On the way to work, i threw on POTUS Channel 110 on Sirius. Now, for those of you who don't have Sirius, it absolutely rules (with the exception of them eliminating the techno station "Boombox"... RIP Channel #34. You were the best). And one of the reasons Sirius rules is because of this POTUS station which in my opinion, presents more real facts than most news sources these days. So this particular morning, the host of the "Morning Briefing," Tim Farley, was interviewing someone about the aforementioned Presidential trip to Asia. Being that this was before the election, the guy being interviewed said that Obama going to Asia immediately after the elections would look like he was trying to escape the country after his Democrats were obliterated. Of course, it wouldn't be an escape, the guy concluded, since some legitimate shit had to be taken care of there.
So, over the next few days/weeks, I lived my life normally. There weren't any major stories in the news. Obama visited India. Then he went to Indonesia. Then he was in Korea for Veteran's Day. And then, sometime last week, I heard the rumor that has circulated like wildfire that Obama's trip to Asia would cost taxpayers in the neighborhood of $200 Million/Day. Now I was really late to the party on this one. I heard this for the first time this past Wednesday. And it made me irate because I immediately knew it was bullshit.
I knew this was bullshit because my job essentially consists of playing "The Price Is Right" with large construction projects. Did you know, for example, that a six building adaptive reuse project at the St. Elizabeth's campus in Washington, DC was just awarded by the General Services Administration for $58 Million? (Award is Here. $58 M to Grunley Construction) So what does that even mean, right?
WELL, that means that GSA (a part of the government that basically manages government facilities, among other things) is going to pay a construction company $58M over three years to completely renovate six large buildings. These buildings are going to form the new headquarters for the Department of Homeland Security here in DC. A few of these buildings are shown below:
SO, in my mind, you are completely full of shit if you tell me that our President's overseas trip costs 300% MORE PER DAY than a three year construction project that will build part of the new headquarters for the Department of Homeland Security. By the way, the $200M/day myth is debunked in 100 other places on the Internet. So, who is full of shit here and lying to the American public?
Well, one of the liars is Glenn Beck. He is such a blubbery and deceitful motherfucker that I would love to kick him in the face if he ever gets within range of my leg. But what really pisses me off, is that after shamelessly backing such a grand monetary lie, he seems to believe he is an expert on complicated economic policy:
From Business Week (BW Article on Quantitative Easing):
Open Letter
A group of 23 economists, money managers and former government officials issued an open letter to Bernanke on Nov. 15 saying the central bank’s planned bond purchases “risk currency debasement and inflation” and won’t boost employment. That broadside capped a string of attacks from conservatives including Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck.
Now while the group of 23 economists mentioned above are much smarter than Beck and Palin, I find it concerning that these two clowns launched a string of attacks on the Fed in the first place. What a country we live in where total idiots can comment on complex issues beyond their understanding, and inspire hundreds of thousands of others to buy into their lunacy.
Here is what Beck had to say about the Fed's decisions (if you can stomach looking at him... skip to 7:45):
Among the stupid-as-fuck things that he says:
1) What the Fed is doing is probably the "Biggest bet in history and the biggest bet in the history of the planet."
This is false and a half. The "Biggest bet in history and the biggest bet in the history of the planet was either this:
or this:
This is false and a half. The "Biggest bet in history and the biggest bet in the history of the planet was either this:
or this:
2) He implies the US is as economically desperate as Zimbabwe
Really Glenn? Really? We're going to be like this now?
Really Glenn? Really? We're going to be like this now?
Every single time Palin or Beck opens their mouth, aside from an angel dying, this plays in my head:
They are that stupid. And this concludes my rant. Fact check the "facts" you hear! And turn off Glenn Beck!
2 comments:
Loved this. And totally agree with you on the whole Armageddon thing being easily the biggest bet in the history of the planet. I mean the odds to that worked out had to be about 2823842389239809709275093 to 1. (Rough estimate.)
I agree- The odds of landing on that asteroid and nuking it were very close to the figure you mention. Of course, I don't mean to belittle Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum's task of flying an alien ship INTO the alien mothership and uploading a computer virus to deactivate all alien shields- But it's just that their task wasn't quite as complex as Bruce Willis'.
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