White House spokesman Jay Carney, however, told the press pool that the size of the small event dictated that the Teleprompter be left behind, not this week's theft.

Do you think I have the memory of a rock?  Because well I don't and I quite distinctly remember him speaking at a small event at an elementary school.  Guess what was there!?

So yeah, he went without the teleprompters as planned?  I will point out his discussion with the students was without a prompter, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on the validity of that claim.  But the discussion with the media after had them front and center. It doesn't matter how small it is, he relies on them heavily, unless he's talking to children.

You know it's bad for Obama when even his "hometown", the bastion of corrupt politics, starts explaining why he shouldn't run for reelection.

But there is good news for the president. I checked the Constitution, and he is under no compulsion to run for re-election. He can scrap the campaign, bag the fundraising calls and never watch another Republican debate as long as he's willing to vacate the premises by Jan. 20, 2013.

Seriously, that's got to hurt.  Then again fearless leader is so dense he might read the article and some how think it's a compliment.

Read the whole thing, there's some awesome line's in there.  I think my personal favorite is:

Someone said that when a man is smitten with a beautiful woman, he
should remember that somebody somewhere is tired of her. Likewise, the
most inspiring presidents get stale after years of constant
overexposure.

It's by no means the first time I've seen this analogy, but it's down right amazing to see these come out of an editor at the Chicago Times of all places.

I'm not counting my chickens yet, I wouldn't be surprised to see the GOP auger the Presidential election into the ground.  At the same time there's a large uphill battle the Democrats are going to have just to retain the presidency.  I think I should start a pool on who's going to screw the pooch.

This started off as a comment over at Robb's place but then turned into a post in and of itself. Robb pointed out that if we could act like the government we would all be doing something different right now.

[begin sarcasm]
Now Robb, know you're roll as part of the 1/3 of Americans who actually pay taxes. You are responsible for paying for all the unnecessary crap we don't need. We don't need to stop spending, we just need a bigger credit card. That will solve all of our problems, I promise!
[/end sarcasm]

It's amazing to me that when you look at the minority who actually support the debt ceiling increase, amazingly non pay taxes and they're in the lower income brackets. Maybe it's because they did exactly what the government wants to do and haven't made the correlation that increasing your debt limit != making more money. Debt's have to be paid back, you don't just get the money for nothing. Debt when used wisely can be beneficial, however in this case it is being used to support programs and items that are not actually needed for the general welfare of the public.

I spent a hard 5 years in school to get my degree and I'm seriously wondering if it was wasted since pretty soon the government is going to auger this place into the ground like a 747 nose down at full throttle. I've heard rumors of a 70% effective tax rate and the return of pre-Regan taxes rates.

I have a bright novel idea for those ass-hats in Washington, STOP SPENDING MONEY YOU DON'T HAVE. I would like to point out that credit card companies and banks determine how much I can take out on loan. The government (who is borrowing the money) is determining their own limit, does no one see a problem with this. The running joke about democracies (we're a republic) is that, "They last just as long as it takes for people to discover they can vote themselves money from the treasury." In this case people have found a way to do it through the elected representatives. It appears that we should have had some sort of check on our representatives because it appears that they figured out how to do the same.

The states, and even people throughout this country have tightened their belt in this economic mess and our elected representatives have spent as if we're in the middle of a boom. I have cut out numerous things I did have after my wife was fired from her last job. Thanks to fearless leaders economic environment, finding a job is difficult if not impossible. Don't believe me, here's what Steve Wynn had to say on the subject:

And I'm saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime. And I can prove it and I could spend the next 3 hours giving you examples of all of us in this market place that are frightened to death about all the new regulations, our healthcare costs escalate, regulations coming from left and right. A President that seems, that keeps using that word redistribution. Well, my customers and the companies that provide the vitality for the hospitality and restaurant industry, in the United States of America, they are frightened of this administration.And it makes you slow down and not invest your money. Everybody complains about how much money is on the side in America.

Our government as usual is making problems worse. Instead of realizing that, they are compounding the issues more and more claiming they can make the problems go away. Government is not suited to solve problems like this, never has been nor will be.

On the debt and debt ceiling: News flash for everyone, we are ALL responsible for that debt. It doesn't matter if you are a D a R or an Independent. The government is writing checks with your name on it. You might want to tell your representatives that is enough. It's your lively hood Washington is selling down the river, you might want to take notice before the bill collector shows up at your door.

My dad often apologized to me for the actions of his generation, at the time I didn't quite understand. Now that the chickens have come home to roost, I perfectly understand what he was talking about. We have gone so far up shit creek I don't know how we're going to get back without getting covered in shit. And those who have put us here will be gone by the time these problems are in full swing, it will be my generation and my kids who get to clean up this mess. Unfortunately most of my generation has been brainwashed by the previous one and it's going to take a full crash to wake them up.

In the engineering world we often say the following in regards to Futility:

futility (n) \fyü-ˈti-lə-tē\: The act of doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.

Unsurprisingly our leaders in government do not seem to have ever heard of the word or understand it's meaning.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Wednesday that a new stimulus program is in the works that will entail additional asset purchases, the clearest indication yet that the central bank is contemplating another round of monetary easing.

The economy hasn't budged even with all the money they've been throwing at it. They've actually started throwing enough money at the problem it's making it worse. Instead of cutting back and trying to control spending and pulling back, they approached the problem like a sailor with his pay on liberty. Spending money on beer and women while wasting the rest. They dumped money into running guns across the Mexican border through the last stimulus, what is the next state sponsored terror?

Unemployment, by their crappy metrics, is still at an exorbitant high. Given all these problems their solutions are to spend more money we don't have and tax the hell out of the people trying to make ends meet to do it.

News flash to everyone, it didn't work the first time and it's not going to work this time. But that isn't what anyone wants to hear now is it. Some time's the truth hurts.