You guys really summed up all the concerns I have to date.  I am a illustrator/desgner in Pheonix who worked for a regional ad agency.  My family is here so don’t want to move.

Are we all supposed to re-create ourselves? 

Yea, I loved the comment that Jindal made about Obama not being transparent with his economic stimulus package.  Obama told us that we can go to:

recovery.org for any questions and info.!  Unbelievable.  Politics is eating the GOP alive!

DGP

We believe that we are in a depression that will take until 2018 to resolve. We have issues that are so overwhelming we just think that if we hold our breath and wait while Obama throws his magic bullets against the wall, that one will stick and make it all better, in 18 mos.  Is that as long as anyone can hold out? 

We are thrilled that Obama did such a great job outlining his intentions and putting specific timelines into his action plan, a fresh approach to problem solving. The question is can he do it and did he connect the cause-and-effect dots? Quite frankly he has done more in 40 days than we ever expected from George in the last 4yrs. so if he does nothing but give us motivational tapes, that’s more productive than before. The Prez. is positive and forward thinking, despite the political roadblocks he continually faced these past weeks from the Republicans who had no better ideas and no possible political gain either.  They are bitter. They just couldn’t help themselves. Like the black knight in Monty Python’s, “The Holy Grail”, still fighting with an arm and a stub of a body left. Their main claim was that Obama has been too negative about the economy.

In case you guys didn’t get the memo-and seems like George didn’t either-WE ARE IN A CRISIS. What do the Republicans expect this President do or say after this past cracker-jack administration?
Do they expect the Obama administration lie to us, like George did and continue to disrespect us?  Or say to us that we do not know what we are seeing, that everything is great and our economy is ‘thriving’ when we are spiraling into oblivian after a ‘job well done’?  The rational thinking coming in from the Republican right, after all that has been said and not said, done and not done in these past 8 yrs., is as rational as a hooker on crack. On a good day, their most recent GOP leader nominees have been comical, out of touch, completely hypocritical and delusional. 
No mystery there, either. 



There are other mysteries that came to mind after we watched and listened to his speech.



Why does The Prez. say that he will have all the troops out of Iraq within 16 mos. but still leave 50,000 troops there? That is not ‘leaving Iraq’. They want us out. We should be out and never have gone there in the first place. They have more money than we do to help themselves, so…? Why are we keeping our troops hanging around there and not focused on Afghanistan where we should have gone years ago? To ensure our oil futures? What is the real motivation?



How will all of Obama’s grandiose efforts to remove earmarks and unnecessary spending abd fgo line item for line item really make a substantial “dent” in our overall deficit issue.  With all due rspect to John McCain, we see his concern about wasted spending but we cannot ignor the fact that he knows that this “waste”is not a priotoirty for our country and that is clear that he uses this as a campaign left-over to keep him alive.  Thanks John, we see it.  We also see that those earmarks that you complain about, has created jobs.  Yes,  it’s all about private interest, but at this point who cares if it creates jobs  Also, the total amount of spending on earmarks does not  even factor into our big issues especially  when we just need to get people working again!

Obama is creating  jobs in solar energy, infrastructure maintenance, education and healthcare and also to help Joe’s ‘ground-control-neighborhood-watchdog-team’ to eliminate fraud and corruption.  After all this in put into place is it just a bandaid to currnt disaster relief or will we ever be able to ever ever ever begin to pay off the 10 trillion dollar debt we will have by end of this year without laying massive debt on future generations?  Are we so deeply in debt that our ballooned deficit is not even a factor to consider right now?  Why even mention reducing our debt? It makes no sense. Something keeps coming to mind…Fall of the Roman Empire. 

We are so far in debt, our dollar is not worth the paper its printed on and it is not ours to save anyway. I suggest we go back to our global community whom we have bailed out time and again and ask them to return the favor and cancel our current debt with them or just send cash. 

Obama’s promise to give tax credits to parents sending kids to school is crucial.  If parents can’t pay their kid’s tuition, kids either don’t go or get a loan that will haunt them them forever.  We think the 155 mil. dollar funding for 126 health centers to give preventive and primary healthcare will help the medical industry from going into bankrupcy and also keep people healthy.  The extension of unemployment and Cobra will relieve a lot of people from losing their wig and going postal.  Taxing the rich is necessary.  Regardless of where or who it comes from, Obama’s team must allocate the funding across all sectors and to the proper organizations without lobbyist pressure. We all need help so lobbyists, get in line. Severely damaged markets and sectors will create wind-tunnel-sized-gaps in the economy if we do not infuse them with job opportunities/money. Entire industires disappearing would be catastrophic. Like retail, The Arts…

I am still not convinced that giving more funds to banks and the auto giants will save/create jobs when autoworkers got laid off the day the CFO got the checks. Is this ‘hanging on to American tradition’ just an ego trip?

I am no economist and certainly not a mathematician but it seems to me that to produce loans and cars again, people in the middle class need to be working and making at least a 50,000 salary to buy these American-priced cars and take out these leveraged loans. These jobs are in middle management, retail stores, banks, corporations, mom and pops, salons and spas.  How will commercial  jobs be replaced?  Where do the unemployed autoworkers work who used to work at factories that is now producing American-made cars with our bailout money?   No one will go out and buy cars or a house if they are out of work or about to lose their jobs. No job and you cannot get a loan. I wonder if we’ll get a 40% off tax-exempt car coupon glittered with fairy dust.
We love Obama!

 We think Obama’s  ideas are off to a great start.  A forward focus on new clean coal production, solar production and conversion, producing cars back in US, infra-structure construction and maintenance, education and IT specific healthcare jobs are all great strides to resolve our unemployment crisis. 
That will take care of many but I’m not seeing much recovery for jobs my friends need, who are, in fact, our consumers.  They work in upper and middle management, designers, sales reps., musicians and artists in creative and performing arts, lawyers and retailers.
 What will we do?  Half of my friends wouldn’t know a jackhammer from a screwdriver; are as computer illiterate as I am and maybe took Biology in high school so the famous eco-science-and-building-conversion fix is out of the question.  IT is definitely not a job option.  We can make these new millennium solar bubbles look fabulous and market them.  What national program can employ our creative heads, fashionistas and corporate straphangers? 



Why can’t the GOP find anyone in the Republican Party to represent them? We know many Republicans who are more equipped to govern their co-op board than the candidates they have nominated to follow George’s legacy.  Bring back Newt, at least he’s smart, crazy and insane, but smart.  The current GOP nominees do not fit the profile of the Republican Party. Who are voting these candidates in? How’d they get Jindal, anyway? Did they pull him out of his office on Bourbon St. and say, “Hey Jindal you’re next. You’re Indian, young and have a pretty smile. The most hysterical irony is that when conservatives speak, they speak to the far-right 10% of Republican good ‘ol boys from Texas. Those boys are not going for the young, female or person of color prototype that makes their party look like a Felini cast. Remember, they were appalled and embarrassed by Palin’s incompetence even though they probably just wanted to pinch her cheeks. Now that the words that came from Jindal’s mouth were so preposterous, who knows what their coveted 10% think now.  Even Limbaugh has no intention of coming up with anyone- he just wants to make noise.  Would love to know what brilliant ideas he has and where he’s hiding his pool of awesome Republican-freedom-fighters-but-take-your-tax-breaks candidates who are perfectly primed and prepared for their ‘Don’t take from government’ mantra.

Jindal claims that he is proud to enrich his citizens with independence and not extend unemployment benefits or healthcare/Cobra to the people of Louisiana. He claims it is irresponsible and not the govt’s. responsibility to help them when they can help themselves. He claims that his citizens need to enable themselves and not look to the government since it has been known to fail with Katrina.
Jindal, that’s great in “Alice and Wonderland” but if you do not have jobs for them now then please tell us where they are going to work? How can they survive without a job, especially when most of them are still living in your dilapidated FEMA trailers/mold traps trying to recover from your Katrina disaster. Another Republican disaster that should have not happened had you guys put your hard-earned Mardis Gras cash to good work and fix the dam and levy when it needed it 15 years ago. That brings me to Jindal’s comment that the national government’s role in Katrina is an example why you should not trust our US government to handle your life. It was his party that was in control of the government at the time of Katrina that he is talking about. Should we not trust you with your big smile? or Republicans?  I actually agree with you. Your citizens would be better off playing Texas hold ‘em with tarot cards than to trust you at the helm. 



The best mystery of all.  Why does anyone want to pay top dollar to hear George speak when he had nothing to say for 8 years?? Have we all lost our minds? Is the world on tilt?  George is getting his ‘ol coffers back and has been booked to do 12, hi-paid speaking engagements in 10 cities. What do you think he has to say now? “Hey folks, well I guess my team and I screwed up our economy, foreign relations, housing and employment for years to come. Ugh…So what?  We still believe in America, don’t we?  We’re strong, resilient and we will make it thru…”.

We only researched the blogs that interest us.  Apologies to our friendly tech heads, we did not add digital/internet/web design/software chat blogs since we figured that you all knew them anyway!  We also listed the links according to who the “typical” reader would be.  We actually fit into all these groups but we wanted to divide up the links for easy referencing! 

For our fashionistas:

Sugarloving.com: They talk about love, sex, fashion, home and garden, mind/body….ya know, the “Cosmopolitan” of blogs that us girls like!

Lipstick.com- more gossip and celeb. news.  We  have our faves but this is a key one for gossip hounds.

Stylehive.com- Hooking up stylish people with the stylish…

Chictini.com- With the latest and the cute…

For our conservatives:

Tipd.com- Social news site about money and finances.

Ballhype.com- For the sports fanatics.

Sportsag.com- An aggregated listing of the best articles in sports.

Feedthebull.com-See what new businesses are hot in the market.

Memeorlame.com-gizmos, gadgets, cars and cellphones.

For everyone else:

Hugg.com-For all our latest in environmental news and issues.

Realestatevoices.com- News about the housing market that you don’t hear about everyday.

Petzume.com- For all of us pet lovers!

Wordsy.com- Books, writing and words.

AgentB.org- Best deals on-line.

Dealigg.com- Great bargain hunting on-line!

Truemors.nowpublic.com- An interesting approach to the latest in news and gossip.

Plime- weird and interesting links no one has heard of.

If we could just be there...

Throwing a Mardis Gras party with your cubical mates or neighbors?  Going to a tear-your-eyes-out shmooze fest/carnival that your boss is throwing?  Or are you trolling down to New Orleans with your buddies for Fat Tuesday week and need a few cliff-notes on what Mardis Gras is all about. Well, here are a few “factoids” that you can throw out in a pinch if you’re cornered by a topless girl in beads or by a phallic mask in a suit. Hold onto your mojito and trade your beads.  Go for the 33″ ones!  Those are “hot” now.

1. Mardis Gras came from the latin/roman/christian holiday “Lupercalia” honoring the God of Lupercus, God of fertility, agriculture and shepards.

Meant to be the last bash before Lent - the 40 days when everyone has to dry out and get right.

Started in 1830’s by a group of professional and political men.  They called themselves the Krewes.  Since then, there have been dozens of Krewe clubs formed. Each Krewe must supply a float, banner, hold a ball in celebration of Mardis Gras and also have their own parade to be considered an authentic and approved Krewe, eligible for Mardis Gras.

There are over 60 parades a year celebrating Mardis Gras in New Orleans.

2.  The 3 main colors in Mardis Gras each represent a “virtue”:

Gold- Power  Green- Faith Purple- Justice

3. The bead phenomena started in 1920 by the Fex Krewe when they threw glass beaded necklaces from the floats.  It is all about trading your beads.  Rumor has it that drunk rowdy men started to demand trade for a look-see so that is how flashing topless girls started on Bourbon Street in the 50’s.

Krewes throw anything, like the Zulu Pleasure Club, that threw hand painted coconuts from their float until the safety dep’t. determined that it was harmful to pedestrians so banned them from throwing them.  Now they hand them out in bags.

4. The coins are called “Doubloons”- initially made of thin sheet metals, but since Katrina, most inventory was lost and now metal coins have become rare and replaced by plastic.  There is an embossing of the Krewes’ logo on one side and their parade theme on the other.

5. The four main ceremonial drinks of Mardis Gras are: Mint Julip, Bloddy Mary, Hurricane and Mojito.

6. The King Cake is a sweet white ring cake with the 3 colors of icing on top: Purple, Gold and Green.  The cake is made by each Krewe as a spiritual symbol used at Mardis Gras symbolizing the epiphany when the Kings came to bring Jesus gifts, hence, a hidden baby doll in the cake.  Get the piece of cake with the baby and you will have a lucky year…GOD Bless!

7. The music for Mardis Gras is Zydeco and Jazz.

8.  The key to any great Mardis Gras party is that it must be a theme.  We would throw a 70’s fancy dress party in appreciation of a time when everyone was happy, creative, self-expressive and spirit-filled and stood up for what they believed.

How ’bout your party?  If you are throwing one, tell us all about it. 

Check out ME2 “Cocktail Party” for recipes.

You begin playing flip cup with an even numbered teams and a flat surface (table). Typically 4 - 6 flip cup players on a team will work. 

Each member fills a plastic cup about 1/4 full (amounts vary) and sets the cup it in front of them. 

The first two competitors on each flip cup team begin to chug the beer in their glass and then they sit it right side up on the edge of the table with a portion of the cup hanging off the table and hit it upwards to try to make the cup sit up side down. The other team members can’t go on until the first persons cup has been flipped up side down. The first team to get all of their cups up side down wins.