We're In This Together

A Nine Inch Nails song from one of Trent Reznor's greatest albums, 'The Fragile.' I'm listening to this as I watch my once proud nation fall apart at the seams, like someone didn't stitch it properly the last time they repaired what people before them fucked up. And I'm reminded, they all really do work together, they blend so well with their null arguments that inevitably go nowhere that no one really picks up on it. I picked up on this idea when I watched the first five or so minutes of 'Fall of the Republic' (no, I didn't watch the entire thing, more often than not I can't even make it through five minutes of the political garbage strewn all over YouTube.).

It kind of hit me like a light bulb you would buy at your local grocery store like Target, or Walmart, that's right, not a corner grocer, hell those have all been replaced by 7-11's and Cum-and-Go's. It really is kind of funny actually, to watch our country fall to the same greedy empire it escaped from, fucked up but none-the-less funny. It is kind of like when your parents always told you not to make the same mistakes they did as if it were supposed to reiterate the “don't do it” or something. I always had a thought that if no one was told what 'not-to-do' they wouldn't have the slightest inkling to even bother finding out about it, but because a preferential person tells us “no” we automatically want to dig it up and figure out ourselves.

Kind of like the government, obviously after Bush nailed us all to the marketing failure of a cross we wanted someone new. This is when we heard the word “Change” how prolific at a time when we all thought things needed to “Change.” This is really kind of the fundamental issue with our society, now I'm not on a McCain-Palin trip, because that would have been an awful choice as well. One flaw of our once great society is that we don't really know shit about politics, or those few of us that do are drowned by the millions that saw it on the news. He promised us this and that, he preached change, he can twist words better than a clown can twist balloons.

Debt was a big one, wasn't it? Yes, yes it was, and every Presidential candidate said the same thing “I will get us out of debt.” Which brings me to another song by Nine Inch Nails 'The Great Below' specifically 'and all that could have been.' Fitting, no? I think so and I'm going to roll with it, all that could have been is potentially where we all closed our eyes, or decided to ignore the best choice in light of pretty words on a colorful banner. In a sense this was kind of the last nail in my 'I Used To Love My Country' coffin. When, and exactly how, did so many people in such diverse landscapes suddenly stop learning on their own? I knew the best candidate was Ron Paul, I read what he wanted to do and his plans for the future of our country, I also read Obama and McCain's strategies (and in all honesty, McCain's was a hell of a lot better than Obama's.).

Yet, none-the-less, the majority of this country voted on the issue and it came back with Obama. Why? Well, let's see: Obama - $670 million; McCain - $370 million; Paul - $28 million (suspended in favor of Campaign for Liberty on June 12th, 2008.). And to be honest, McCain blew through a ton of that money pretty quickly and Obama made a killing in on-line donations (main source of contributions). So, what does this mean? We are a money hungry country and people, more money, the more we want it, more pretty words...of course, we want it. Pathetic, really, well, definition-wise it is purely moronic. But we can all watch TV pretty well, so at least we did get something right even if it isn't what we needed to get right in the first place.

Now, I'm not on a high-horse here telling to you go and try to impeach Obama, because that won't happen no matter how hard you click your heels together like Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. All I am saying is try not to make the same damn mistake the next time around, okay? Look into all of your candidates on your own, read into them, look at their past decisions in government (or lack thereof), but most of all...do not let the television educate you on politics, because the news is surprisingly stupider than the population that follows it.

BP Has Agreed To $20 Billion Escrow

Apparently BP has agreed to set up a $20 billion fund for compensation for the current oil disaster, as reported by CNN. This comes after repeated attempts to plug the massive oil leak in the Gulf Coast. There is also a $100 million fund put in place for the oil workers that are out of work due to the disaster.

This announcement came after President Obama met with his personal response team and BP chairmen. According to President Obama he told BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg that for the people involved it wasn't a matter of money, it was a matter of accountability. Which is very true, and in some ways a welcomed view from President Obama; BP is to be held accountable for their actions which caused this disaster.

The fund will not be controlled by BP but by an independent third-party. The process for the claims will be handled by attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw the claims for victims in the September 11th, 2001 World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.

Presidents That Have Missed Arlington Memorial

There are more:

-President Obama in 2010.
-President Bush in 2007.
-President H.W. Bush in 1992.
-President Reagan in 1983.

Contributing source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20006346-503544.html

Hurricane Season On The Horizon

According to weather experts this hurricane season is going to be a very busy one. This can make the recovery effort on the Gulf Coast even more difficult to accomplish than it already has been. If a hurricane were to hit now it would essentially scoop up a lot of the oil that has spilled into the Gulf and send it away, and predicting where that 'away' will be is going to be even more difficult than cleaning it up.

It is kind of back and forth whether or not the spilled oil could slow a potential storm off the coast or if it would actually make a hurricane even more massive than it would be in the first place. President Obama is to be visiting the oil spill and monitor how the ongoing effort is proceeding before heading back to Chicago that night, hopefully when he sees the site for himself he can be better prepared for the future weather that is forecasted to hit.

The Gulf Coast isn't the only one at risk if a hurricane were to hit, in Haiti there is roughly 1.5 million displaced people that will be severly at risk after a devestating earthquake hit there this past January. If a hurricane were to hit the already struggling portion of the Dominican Republic the end result could be catastrophic.

Job? Where?

Sure, there are a ton of places to go looking for a job. Monster.com is a well-known one, Job.com, stuff like that. But where is the employment at? The unemployment rate is at an all-time high, 9.5% according to Google public data, 9.9% according to http://www.dol.gov/. That is terrible, don't you think? Well, the job market is different I guess, they want experience...right? Depends on the job really, but most jobs will take a less experienced worker because they can get away with paying them less for the same work a college grad would do for twice the rate. This is where the job market is killing itself, I think anyway.

Let me explain; if we have two people of the same age, same ability, but one went to a prestigious college and the other a junior college, obviously the one that went to a prestigious college is going to ask for more money, the junior college grad less. Practical really, I'm sure they both have loans that they need to pay off but I'm also sure that the prestigious college student has far more to pay than his junior college rival which would explain why they would ask for a higher salary. However, when it comes down to money coming in and money coming out a business has to look at it from a different point of view, money spent versus money made. If they are spending more money for someone who has a better education, they are out more money in the long-run than if they just spend less money for someone with less education but enough to do the job.

This is where sites like Monster.com can come in handy, allowing someone to put up their own resume, credentials, and asking pay, while prospective employers look at each one and decide on their own who to hire. Monster.com is a pretty good site, you can put your resume up for companies to view, apply for jobs with relative ease, and it probably works really well, but I found it to be difficult to navigate even with their current Beta. Job.com was easier for me to navigate and had a lot of search options to tick off so you didn't have to type in your own but you could if you wanted, applying for the job is relatively easy just like it was Monster, just click and apply. Both also have a number of articles filled with tips for marketing yourself and all around finding a job.

However, that isn't always enough, sometimes you have to actually head out and talk to the people face to face to inquire about the job. Even with these tools, jobs are still dying, along with the economy.

Which brings us to the government, remember that bailout plan? The one that pretty much tossed dirt into the hole we crawled into? Yes, that one, the one that still today I don't know why we even bothered to try it out. Money makes the world go 'round, and it sinks countries even deeper into the ground. The idea was to get the banks out of debt, banks that probably could have managed to get themselves out of debt alone, but we are a 'instant gratification' culture these days and no one wants to wait for results. So the government through billions of dollars at debt, and even today this concept still escapes me, you essentially threw imaginary money into debt, money we didn't have, still don't have, and I'm not all that convinced we will ever see again.

This was a key area of the presidential candidates for the 2008 presidential campaign, remember? Each of them told us how they were going to get us out of debt? How they were going to end the war in Iraq, even close Guantanamo Bay...well, it seems they had the right idea but were entirely too poor in their execution. The debt rose, Guantanamo is still open, and we are still in Iraq, and on top of it, we threw money we didn't have at all of it. Which would actually explain why nothing was done, little can be done with monopoly money.

More to come, I used to love my country.