A little of both, I suppose…  ”funny-funny” and also “so horrible, all we can do is laugh, funny.”  And gag a little, I guess.

Yes, I’m talking about Barrack Obama.

Sure, you hear all of us conservative bloggers call him names…  Clown, jackass, comedian, Barry, and others.  But we’ve come to a point now where we actually have to analyze the humor in all this.

I heard the White House press corps actually laughed at Jay Carney during a press briefing when Carney suggested that Obama was not campaigning on his trip around the country talking about his new “jobs bill.”

They actually laughed at him.

Note to Jay:  There is a fine line between laughing with you and at you.

Just three months ago, Obama was joking that the “…shovel ready jobs were not as shovel ready as we thought.”

That funny guy!

If this POTUS thing doesn’t work out, there must be a position open at the Improv.  Then again, his resume is a little weak, but maybe they could get him in as a bus boy?

(Whoops, I am fully aware that my use of the word “boy” will be considered racist by anyone on the left.  Please note, I mean no disrespect to any black people at all.  I also recognize that since I am a white, Christian, self-employed, male, even though I didn’t mean it here, I am inherently racist, and I will always subjugate myself and subordinate all of my life’s efforts to others because of this affliction.)

Back to Barry “Eddie Murphy” Obama….

The first Stimulus was supposed to protect us.  Obama still claims that it prevented us from going into a depression.

News flash:  We’re in a depression.

Someone please show me where everything got better.  Please show me.

The Summer of recovery?  Really?  That had to have been a Biden joke, right?  I mean…it just had to be a joke.

Or…  is the main stream media just joking?

Definitely a possibility.

Let’s see…  we started with unemployment at 7% and no economic growth.  Now we have 9% unemployment, still no growth and NOW we have and extra $5 trillion in debt, a fine new baseline of inflated budgets, a weakened dollar from all the printing, and the Chinese hold a few hundred more billion dollars in our debt.

Great!

Would someone – not a comedian – please tell me how we’re not in a Depression?

When you hear some fool say, “This could mean we’re headed toward a double dip…” just know that they are joking.

Ha! Double dip. We’re in a depression!

I’ll leave you with this stand up routine from Debbie “I’m really a commie” Wasserman “No, really, I am” Schultz:

• Keeps tax rates the same
• Re-institutes the death tax
• Increases the time people can collect unemployment by 13 months (on top of the already 99 weeks)

It is this last point that makes me so angry.  So 99 weeks + 13 months.  At about 4.2 weeks per month that’s an additional 54 weeks, for a total of 153 weeks.  Come on.  Think about where you were on December 10, 2007.  Now imagine being out of work since then.  Are you freakin serious?!  Anyway, I had a bit to say about this (imagine that!).  Here is the audio from my call to Chris Plante…

ToBeRIGHT Talks to Chris Plante

My buddy, John: Yeah, Sally got laid off 5 months ago.  Now she’s working at the Boar’s Head for under the table cash and tips, and collecting unemployment.

Me: What?  She had a great career going with her sales operations gig.

John: I know, but she made $36,000.00 in her first year out of school, now she makes like four grand a month collecting unemployment and working a couple shifts a week, and it’s tax free.

Me: Doesn’t she have any freakin self respect?

True story.  Here we have a well educated twenty-something who is choosing to collect unemployment, rather than go out and find a job.  I’m not sure what would drive someone to do this, but I suspect that it is a combination of being young and unable to see past next week and also a sense of entitlement, bred by the public school system and probably parents that did not hammer home any sense of work ethic.

And there’s more…

Many of the readers here know that ToBeRIGHT is a labor of love – my real gig is as a marketing consultant.  Two weeks ago, I completed my 2011 planning.  This plan calls for 4 new clients per month through 2011 – a nice little goal.  I decided that having a sales person would make hitting that target a lot easier.  Plus, with that number, I’ll be able to hire a full time administrator.  I put an ad in Craig’s List for a sales person.  The position would be commission only, but the sales person could make (at plan) almost $3k in the first month and about $8k per month after the first year. These numbers were advertised in the Craig’s List post.  I also include performance bonuses and profit sharing on top of the commission.

Nothing.  Nada. Zilch.  Zippo.

9.5% unemployment and I can’t find anyone willing to sell high demand services for commission.

[SIDENOTE: Yes, it is sour grapes!  I'm all irritated and cranky that I have to get out there and sell in order to hit my goals - I hate selling!]

A new Rasmussen poll says that 76% of adults know someone out of work and looking for a job.  76%!  This brings us full circle to Sally.  If they are looking for work, you could have fooled me.  Here are two circumstances that I have personal knowledge of.  First, a young woman on the dole who is quite happy about the 30% pay raise unemployment gave her and second, a job posting that got no replies save for a guy who put “sign turner” on his resume.  Really?  Really?  Good Lord.

It seems to me that there is more than just a shortage of jobs out there.  It seems that there is also a shortage of self-respect, of self-reliance, and of personal responsibility.

At least the Sign Turner was trying.

In a jaw dropping statement quoted by Jake Tapper over at ABC, Obama said:

“This morning, new figures show the economy produced 67,000 private sector jobs in August, the eighth consecutive month of private job growth.  Additionally, the numbers for July were revised upward to 107,000. Now that’s positive news, and it reflects the steps we’ve already taken to break the back of this recession.”

Hey Jackass – the unemployment rate WENT UP!

Sorry to use profanity, but come on.

Hey, “The unemployment rate went up, what do you think?”

“Great news, we’re seeing positive job growth.”

This might be the biggest WTF of the day since he told us he was going to personally supervise raising the sea levels.

Two weeks ago, I had the dreaded meeting.  First thing Monday morning, I was pulled into a conference room and given the standard HR pitch: “In an examination of the entire organization, we are making some cuts.  Your position is one that will be eliminated.  You’ve been a great asset to the company, yada, yada, yada.”

And like so many people across the country, I was downsized, laid off, let go, whatever.  I lost my job.

(I wonder how Obama will figure me into his “saved jobs” statistic?  But, I digress.)

So two Monday’s ago, I left the office and hit the W&OD Trail in Vienna, VA to go for a run and think.  What am I going to do now?  It didn’t take long to figure it out…

After the requisite conversations with myself about what I wish I’d said to the firing manager (an intolerable b&%ch) I moved on to more productive thoughts.  I decided right then and there, a mere hour after my firing, that I would start my own business.  And that’s just what I did.

After shaking off the initial shock, I went into action.  Calls to the State Corporation Commission, a corporate lawyer, set up 800# and got my company website up.  Called my accountant to discuss invoicing and billing.  Immediately updated my LinkedIn profile, and began sifting through all kinds of business and industry contacts to discuss partnerships and potential client needs.

Nine business days later, we’ve onboarded a few clients, set up speaking engagements with partners, and we’re actvely recruiting sales people (no shortage there).  Productivity is the name of the game – not a second to lose – my future depends on it.

At least twice a day I send or receive an e-mail with my wife that says something like, “We’re on our way!” or, “I know this is going to work!”  And it will.  Drive, passion, and knowing that the only thing holding me back is me.  Nobody is going to make my business work except me.

My wife, almost in jest, asked me if I was going to apply for unemployment.  It was a jest because she knew the answer before she asked: No.  Although I have been dropping some 45% of my paychecks into some government bureaucracy or another since I was 14, I don’t want that money.  Those dollars are stained with tyranny.  They are not clean dollars.  They signify everything that I stand against.  I so not want any handout.  I am able -bodied, strong, knowledgeable, and driven to succeed – I am the embodiment of a modern conservative.

Sure, I could start sleeping in, hitting Starbucks from 10 am to noon, dressing in shorts and a tee shirt, and tactily start looking for a new job, while collecting unemployment and complaining that “there’s nothing out there.”  Or I could do what I am doing – produce something.

It is interesting to note that I received a notification that Obama’s Recovery & Reinvestment Act will cover all but 35% of  my COBRA bills.  This will save me and my family some $600 per month for the next 9 months in health care costs.  But guess who pays for it?  My former employer.   So here we have a situation where my company was stretched so thin that they had to lay off some 50 sales people and a few other positions – mine included.  And now they are going to have to pay my health care premiums for the next nine months.

Did any brilliant politician stop to think that making employers pay the COBRA premiums for displaced employees will make it harder for those same companies to recover and hire back their work force?

Well, our politicians are not known for their intelligence.  I am just annoyed that so many R’s signed on to this ridiculous “recovery act).

When it’s all said and done, I will be fine.  So will all the rest of the people in this country who pull themselves up by the boot straps and do something.  Nobody will make you successful – that is for each of us to do on our own.  While some will complain and do poorly, others will thrive.  Put me in the latter group.