Cuppacafe

So, if you happened to be driving down Interstate 35, near the town of Wyoming, Minnesota, you'll see a billboard bearing the smiling image of George W. Bush accompanied by the question "Miss me yet?" The online rumors were confirmed by this image:

Many initially thought the picture was a hoax created through Photoshop. But now multiple people have confirmed its existence. The mystery surrounding the billboard quickly morphed from a "Fact or Fiction?" story into a genuine "Whodunit?" Who paid for the ad, and what was their motivation? Are they Obama supporters sarcastically hoping to remind disgruntled liberals about how things were under Bush, or are they Bush supporters sincerely hoping to remind voters of the past administration?

Well, according to Yahoo News "The ad was purchased by a group of small business owners who wish to remain anonymous," McNamara said. However, McNamara did offer this political bombshell: "Some of the people in the group who paid for this were Obama supporters.", however others are not so sure. Cindy Erickson, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party in Chicago County, where the billboard is located, suspects the folks who funded the ad are actually conservative activists who are simply posing as supporters of President Obama.

In either case we can't help but to think on Lord Acton, and state "Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it."

The Perfessor

Yeah, ya gotta just love it when the Prez bitch-slaps the GOP:

Man, do I love this guy!

The Perfessor

So President Obama spoke the other night and we all sat and watched his first State of the Union Address (except Walt), and for some of us, we remembered why we liked him (Obama, not Walt) in the first place. Still the most fun you get out of political events like this is not so much watching the event itself,but the political pundits yack it up after that is a sort of a post-modern, politically-charged version of Can you top that?

My personal favorite is Jon Stewart’s take on Chris Matthews particular brand of buffoonery, when Stewart refers to Matthews as being “...one Scotch Away From Being Ron Burgundy”, when Matthews makes one of the more patently retarded comments in the history of TV punditry when Matthews stated that Barack Obama’s speech made Matthews forget the President was Black.

Seriously, what an ass!

The Perfessor

We all know that one of the tried and true ways of selling your product is to get it endorsed by a big name celebrity. Everyone does it, and (I’m reasonably certain) that it works; or — to be more specific — it seems to work well enough for ad agencies to keep doing it.

Still, there is something to be said for when a cultural event occurs that causes registered on our collective psyche and we (lemmings that we are), gravitate in a particular direction because of what we have witnessed. Some examples of this include when Kirk Douglas appeared on-screen without a T-shirt and men stopped wearing T-shirts; When President Kennedy appeared in public without a hat, sales of men’s hats disappeared overnight.

While both of those were the results of unintended consequences. That is to say, no one necessarily really wanted those results, they just happened. Whereas, Ray-Ban got their Wayfarer sunglasses placed on Tom Cruises’ (very pretty) mug in Risky Business, and every male that saw that film went out to buy a pair so he could be that cool.

Well, Weatherproof was hoping to capture similar lightning in a bottle when they erected a billboard in Times Square of President Obama wearing one of their coats and the tag-line “A Leader in Style.”

...Wednesday, the pictured billboard in New York’s Times Square went up, showing a picture of President Obama wearing a Weatherproof coat during a recent trip to China. The picture had been licensed from the Associated Press. The ad didn’t say anything indicating that Obama endorsed the product; It carried only a tagline reading “A Leader in Style.”

But the billboard clearly got the attention of those at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Various outlets reported that the White House called Weatherproof to ask that they take the billboard down.

“The White House has a longstanding policy disapproving of the use of the president’s name and likeness for commercial purposes,” said White House spokesman Ben LaBolt in a written statement.

Weatherproof pulled the ad down on request from the White House, but one has to ask, who was right, and did Weatherproof have to do that, well, this clip comes from the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog, and they did inquire about the legalities of the issue from a lawyer, (William Coats, a partner in White & Case’s IP department out in Palo Alto) who (as lawyers are wont to do) argued both sides of the issue before finally stating that while Weatherproof pulled the ad, it certainly got a lot of mileage out of it. “If you’d asked me 24 hours ago who Weatherproof was, I’d have had no idea,” he said. “Now, here we are talking about it.”

Apparently it IS all about the buzz

The Perfessor

I know that Lost fans are fairly rabid folk, but when it was announced that this season’s premiere was about to be preempted by President Obama’s initial State of the Union Address; well you can imagine how far over the top they went.

Lost fans, fear not. The important premiere of the final season of your show will not be affected by the President of the United States’ obviously less important (first) State of the Union.

Press secretary Robert Gibbs assuaged the concerns of millions today during the briefing.

“I will say this on behalf of ABC radio,” said Gibbs. “I don’t foresee a scenario in which the millions of people who hope to finally get some conclusion in Lost are preempted by the President.”

Now I like my entertainment too (nearly got the DTs when no comics were delivered the week between Christmas & New Years, but that’s an entirely different story), but seriously, these folks need to get a tighter grip on their horses.

The Perfessor

This from the final episode of The Daily Show with John Stewart of 2009:

And the debate continues...

Psst...Obama is a socialist, who is not only brainwashing children, but is destroying Christmas while running up your tax bills, pass it on...

Don’t you just love this stuff?

The Perfessor

You better believe that it is that time of the month again when we get to slap around our favorite on-camera tool. Well, this time, we’re not doing the sl;apping as much watching the White House do the slapping.

In a new post on the official White House blog, Online Programs Director Jesse Lee calls out Fox News for perpetuating lies about President Obama's push to bring the Olympics to the city of Chicago.

Apparently last night, the conservative pinhead, Beck once again attacked the President, this time for lobbying hard to get the 2016 Olympics to come to Chicago. Today, the White House released a point-by-point rebuttal of some of his toolness’s statements.

Here's an example from the post, which is titled, "Trying to Turn a Point of Pride into a Moment of Shame":

RHETORIC: BECK SAID VANCOUVER LOST $1 BILLION WHEN IT "HAD THE OLYMPICS." Glenn Beck said, "Vancouver lost, how much was it? they lost a billion dollars when they had the Olympics." [Transcript, Glenn Beck Show, 9/29/09]

REALITY: VANCOUVER'S OLYMPICS WILL NOT TAKE PLACE UNTIL 2010. Vancouver will host the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games from February 12 – 28, 2010 and March 12-21, 2010, respectively. [Vancouver2010.com, accessed 9/29/09]

You can read more on this situation by going here and here.

In the mean time, I’m going to head out to Citi Field and watch the Mets lose the last game of the home season.

The Perfessor

OK, we have our fun here, but when I read the following blog post, I seriously got chills down my spine:

Newsmax columnist: Military coup "to resolve the 'Obama problem' " is not "unrealistic"

September 29, 2009 5:57 pm ET by Terry Krepel

From John L. Perry's September 29 Newsmax column:

There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America's military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the "Obama problem." Don't dismiss it as unrealistic.

America isn't the Third World. If a military coup does occur here it will be civilized. That it has never happened doesn't mean it wont. Describing what may be afoot is not to advocate it.

[...]

Will the day come when patriotic general and flag officers sit down with the president, or with those who control him, and work out the national equivalent of a "family intervention," with some form of limited, shared responsibility?

Imagine a bloodless coup to restore and defend the Constitution through an interim administration that would do the serious business of governing and defending the nation. Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars. Having bonded with his twin teleprompters, the president would be detailed for ceremonial speech-making.

Military intervention is what Obama's exponentially accelerating agenda for "fundamental change" toward a Marxist state is inviting upon America. A coup is not an ideal option, but Obama's radical ideal is not acceptable or reversible.

Unthinkable? Then think up an alternative, non-violent solution to the Obama problem. Just don't shrug and say, "We can always worry about that later."

In the 2008 election, that was the wistful, self-indulgent, indifferent reliance on abnegation of personal responsibility that has sunk the nation into this morass.

Go to the blog, and then read come of the comments posted.

The Perfessor

...Don’t you just love it when people put things in it?

The Perfessor

With the current energy issues we are facing in this country, and the (still) failing economy, you would think that both private companies and the Federal government would be racing to find ways to subsidize alternative energy approaches. Not only would these alternative energy sources (hopefully) provide us with a way to throw off the oppressive yoke of reliance on fossel fuels (pumped by people who apparently hate us), but it could help provide new jobs as well.

Well, here is one of those good ideas (at least we think so). As you may or may not know, there are over 5.7 million miles of paved highway in the U.S. and in a bid to find new and sustainable ways of producing renewable energy, a small Idaho company believes that they have found asolution: solar roadways.

According to their website, the idea revolves around “a series of structurally-engineered solar panels that are driven upon. The idea is to replace all current petroleum-based asphalt roads, parking lots, and driveways with Solar Road Panels™ that collect and store solar energy to be used by our homes and businesses. This renewable energy replaces the need for the current fossil fuels used for the generation of electricity. This, in turn, cuts greenhouse gases literally in half.”

In America, the idea has received a lot of media attention after The Department of Transport awarded the company $100,000 to construct a prototype 12' x 12' panel.

You can read more about it at US Infrastructures.

Cool, eh? Well, if this was at all feasible, you have to be asking yourself So why hasn’t President Obama, or Congress ordered every able-bodied citizen to get a pick axe and get to work producing this wicked-cool carbon-cutting, energy-producing, super-highway?

Well, apparently, there is a reason for that:

firstly, solar panels are notoriously fragile. Can they really take 40-ton vehicles going 80 miles an hour over them day and night for decades? Also, what happens at night? Will they store enough energy to power themselves during the winter months?

Oh, and then there's the price tag - US $35 trillion. Yes, TRILLION. With a 'T'. Each panel is 'currently' predicted to cost around $7,000. Obama's current health-care reform is only meant to cost a measly $1 trillion.

So there we go, it's a fantastic idea and one that could change America's energy and transport infrastructure for ever, but currently it's a pipe dream. An ambitious and undeniably genius pipe dream.

Ah well, it still seems like a really “bright” idea.

The Perfessor

Apparently more sponsorsa are saying “See ya! Wouldn’t want to advertise ya!” to Fox’s Glen Beck (tool that he is) as yet another five of his show’s sponsors have abandoned the train-wreck that is Glenn Beck program on Fox News. According to reports, the total now stands at a massive 62 advertisers fleeing the ship, with more sure to follow. Further, since Beck has returned from his forced vacation he seems to have become even more unhinged than hepreviously (when he called President Obama “a racist” and said that the President “has a deep seated hatred of white people.”)

And, as you all know, my friends, that he was pretty unhinged then.

The advertising boycott of Glenn Beck has cost the controversial host over half of his estimated advertising revenue since it was launched by ColorOfChange.org a month ago. This according to data analyzed from industry sources.

Estimated advertising revenue [the total amount of advertising money being spent during a block of commercial time for a program] was collected on a week-by-week basis for a period of two months. According to the data collected, the amount of money spent by national advertisers on Beck’s program per week was at its highest at approximately $1,060,000, for the week ending August 2, 2009. ColorOfChange.org launched their campaign at the end of that week and since then, 62 advertisers have distanced themselves from Beck. Data collected for the week ending September 6, 2009 shows Beck’s estimated ad revenue at $492,000, equal to a loss of $568,000.

Give the rate that the sponsors are abandoning the ship, one wonders when Fox will finally get the message and either muzzle this tool or cancel him outright.

The Perfessor

You heard it on the news, the President is going to (or already has — I forget which) speak directly to the schoolchildren of the U.S. and poison their minds with his Political rhetoric. We here at Cuppacafe just don’t want this to happen it is wrong, and it simply should be stopped.

I certainly don’t believe that just anyone should be allowed to address kids. We certainly don’t want to turn the young minds of our most precious possessions and we shouldn’t trust just anyone to talk to them.

Yeah, you just wouldn’t catch a Republican President addressing kids with their mind-corrupting agenda.

The Perfessor

You heard me right, does a person have to be a natuyral-born citizen to become President? I don’t know, but apparently there is movement to alter that law.

No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

U.S. Constitution, Article II, Sec. 1

According to the Wall St. Journal, the above is a portion of that great document that has gotten a good deal of airplay in recent months, especially given

1. 1) speculation from some that President Obama is not a “natural born citizen” and
2. 2) the counter movement against that speculation, which led to the invention of the derisive “birthers” neologism about three weeks ago.

You can read the rest of that post here.

Still, we can only speculate that if this law is struck down over the next four-to eight years, we can only expect to look forward to the rise of the Presinator...

The Perfessor

Did you know that you could get President Obama (well the Federal Government, really) to buy your PoC car for as much as $4,500? No really, it’s Twue! It’s Twue!

Yep, apparently, if you trade in your clunker in for a more fuel-efficient car, you could get your own form of a mini bailout. Only, right now, (after about a week) the billion dollar program is almost about out of cash.

White House officials and lawmakers were studying late Thursday how to keep alive the government's cash-for-clunkers incentive program because of concerns the program's $1 billion budget may have been exhausted after just one week.

Obama administration officials warned congressional leaders Thursday it planned to suspend the program at midnight. But the White House released a statement late Thursday saying that completed deals would be honored and the program is still under review.

You can read more about it here in the Wall St. Journal.

Needless to say, this brings up the question that when the government bails out the citizens it is Socialism, but when it bails out Big Business it isn’t?

The Perfessor

It has happened, the lines between TV and reality have become not just blurred, but permanently crossed. Don’t believe me? then just watch this!

I need to drink more.

The Perfessor