Just put it in the cart!

One of my dearest college friends tells a fabulous story about her dad, who lacks a little bit of discipline in the grocery store.  When he was responsible for the family shopping trips, anything the kids thought looked good got the approval stamp.  “Put it in the cart!” he would exclaim, regardless of sugar content, price, or nutritional value.   A far cry from shopping trips with her mom, who kept a strict eye on the healthy foods and carried her pre-cut coupons to save every additional penny.

Through various situations and jokes, “PUT IT IN THE CART” became a battlecry for the two of us, when we thought people around us were going overboard, either in the grocery store, during conversation, in their personal love lives or just about in any situation.   And now, given the top news story of the night , I am invoking my right to exclaim it once again.

An 800+ billion dollar “bailout stimulus plan” is on the table in Washington, and now we are only one congressional department away from pissing out another near-trillion dollars of money that American citizens are going to see coming off their paychecks for the next 100 years.  Did anybody forget that we signed off on 700-billion just about four months ago??? Does everyone remember that half of that money just mysteriously disappeared and then… oh yeah, wait for it…. The economy didn’t get better!

What the smokes is going on, guys? You can’t just “PUT IT IN THE CART” and hope like hell that things turn around.  We’re sinking an obscene amount of money into a system that very recently failed completely on the country! Here’s a thought:  DON’T pass another bailout.  Maybe we need to restructure the system instead of trying to prop this one up any longer.  Maybe the system needs to hit rock bottom.  Maybe times are just gonna have to get harder before they get better.  We were there, making the unwise decisions  during the 90s and early 2000s. We bought the houses we couldn’t afford, we racked up credit card debt we couldn’t pay off. And now the only thing to do is tighten the hatches and not spend money we don’t have til we get it straightened out.  These bailout packages are a big jump from FDR’s New Deal and they bank (no pun intended) heavily on the idea that rebuilding infrastructure is going to put enough money back into the economy to fix it all.  I appreciate President Obama’s attempt to create new jobs but I really don’t believe the “Trickle-Up” approach is going to trickle up high enough, now or ever.

I’m no financial expert, but it doesn’t take an IQ score of 160 to figure out that throwing a band-aid on a person in cardiac arrest is not going to solve the problem.  So congrats to the U.S. House of Reps…. Way to just Put it in the Cart, cross your fingers and hope for the best.

To Tweet or Not to Tweet

Mashable.com’s top story right now discusses why the Obama administration should use Twitter more effectively as a means of mass communication. It cites Twitter Teams used by the Canadian and English prime ministers to keep in non-stop contact with their constituents, and argues that the Obama Team is not nearly at the same level.

I can’t help but wonder… what is the big tweeting deal about Twitter anyway? I have an account and I think I used it exactly 3 times…. all on  the night of the election.  I’ve received several emails telling me “this person is now following you on twitter.”  I’ve got friends who swear by it as a legit form of communication, but I just can’t quite grasp why it is so ultimately central to our 21st century way of life.

Is it absolutely necessary in this 24-hour-news-cycle world, in this overwhelmingly important information age, that everyone at ALL times be able to know within seconds what EVERYONE else is doing?  IS IT??

I’m not positive that it is.  Why do we need up-to-the-millisecond updates on where people are and what they are doing?  Breaking news of some sort may be important to get out right away, but isn’t there like a 100-character limit anyway for each Tweet?  Not any different than when yahoo.com or cnn.com post breaking news stories with just a few details.  And can’t a well-placed text message or blackberry email get the job done just the same?

Maybe it’s just the same part of me that didn’t want to switch over to the new Facebook design when it came out (now I’m a big fan).  Maybe it’s a rage against the Unknown, because I really don’t understand it.  Maybe I’m just slow to hop on the bandwagon that will one day consume us all, but I’m not sold on Twitter.  Not yet.

Georgie-Boy’s back like HE forgot something…

George Mitchell is the newly minted U.S. State Department special envoy to the Middle East.  Hot damn! 

Yes, yes it is the same George Mitchell who took Roger Clemens to town in the 2007 MLB Steroid Report.  Yep, THAT Mitchell Report.  Why it was just this time last year when I sat riveted to the online coverage at the Hill while Clemens danced between clearly angry critics and fans hiding in Congressional suits, as he threw his body-builder wife under the bus and continued his one-faced proclamation that he “NEVER USED ROIDS, GUYS.  COME ON GUYS. I DIDN’T USE THEM.  Debbie sure the hell did, but I’M ROGER CLEMENS and I DIDN’T DO IT!!”

And now, that same George Mitchell, also a crafty veteran of overseas peace maneuvers it turns out, will take his orders from Mz. Rodham as he brokers a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel.  Give it to em, Georgie.  You’ve already worked over 86 professional baseball players.  How much harder can it be to grab Ehud Olmert and Mussa Abu Marzouk by the necks and and shake them til peace falls out?

I’m Back Lke I Forgot Something

Quoting a local radio dj from today’s morning show… “Big things are going on right now. Barack Obama is about to be sworn in as president and the Arizona Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl.”

Why, yes. Yes, indeed. These are the events surrounding Jan. 20, 2009.

… Which also happens to be the day I resurfaced from Blogging Oblivion to once again join the World of WordPress as a (hopefully) consistent member.

Notent Notables of the Inauguration Festivities:

- Aretha Franklin’s oversized headdress. 

The Queen of Soul rocks a rhinestone-studded bow.

- President Obama jumping the gun on the first line of the Oath and then forgetting the words of the second line.

 - Ted Kennedy (and some other senator) needing medical attention during the Presidential luncheon.

 - Rick Warren’s over-zealous pronunciation of “Sasha” and “Malia” during the invocation.

And in a twisted turn of fate, the sports world has turned on its head, while everything I know to be true about the NFL has changed.

The Arizona Cardinals are going to the effing Super Bowl. Yikes. I won’t pretend that I think they have a chance against the Steelers defense, but hey, crazier things have happened and I also predicted they would lose the first round of the playoffs…

Then I predicted they would lose against Carolina… then again at home versus Philly. So anyway, I am 0-for-3 on the Cardinals predictions and that means I could quite easily go 0-for-4. But the law of averages has to kick in at some point, right?

Well, I feel better already. Yay for bringing blogging back.