Random Static: The New Yorker Cover Just Another Distraction

I’ve decided not to jump on the bandwagon and post about The New Yorker cover. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of blogs covered that fiasco. Yes, the cover was extremely ridiculous, bordering on ignorant. But we all know that. The editors who decided to put it on the cover knew it too. It seems everyone's selling their soul for publicity these days.

Nope, I’m not getting sucked into that vortex because here’s what I think - not about the cover itself - but about what the cover has accomplished. That cover, just like the explosive Jeremiah Wright rant, the goofy Jesse Jackson comments, the Obama daughter interview uproar, comedian Bernie Mac's off-color jokes and Fist Bump-Gate – have merely diverted attention from everything else that we need to be focusing on.

Go to any business or financial page today. They are littered with bad news that is being ignored because of that stupid cover. From the top to the bottom of the screen on any given news website, there is nothing but doom and gloom. The stock market, housing market and, hell, even the supermarket are in the toilet. Gas prices and unemployment rates are higher than giraffe genitals. People are losing jobs and homes sometimes in the same month.

Over in Washington, Bush and his crew are up to their same old political games lifting the oil drilling ban in an attempt to distract us once again with meaningless legislation. They know darn well, even if Congress voted to do the same, no effects would be felt in American pockets until the year 2026 and those effects would be minimal at best. They are counting on us being too distracted by foolishness – oh and the birth of the Brangelina twins -to realize that.

It’s bad out here people! Too bad, in fact, to waste a lot of ink and keystrokes on a bonehead, ill-conceived cartoon. We can’t keep getting caught up in these idiotic publicity stunts that force Obama and us to focus energy on denouncing ignorant behavior every other day. Barack Obama is facing the fight of his life in this election and so are we.

Iraqi's Stimulus Package Better Than Ours

Picture George W. cruising through the hood tossing C-notes from his presidential limo while desperate citizens swarm the motorcade. Now, that's what I call a stimulus package. Hey, why not? That's what Iraqi officials are doing.

In an effort to rebuild basic services and jumpstart Iraq's damaged economy, government officials are cutting out the paperwork and getting money directly into the hands of the people by literally handing out cash on the streets. According to an Associated Press report, they are using the $70 billion the country will earn this year in oil revenues.

The handouts by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and a handful of other top officials are authorized — as long as each goes no higher than about $8,000, and the same people don't get them twice. Aides say they are meant merely to ease the pain a bit, and are motivated by a belief that better conditions will lead to more security. (source)

So, I guess we should now promptly have warm and fuzzy feelings as we fork over $5 a gallon at the pumps knowing that it is going to a good cause, right? Nice try, but no good!

I do admire their stimulus method though. It's far better than our government's method of bragging about it for months and then taking their sweet time sending out the bucks. I don’t know about you but my stimulus check has come and gone. Despite government hopes that I would run right to the mall with the guilt-laced bills clutched in my sweaty palms to buy a bunch of junk I didn’t need, I handed my windfall over to the mortgage company to guarantee myself a roof over my head for another month or so.

A few of my random friends are still rushing to their mailboxes every day and harassing the mailman in desperate anticipation of their check. Most of them have already spent the money before it even arrived. You know how you start saying, “Well, I’ll just go ahead and buy this because I have that check coming.” Before you know it, you’ve tricked off about $1,000 more than that check will ever be? Okay, maybe that’s just me. Don’t judge!

Anyway, it’s not that I didn’t appreciate my stimulus check. In fact, I’d like to formally thank George W. for throwing us a few crumbs to distract us from the thousands of lost troops and billions of dollars the oil grab - I mean - war is costing our country. Next time though, take a cue from the Iraqi Prime Minister and pass out the bread yourself.

Hey, you can always ask all of your cronies who pushed the war though or your oil buddies to help you distribute the cash. The ones that haven’t been shot in the face, that is.