Tag Archives: Obama

Political Promises

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The Romney aide gaffe about changing political positions before and after the convention was entertaining, but the reality is every candidate shifts as the campaign unfolds. Borrowing from a CNN report, can you identify who said what?

1. “He won’t streamline the federal government and change the way it works, cut 100,000 bureaucrats and put 100,000 new police officers on the streets of American cities, but I will.”

2. “And after we fund important priorities in the ongoing operations of our government, I believe we ought to pay down national debt. And so my budget pays down a record $2 trillion in debt over the next 10 years.”

3. “My plan requires both major party candidates to agree on a fundraising truce, return excess money from donors and stay within the public financing system for the general election.”

Hint: The comments were made by Clinton, Bush (#2) and Obama, but can you match statements and candidates?

Gmail spams President Obama

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Back to the topic of SPAM … Imagine my surprise when an email from the whitehouse.gov domain, with proper headers and routing information, was ignominiously dropped into my Gmail SPAM bucket. Wow!

Something is major league wrong with Gmail’s SPAM filters!

The President’s email concerns a competition between schools to host a visit by the President. Seems like a worthy enough endeavor, and certainly not something that should be discarded as SPAM.

Matter of fact, nothing in the email screams SPAM. Words are spelled properly, there’s no attempt to sell me Viagra nor real estate. Nothing indicates that a distant relative died leaving me $35 million. And as mentioned above, all the routing information looks legitimate. Honestly, I have no idea why Gmail considers whitehouse.gov email to be SPAM.

Is Google trying to become the new McAfee?

There should be a law against stupid parents

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ObamaDaughtersI have a vague recollection (very vague recollection!) of career day, or something like that, in elementary school. Essentially, a handful of adults would come to class, describe their chosen career, and answer questions. Many of the jobs were interesting civil servants (teacher, policeman, firemen, etc.) but I also seem to recall more esoteric jobs like scientist and doctor – C’mon, to a second grader the concept of scientist is pretty esoteric.

Granted, I honestly don’t recall any politicians addressing Mrs. Combs second grade class, but what are they going to say? Given the audience is still 10+ years from voting, it’s unlikely the subject matter is voter recruitment, Republican fiscal policy or CIA interrogation techniques. More likely it’s “Stay in school, do your homework, get good grades, respect your parents, and contribute to your community.” Right?

What I also don’t recall is permission slips being sent home to the parents, nor any neighborhood uproar over this or that career path. “I don’t want my child to hear about butchers because we’re vegetarians” or “No military presentations because we’re Pacifists” just wasn’t part of the vernacular when I was growing up. I just don’t recall any parent objecting to one career or another because it might unduly influence their offspring.

So can someone please explain to me why any parent would not want their children to hear the President address them? Here’s a man of humble beginnings who rose to President of the United States. Some might call that a pretty good role model.

I’ve tried – I really have – To find some logical reason why some parents might not want to have their kids hear a speech from the President of the United States. So far, the only answers I can come up with are ignorance and stupidity.

Adult Pablum

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facebook_logoYesterday one of my President’s staff really blew it. In one of his Facebook posts (Yes, I’m a “fan” of President Obama), he asked everyone to put the following in their Facebook status update for a day:

No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day.

And quite a few did post it. And I’m repeating it here. But why did it annoy me?

My first reaction was based on sales experience – Don’t tell me what the problem is – The customer is doing a perfectly adequate job of complaining. Don’t just repeat it.  Instead bring me a solution. That’s what competent managers do!

But what was Obama’s staffer doing here? Megaphoning the problem to a million drones who repeated it. Great! But I already know the problem – I was expecting a solution or at least a plan.

My second reaction was “So what?” If I had posted that status update and it was seen by an Obama supporter friend, he/she would have “liked” the comment but nothing would have changed. If my status update had been seen by an Obama hater, he probably would have ignored it or offered some colorful (?) response. Either way, I still don’t see how anyone has been helped nor what good it did. It certainly didn’t convert anyone.

I do love my President, and I admire his work ethic, style and especially his pragmatism. I think he’s a pretty smart guy. I also hope he’s smart enough to find out who the staffer was who posted that adult pablum and fire him.

Mr. Obama, I already know what my problems are. I’m hoping to hear what what my opportunities and solutions are!

Dolts! All of them!

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dtvlogoThe Senate voted for it twice, the House voted against it once but for on the second submission, and President Obama threatens to sign it into law as soon as it crosses his desk. What is it? It’s legislation to change the Digital TV transition from Feb 17 to Jun 12.

This makes no sense – This was planned and funded three years ago – Manufacturers have been prevented from manufacturing analog TVs, and retailers (Best Buy, etc.) have been legally prevented from selling analog TVs. For years!

Congress authorized over a billion dollars worth of discount coupons to buy converters on a first come-first served basis.

But now the media reports that 6.5 million American are unprepared for the conversion and risk losing their TV – I called one of my local stations. They had no idea who came up with the 6.5 million number they keep repeating. So much for trust in the media.

Seriously, there will always be the one or two (million) who just don’t get it. Are we going to delay and delay and delay? And what’s with the insistence on coupons? Congress knew from Day 1 that the coupons would run out – This isn’t a surprise. If you didn’t pay attention and now have to pay retail for a converter, that’s not my fault! Why should I, the taxpayer cough up even more money?

And did anyone consider the cost of the delay?

  • The former TV frequencies are going to (among others) police, fire and safety organizations. These frequencies have better range, efficiency and less interference. And the police, fire and safety agencies have the new equipment to use the new frequencies. But now they can’t use them.
  • TV stations have to pay for tower and transmitter leases. OK, they’re “profit” organizations so go ahead and soak the rich! But what about PBS? President Paula Kerger announced on Jan 30 that the delay would cost PBS an additional $22M.

“According to our estimates, delaying the switch until June will cost public television $22 million. This is because many of our member stations will be forced to extend leases on broadcasting towers to continue airing programs over analog signals for an additional four months, and they will have to cover the power costs for keeping their analog transmitters on the air.” – Paula Kerger

C’mon, President Obama. Rethink this. Just because the Senate and House members are dolts doesn’t mean you have to join them …