Bush Creates Jobs, Just Not Here

I think there’s some debate over The Shoe, but it looks like there are plenty of orders to go around. Only quibble: Do we know whether America’s Hero Muntadar (Muntathar/Muntazar/etc) is getting a cut?

@nojo: He needs to get an endorsement deal. Zaidi plays his cards right he could end up on boxes of Wheaties hurling shoes in righteous rage.

Speaking of morans less intelligent than a shoe.

Rush’s let the Oxy go deeper into his “brayne.” Starts blaming the demrats for the Wall St meltdown. I kinda got a creepy chill reading this.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/22/limbaugh-democrats-indy/

@FlyingChainSaw: I’m thinking a pair of Pumas with W’s face etched into the sole. He could sell the living shit out of ’em …

He’s a hero and an inspiration for all humankind. Soon, Bush and Cheney will have much less stringent protection, and this guy may, I pray, have started a trend, throwing things at them.

@Promnight: To make it even more beautiful, apparently amongst middle eastern muslims, throwing a shoe at someone is a really serious insult, its like throwing a jizz-filled condom or a full colostomy bag at someone (human shit is even more foul when it hasn’t had the benefit of full passsage through the system, I know this because of my aunt who had a bag for like 40 years, whew, sometimes you’d get a wicked whiff of hell if she was drunk and not tending to it properly).

Air Muntazar?

I’m sure that Nike would send the jobs from Turkey to Bangladesh in a blink of the eye.

Or what is the sports shoe sweat shop locale de jour? Zimbabwe? Sudan?

@SanFranLefty: Alabama. Just like cars.

@blogenfreude: Toyota is closing one of its southern plants, idiot management making gas guzzlers noone wants to buy.

@Promnight: The carmakers couldn’t understand that sometimes you shouldn’t get what you want, but should get what you need. We needed Corollas and Prii (uses).

@Promnight:

Mississippi fucking deserves the Toyota plant closing.

@SanFranLefty: Of two minds … they should be punished for being a consistently red state, but I hate to see ‘Murrican jobs go.

@blogenfreude: I love you, Bloggie, I do, like a brother, but dude, huh? It just doesn’t work that way. People who make things and sell them just aren’t in a position to tell people what to buy, any car maker who decided to sell hair shirts cause its the right thing to do would be an epic fail.

Blame real estate developers, blame the desire of every person to have a little grassy estate, instead of an apartment in a building near the subway. We live in suburbs because we have cars to get around, it gives people the ability to live in little houses with yards and stuff, people like that, cars made it possible, and the spread and sprawl made mass transit impossible.

My Bloggie man, its not a problem that you can lay at the door of any particular car maker or anything else, its the US way of life, its based on the automobile, and its made alternatives impossible.

Cities are efficient, people can be stacked up, live within walking distance of jobs and what they need, or else within walking distance of mass transit. No need for cars.

But once people want to live all spread out, its impossible to get mass transit spread out to where everyone lives, it just doesn’t work that way, mass transit can only work where population density is high. But people have rejected city living for the suburban sprawl.

Once your system is totally car-dependant, as ours is, switching to efficient cars is just painting over the wallpaper, man. Its cosmetic. Its just tweaking the margins. It does not address the systemic problem, which is a way of life which depends on cars, period.

I is gonna say this again and again, its systemic, not to be blamed on any one actor in this complex societal system.

SanFranLefty: “Mississippi Tennessee Alabama, home of Bob “Kill the UAW By Any Means Necessary” Corker Richard Shelby, fucking deserves the Toyota plant closing.”

Fixed.

[LATE UPDATE: Actually, there are no Toyota plants in Tennessee. There is, however, one in Alabama. Huntsville, to be exact. Sorry.]

@chicago bureau:

Them too. Fuck Tennessee.

I have personal slash professional history with those two states in particular which would make me happy to see all of them freaking and geeking out about their Japanese overlords leaving.

But let’s just not add the new Toyota Tundra pick-em-up plant in San Antonio which is employing half of all of the out-of -work blue collar Latinos left up the proverbial rio de la caca without a paddle after all the air force bases closed. Because I have the right to be provincial and that closure would hurt the extended SFL family.

@Promnight:
I live in the city. Capital T The Capital C City according to many in the Bay Area.
I love it. I don’t want to leave. But I kind of would like to have like 18 square feet of lawn attached to a door with a dog door so I could get a puppy dog again. Does that mean I’m part of the problem? Does that make me evil?

@Promnight: The Tundra? I saw one of those at the LA Auto Show a couple of years ago. Bigger than my student apartments. And much nicer inside, too.

@SanFranLefty: Nooo, you are not evil, thats what I am saying, scapegoating individual actors in a complex interdependant system is wrong.

I envy you living in the city. I think people want to live in the suburbs for their kids, but without kids, I would love to live in a city, myself, and I think what with the driving kids everwhere shit insanity now in the suburbs, kids would be better off in the city walking to school and activities.

Ah fuck, I am insanely twisted right now. I love you all, I have some vague feelings of revelation and deep truth from my vacation, but the ideas have not gelled. I was impressed by the simple and happy lifestyles of the people of the Abacos.

@Promnight:
I envy you having a vacation.

I feel like I can’t complain – I have clients who can’t get sick and they don’t get paid. I get a shit load of vacation days from my job – all unclaimed – because I can’t afford to travel anywhere and Mr. SFL doesn’t get paid if he doesn’t work (much like my clients). I travel all the time for work – often to semi-cool places. But it’s not the same to travel with two business suits and a wrinkly white oxford and a blue t-shirt you’re praying will all make it for three days so you don’t overload your suitcase and have to hassle with checking luggage.

So by the time I’m done traveling to semi-glamorous and shit spots for work, the last thing I want to do is get on a plane. And Mr. SFL can’t come with me, and I can’t afford to travel, so what do I do? I read the NYT Travel section as if it were Prom Night Food Porn. And I walk around SF and remind myself that I am lucky to live in a major travel destination and to stop feeling sorry for myself because I am alive and I have health insurance and I have a job that gives me vacation which will pay me out when I get laid off in three months.

So sad how low our expectations fall.

/okay, enough feeling sorry for myself, my day of self-indulgence ended 19 minutes ago on the east coast.

@SanFranLefty: After the past year, you deserve your full 24 hours of self-pity. Use these last 2hours and 36 minutes for all they’re worth. And allow me to chip in: I couldn’t get to work today because of the fucking snow — which I am SO over — so I tried to log into the computer remotely so i could do some work at home and get paid something. But the log-in didn’t work, and when I called the computer guy (around 11:30 AM), his wife said he was out and would call back. He finally called at 6:30 PM, saying he had been out playing with his kids in the snow. Once upon a time, when I was salaried and had paid vacation, I would have loved a snow day, but now it just stresses me out.

@Promnight: scapegoating individual actors in a complex interdependent system is wrong.

Well, shit, there go all the blogs.

@FlyingChainSaw: Throwing shoes at world leaders is the Iraqi version of streaking across the field at the Super Bowl with a URL for some crappy website written on your chest in lipstick.

@Promnight: They got people to buy Vegas, Reliants, and the X car. They can sell you a Cobalt if they try.

@blogenfreude: Not to mention Pintos and Gremlins and K-cars.

But the truth lies somewhere in the middle, and I’m taking aim at… yep, the government. When you construct appealing tax dodges that involve buying the most wasteful cars around, what do you expect? When you don’t provide incentives to both manufacturers and consumers to do the right thing, of course they’re going to go crazy. Or, sorry, didn’t our little Wall Street object lesson in regulation make an impression?