, and it might as well be me.

What.  The.  Fuck. 

I know the Obamas can't control what other people do, but this is just fucking ridiculous.  They can't even control their own images being used in advertising campaigns, and, when it happens, according to the NYT piece, they can't "comment on whether the matter had been resolved," which - at least in my stupid moron brain - means they haven't been able to do jack shit about it.

Of course, as far as I'm concerned, PETA is essentially a terrorist organization, and it's not like I expect the Obama administration to be able to do anything about terrorism ...

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