Let's run it up the flagpole!

The City Council of Eugene, Oregon is debating whether to recite the Pledge of Allegiance before every meeting. Is that necessary? I mean is it necessary for grown men and women to recite a pledge, to flag and country, everytime they get together? Why is a political party that rails against BIG GOVERNMENT whining about people not worshipping government enough? Just what exactly do they have in store for us should they be sucessful in their bid to overthrow the Obama regime?

I think it's a mixed signal they are sending. You can't walk around saying out of one side of your mouth that government shouldn't be Mr Bossy-pants and then, out the other, complain that the current administration isn't bossy enough.

I *get* the part where they want there job and power back. That's politics. The losing party has to look shocked and say: "Dammit- these guys aren't doing any of the things we didn't elect them to do!" The second place finishers have to disagree with EVERYTHING the first place champions do. For example, the other day Obama cured cancer. You'd think the teapublicans would be happy about that because they get cancer too. But, they weren't.

"Obama hates funeral directors and cemetaries!" they cried. "Doctors too!" they added. Foxnews called him "The job-killing-cancer-murdering-one-term-president!" And that was just to introduce a report about flooding in North Dakota.

I made that up. He hasn't cured cancer yet but, I think I fuckin' nailed the future teapublican/Fox reaction should it ever happen.

The point is, in the second-place finisher quest to get back in front, a lot of stupid things are said. The stupidest of all might be the all-encompassing "small government".  We're going to shrink government. Stand at attention and sing while we do it! We're rugged individualists here in America. recite this pledge of allegiance. Or else....

Their idea of shrinking government is cutting out any social services- anything that costs money but doesn't get you and/or a crony richer. If there were millions of dollars to be earned by privatizing welfare (for example) I could garaunfuckingtee that there would always BE welfare. Privatization is not on the table, of course, so that's just food for thought. I hope... I don't want to give them ideas that they already likely have. The right always likes to say that government should be run like a business, as if that ensured success. The malls are full of the ghosts of business past. Cutting social services would save tax money. I suppose it would save mega billions. It wouldn't lower your taxes though. That money would go elsewhere. Where exactly? They haven't said. It just wouldn't go in the pockets of those crack-smoking-liberal-leeches! That's all we need to worry our pretty little heads about anyway. Just move along....nothing to see here....OH! Look at that!

Be careful what you salute, America. Be wary of what you sing about. Be extra wary of those who tell you what you must salute or sing about. Just, be wary.   

Ferrernomics

I went to the store yesterday to buy some Busch beer (work with me here, beer fans). Better than ten years ago, Busch beer cost $6 a six-pack, which was a reasonable price- in fact, lower than it had been in years. The president though, decided that Busch beer- the money-maker- should be priced at $4 a six-pack  for ever and ever, amen. Congress said "no" to the forever and ever part of it and set the price at $4 for 10 years. The president and his buddies were NOT happy about this. Evidently, they're hard to please.

Chips and pretzels, two things that go well with Busch, sky-rocketed in price! This was great for the manufacturers of chips and pretzels but not so much for the folks who liked those things. Thank God- or someone who sitteth on the right side of God- that Busch was so cheap! It got to a point where we were borrowing money to pay for chips and pretzels but- what the heck- this was back in the day when deficits didn't matter! For eight years deficits didn't matter. It's just coincidental that they matter now. I think the moritorium on them NOT mattering must expired or something....

Anyway, with the costs of chips and pretzels exploding and effecting all other products, it got to a point where it was ridiculous to have what I'll call The Busch Cuts, in effect, cutting income while expenses rose. A smart guy would say: "Hey, the price of Busch before the Busch Cuts was very reasonable and in these tough economic times we need to return to that". He might also add that: "To offset lots of money going out you need more money coming in!"

Well that makes sense. It makes sense unless one is Fox-trained in Reaganomics. This philosophy seems to state that, if you don't have enough money coming in, you need tp stop spending to make up for it. This is interesting in a stupid sort of way in that it makes sense if you don't think too much about it. Yes, it's always good to stop unnecessary spending in any situation but, it's not always clear to people what is unnecessary and what is promoting the health and general welfare of  women, children and old folks. Sometimes it looks like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic simply because it is.

The Fox-trained among us say that repealing The Busch Cuts is a "tax increase" and therefore a "bad thing!" Ferrernomics points out that, much like a sale at the beer store, The Busch Cuts are....like a sale at the beer store. That means *temporary*. Let's say that the beer store decides to have a special price on Heineken beer. It usually costs $14.99 for a 12 pack (nice price for a great beer) but, to promote it, for three days- Friday,  Saturday and Sunday ONLY- the price will be $10.99. That's the way sales work. Tax breaks too. When the price returns to the already low-low price of $14.99 on Monday, it's not an increase. Yes, the price went down and returned to where it had been but, it didn't increase. An actual increase would be if there had never been a sale and the price increased, as prices do all the time. Like when Ronald Reagan raised taxes six years out of the eight he was in office if you want to get technical about it and confuse raising taxes with tax cuts.  That's Reaganomics though. This is Ferrernomics. When the *sale* is over, prices go back to normal. You can't sell the Heineken FOREVER at $10.99. That would break you what with the costs of it and everything else going up, up up- especially the chips and pretzels!

And really, how much did they drink while the Busch (and Heineken!) were on sale? Are they drunk thinking that ending The Busch Cuts is an "increase"? are they drunk thinking that The Busch Cuts should go on FOREVER?

They must be drunk thinking all that and thinking that all their bullshit cuts are the answer to this whole economic mess. Drunk or stupid.

Who might you be?

One of the most sympathetic characters I ever came across on Topix was Sublime1. What a nice guy! I never read him terribly close because, well, he wasn't that interesting. A family man, he wrote a lot about him and his wife raising the kids- boring, typical suburban stuff like that. He liked to exchange parenting notes with the moms who were in the regs at the time. I noticed the guy would post a bit racier in the evening to the girls and I figured he was having a few cocktails. Twice he went a bit too far, got a little too horny with the girls, and they pretty much told him to stuff it. No big deal to them, just the cost of doing business as a woman. Guys get stupid. You either marry them or tell them to fuck off, right?

Anyway, they told Sub to stuff it and, into his cups as he was, he reacted badly. It was Topix but, I really think the guy was literally crying. His posts were rambling- alternately whiney and threatening, just like a drunks would be IRL if he thought a gal had done him wrong. But, he wasn't a bad guy. He was just a guy having a bad night. I recall asking a couple of the ladies to see if they could straighten things out with him. He really seemed upset. I talked him down as much as I could.

It just seemed like the thing to do at the time. I wasn't certain I did the right thing afterwards but, my heart was in the right place. You hate to see somebody suffer but, you also hate to have somebody following you around like a puppy just because you did something nice. I talked him off the Topix ledge and the guy was suddenly my new bestest friend. I was his hero. He wrote responses to my blogs that were longer than the blog entries themselves and got miffed that i wouldn't publish them. (Ferrerman note: I could never tell if he actually agreed with me even though he seemed to be agreeing with me. His replies would just ramble on, presenting all sides of whatever I was posting about  and then, eventually, end. So, I encouraged him to start his own blog. He did. He made one post about legalizing pot and quit.) Within time, I fell out of his favor. I don't think I was ever mean to the guy but, he started getting angry towards me. It's kinda like "no good deed goes unpunished" meets "how much money does this guy owe me?" I had a boss that would ask that whenever it got back to him that one of his people were talking bad about him. It's human nature to talk shit about your creditors. Wonder how much the republicans owe Barack Obama?

Anyway, in time he began to change. After losing his job and moving the family across the country to start anew, his whole persona started anew. He started talking in the threads about how he and the wife were swingers. Chicks had always dug him and the wife saw fit to share him with the rest womankind because, well, he's that good.... Suddenly, instead of posting about raising a family in the suburbs, he was the Lifestyles & Entertainment writer for the regulars. He got a Harley to carry him and the wife to their sexcapades. He started wearing $900 sunglasses, losing them and shrugging it off. He upped the usage of thug slang in his posts. He was definitely the most "G" of any lawyer, anywhere in any hood! Word!

I had to wonder if, way back when, I had not created a monster....

Well, not me. Someone had created a monster but it wasn't me.

I've felt for nearly a year now that Sublime is not a real person. The complete reversal from family man to The Most Interesting Man In The World  WITH a family is just not to be believed. We already went through this crap with the fake therapist. Cheese and Ricearoni, kids: it's the internet and if it seems too good to be true, why the fuck are they on Topix???!!! I'm not saying that Sublime is full of shit  and he's the typical Topix poster living in his mom's basement and yada-effing-yada like everyone says about everyone else on the internets. I mean that he's a character in someone's head, totally made up. No wife, no kids, no Harley or lawyering being done. No obnoxious wife-swapping and Letters To Penthouse retellings of such. Just a character who does these things in someone's mind.

There are "socks" all over Topix and everyone acknowledges that. But, we're not talking a sock puppet here. We're talking a complete, detailed real fake identity here. Who goes to all that trouble?

Well, whoever created a French therapist/teacher with a Secret Service husband, who had a grant from the government to study people on Topix,  maybe.... I think I've documented that pretty well.... I don't know who that person was and it doesn't really matter. You get what you pay for in life and Topix is free. It gets a little implausible at times and isn't as entertaining as it should be as most people are just posting bullshit about themselves but, it makes you wonder how many other posters out there are figments of someones imagination and how many others "talk" to these people every day. How many of them are completely made up as well?

If Ferrerman did not exist, who would invent him? I'd like to think they'd give me more hair..

Being careful what you wish for

Ya know, regardless of how you feel about Obama, if you have even a lick of sense and an understanding of politics as well as an understanding of crossing streams on horseback, you know that him being a one-term president is OK as reichwing propaganda but really fucking stupid in practice.

You know what happens if Phil Intheblank (who hasn't announced just yet....) wins as the republican candidate for president in 2012?

Four years of "HE DID IT!!!!"

"HE", of course being Obama (with special guest appearances by Clinton, Carter, LBJ and FDR). There will be no moratorium on bashing Obama or any democratic presidents because, constitutionally, only republican presidents are protected under the Derangement Syndrome Laws.

Gaining the presidency- which I'm still not convinced they want, will not shut these whiney fucks up. They'll continue to blame Obama for not un-fucking all the damage Bush did because a democratic senate will not let them do all the insane things the corporations want.

But, there's a part of me that likes to cut to the chase and watch the good part. So get to the part where the republican president magically demolishes the deficit, cuts spending to the bone and makes government small again, like it was under GW Bush. I wanna see that!

I wanna be the one to post on Topix how *Phil* needs to be impeached....before he even takes office as folks did the moment Obama got elected.  All us libs need to have a little fun blaming absolutely EVERYTHING on *Phil*. After 4 years of birthers and all the insane shit from the reich, WE can be the ones to demand everything. Forget "WHERE ARE THE JOBS, MR. BOEHNER???" (because, well, he still won't have a plan in '12) we'll get to DEMAND of the new president, where are the jobs! We can start that on election day! It's the patriotic thing to do.

Now, I know what you're saying. You're saying: "Ferrerman, you're being silly!"

Well, yeah, I am. Who in their reich mind would want the party of GW Bush in power to fix the problems of the party of GW Bush?

Well, the folks who brought us GW Bush and want to give us Sarah Palin, that's who....

Call their bluff. I dare you.

Are you better off....

What if McCain/Palin had won in '08? Would we the people be better off or worse? Would Sarah Palin still even be VP? Would there be a tea party? How much would we pay for gasoline, which was over $4 a gallon prior to November 2008, today? Would we be in a depression or in a recession?

It'd be pretty weird to have a team from the same party that got us into the mess trying to get us out of the mess. Who would they blame?

Well, Clinton and Carter like they do now when they're worn out from blaming Obama. And FDR for his socialist programs of  over 70 years ago would be blamed. Don't forget LBJ.... Suffice to say, McCain wouldn't be blaming Bush (too much) publicly because that would be bad form.

The American people tend to vote in different parties every four to eight years. After eight years of Bush/Cheney shenannigans, there was little chance of McCain/Palin getting elected. The RNC just wanted to field a team and- hey- why not throw our first girl in there?

So, it wasn't gonna happen but, what if....

Well, there certainly wouldn't be a Tea Party! Without a black democrat president, why would there be? The tea party was formed less than two months after Obama took the oath. That was a bit impetuous don't ya think?  I think they would have been more receptive of McCain  and Palin than that. They likely would have waited another term or two before realizing the country was going to Hell.

Would Palin even be vice president? She might have resigned by now for a lucrative job at Foxnews and to make films. You don't think so?  refer to her half term as governor.

How 'bout the house of representatives? With a republican president would there have been this *revolution* as we allegedly saw in '10? Remember- there wouldn't have been a tea party to *make it happen*. (Ferrerman's note: I'm sure they helped things along but, November 2010 was NOT a mandate from the people. If the teapee'ers think it was that ship seems to have sailed as they really haven't taken advantage of  that regime change, have they?) So, a few seats would have changed butts, quite possibly more R's than D's.  That seems to happen every election....

I bet firing teachers, busting unions and trying to cut social programs would be the mantra of McCain and the right just as it is now. They would STILL be trying to tell us that rich people paying LESS in taxes was the only way to create jobs. The democrats would still hold the senate so, that would be a lot of rhetoric to this point, the foreshadowing of things to come, as it is now. That the republicans are tring so hard to stymie Obama makes me wonder if this country will ever really recover. If one of these lunkheads gets into the White House in '12, it will be four years of nothing but blaming Obama for everything and four years of begging for four more years because it will take time to undo the carnage....,

Kinda sounds like now with the democrats, eh? Yeah, a little bit. However, starving poor people and feeding rich people (MORE!)  will never be the answer so, I'll never go along with the republicans as they will never come off of that. Plus, I'm a coffee drinker anyway.

The more things change....

I don't know if this link will work and it seems to be a video of a TV broadcast so the quality is not there but, in just over a minute Roseanne Barr explains (as Roseanne Conner) how politics and business work. Here it is, just the same: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElSZPcQjjtk

When I worked in the south, I used to read the business section of the newspaper to see what the outlook for work might be in the future. Just being a Nosey Nate, I wanted to see what my company's clients might be up to as far as expansion. I also was curious as to whom else might be coming to town.

The incentive to come to Memphis- or any city- has always been first and foremost a favorable tax package for the corporation. They don't care about the weather or quality of the workforce. It could be Siberia with Taliban jihadists for all they care. It's not like the CEO is gonna live there. As long as the taxes are low, there they will go. And they will stay there until the next great deal comes along.

Whoever bottles Pabst Blue ribbon beer signed a deal to bottle in Woodridge Illinois a couple years ago. If memory serves, it was a 10 year deal and it meant a few dozen local jobs. They didn't make it ten years because (I believe) San Antonio Texas offered them a better deal and they basically told Illinois they were leaving and, if you don't like it, you can lump it. This is not legal but, is it worth suing over? I don't know what's gonna happen with that. Corporations do a lot of odd things that seem stupidly expensive but, they just have to raise their prices to pay for these things and- likely- it's a tax write-off anyways. I really think it's about a Charlie Sheen "winning" thing more than fiscal responsibility. {Incidently, what's that motherfucker up to lately?} The corporations, methinks, just want to get their way. They are going to make money, of course, but, there's just something about power....

So, cities have long cut deals with companies to entice them to enjoy their low tax rates. This is great because it provides jobs for the citzens. My company would remodel the buildings that other people would occupy as employees. It's the way things worked.

Well, it's the way things worked.... The gloves are off these days. You can blame it on NAFTA if you want but, jobs went overseas  not because of high taxes here but because of no taxes over there. And no labor unions. And no EPA or OSHA....

Some of the stupidest people you'd never want to meet exist as teapublicans on Topix. There you hear all this shit about how "high" taxes are here compared to there (regardless of what 3rd world cesspool there is). You rarely hear though, how taxes are the lowest they've been since the 70's- since before Reagan. The thinking is supposed to be that those jobs lost overseas and across the border to Mexico will return once we get a teapublican president- one that doesn't fucking hate business and America like Obama! And we have to end this free ride of entitlements by the elitist teachers, construction workers and government workers like cops and fireman  with their hoity-toity unions! All we have to do, while we're at it, is end unions and their communist *collective bargaining* and the *job-killing* minimum wage. I garaunfuckingtee we will have near 100% employment in America if we do that! Who could NOT want that!??

Well, US. We the people. That's who! Because, if you do all these things, we the people (the bulk of us) will be working alongside our children for a few dollars a day....just like the bulk of us did in the 19th and into the early 20th century....with no protection. No representation. No security. No freedom.

Don't think so? You take away unions and all the protections they bled for....and you take away ALL THE PROTECTIONS THEY BLED FOR.... Protections that you enjoy even if you are not Union. You can believe that companies will continue to offer these things to be "competetive" or because "dammit- they're AMERICANS!!!"  If you want, you can also believe that Sarah Palin poops ice cream. Have a taste and see, Any American company operating in Bangladesh, is NOT going out of their way to accomodate the children working in their sweatshops. Know why? Because they don't fucking have to! And it costs MONEY!  Remember slavery? Remember what we had to do to end that? Paying blacks a living wage wasn't even on the table then. And Vicksburg Mississippi was the wealthiest city in the country- more millionaires than New York! Guess why?

Now, we're not heading towards slavery. Well, not that I know of... (what have you heard???)  But, we are heading back to the future of the gilded age of robber barons, sweat shops and oweing one's soul to the company store. And we're supposed to see this as our *patriotic duty*?

How fucking ironic that teapublicans love the 2nd amendment so! Well, for now they do.....

TRUE LIES!

Two- TWO- fake lesbian bloggers in the news! And one busted the other!

Ya know, I'm beginning to think that people on the internets are just liars.....

You can't make them resign like a congressman though. Weiner lying about everything, to everyone, is the crime to me. Him being a horny, stupid guy talking trash to women is essentially his business. Him and the new bride. If he owns up to it from the outset, it's something for us to snicker about and the RNC to (somehow) use as *yet another reason to impeach Obama (?)* and it slithers away about as quickly as the Governator/Sperminator scandal did. Talking electronic trash to women isn't a crime. Lying about it isn't a crime. But, if you are a congressman representing we the people, get a new job. Go to Wall Street and lie. Get a gig on Foxnews and lie. Weiner was a great, passionate voice of the people until he lied. Then he became just another politician. Oh well.

How many other fake, lesbian bloggers are there? Those might have been the only two. A770 might have been the only fake therapist on the internets as well. That she was also a dude, makes you wonder if a lot of men are satisfied with their weiners. How many more are taking a walk on the wild side?

It is sad that people get taken in by fake lesbians and therapists but, in most cases, likely no real damage is done beyond embarrassment. I doubt, for example, that A770 was getting PIN numbers from the dregs but, typical girl talk might have been every bit as invasive, if not as costly. It does suck that someone you trust turns out to be a whole different gender than they told you they were. I think both fake lesbians claimed they did it to draw necessary attention to the trouble in Syria. Well....maybe.....but- I don't know- tell the truth? Isn't the truth good enough?

A770 claimed to be doing "research". What kind of research? *She* never exactly said....it must have been top secret..... Anyway, her "grant" was not renewed and *she* abruptly left the dregs- what was left of them- and moved on and...spawned.... another personality elsewhere on Topix. The dregs now are probabally like Crocidile Dundee and doing some pre-employment crotch-grabbing, early in the interview. "Fool me once....we won't get fooled again...." like the man said. And the fake lesbians will no doubt reinvent themselves soon, if they haven't already. Syria is actually no worse the wear for the one faker and I'm sure Topix will trudge on as well. Weiner will rebound again too.

Oh, and there will STILL be liars on the internets. 

Oh- come on....

I look at porn as much as the next guy. Wait a minute- that depends on who the next guy is! Yikes!

It might be someone who knew who Ginger Lee was prior to this Weiner business. I didn't.

Prior to this Weiner business, she was in....the weiner business....as a porn star and is now a featured dancer at strip clubs. For reasons I cannot fathom, her association with Anthony Weiner has stymied her stripping career. Huh? Is she giving titty dancers a bad image?

Evidently, her tweeting with Weiner was NOT of a sexual nature. It was more political, She didn't care to talk dirty with him. Well, I guess that is the ol' "I gave at the office...." thing that I always wondered might be true of porn stars and I know is true of painters. Not that painters don't talk dirty or perform sex acts. I mean, they don't like to paint when they get home. Who the fuck does?

Ginger is a cutie. Very spankable. She has that girl-next-door thing going on and a nice southern accent, judging from her appearance with professional prostitute, Gloria Allred, in front of the cameras today, to discuss this Weiner business. Ginger looked very uncomfortable. It certainly wasn't her first time on camera. She should have used that old trick where you imagine your audience naked to relax. Or, she could have relaxed herself by getting naked.

Really, I felt bad for her. She seemed genuinely frightened and embarrassed. This from a young woman who usually winds up her work with a camera close up of one or more men's cum on her face. I guess one doesn't necessarilly prepare you for the other.

The word so far is that all her tweeting with Weiner was civil adult discourse. If you've seen the fucking hilarious reading of Weiner and the Blackjack Dealers actual tweets by Bill Maher and Jane Lynch, you know what un-civil discourse is. Ain't it odd that the *amateur* gal does all the trash-talking and the professional passes? As much as I know about it, I think this mirrors Gingers professional career as well. Anybody with genitals and a camera is a porn star these days. The internet (and DO NOT go looking until after you read this) is full of free porn. Yikes! Who knew? If Ginger Lee were a *star*, I don't think she profited from it as a few past porn stars might have. When so many are giving the product away for free or getting paid next to nothing, how lucrative can it be at the supposed top? There may never be another Ginger Lee. Her job has been taken by the gal in the cubicle next to you at work.

But, I think it's kinda neat that she became a born-again virgin in the latest political sex scandal. She stayed reasonably chaste. The others whored themselves out. Good for her. No money shot for Ginger.

What was the question?

I've been looking at Foxnews a bit lately. I don't know why- maybe the heat is getting to me. Really, it's exactly like reading the 'tards on Topix as it is exactly where they get all their....facts....and information.... Honestly, it isn't much different than MSNBC. You truly cannot have one without the other and my bone to pick with Fox and the RNC is that, if they had their way, there would only be Foxnews. In fact, a recent poll of the folks in the Foxnews cafeteria, 100% of the respondents said just that! So, there ya go.

This morning, a nice looking, surprisingly dark-headed, woman on Fox was deriding president Obama for not having solved the jobs crisis here in America. Her non-blonde self was incredulous that Obama had driven the metaphorical car out of the ditch and into a metaphorical lake because he wouldn't let republicans drive! Well, metaphorically speaking, these assholes just don't get the part where they lost the election and, they don't get to be president. I know how that goes. I never got so much input on my life as I got after the divorce from my ex-wife. Oh my! She had answers I didn't even have questions for! Well, that's the way that goes. Ex-wives and 2nd place finishers are like that.

Well, we have a serious job shortage here in America. I'm not working near as much as I did last year at this time. Something needs to be done and soon. The reasonably blonde hostess of the Fox segment asked the dark-haired gal to imagine that she were a democrat strategist for a moment. The lady cringed at that. Democrats are awful, horrible people and NO ONE should aspire to be one even for demonstration purposes. But, if you're not part of the solution, you are part of the problem so, she was asked what she would do to solve the unemployment problem.

Tort reform.

TORT REFORM???? You stupid fucking whore- TORT REFORM??? How the fuck does tort reform get me, my brother-in-law and millions of others working again???? People suing doctors did not bring down this economy. I'm a dumbass but I suspect it was Wall Street shenannigans, two unfunded wars and tax cuts for rich folks (for starters)  but, I'm a fucking partisan hack. What do I know?

The stupid-fucking whore went on to add that repealing something she called *Obamacare* was also the answer to the same question....

You can complain all you want about Obama but, clearly ABSOLUTELY NO ONE has offered a viable solution to unemployment. The republican party and it's militant arm- the various tea parties- offer the same non-help that the non-blonde offered up. Eliminate medicare. Permament tax cuts for the super rich. Eliminate NPR. Make Anthony Weiner quit. Break unions. End collective bargaining. Yada-effing-yada. End social services.

Not a one of these solutions creates jobs. I guess no one knows how to actually create jobs. The Bush tax cuts did not creat jobs. Obama slightly extending them did not create jobs. Permanently extending them will not create jobs.

But somehow, fucking talking about them will create jobs?

Maybe. Fox seems to be running out of blondes.