I received this in the mail the other day. Just a few observations: What ever happened to target audience, when advertising? Wouldn’t they want to send these to people who haven’t actually already earned a college degree? Also, judging by the pictures on the ad, I’m not sure if I would exactly fit-in with the rest of the student body. Finally, could they have been any less discreet about shamelessly ripping off the “yes, you can” part? They should have just written “Obama went to college, so should you.”

[Photo via University of Utah Athletic Department]

Yes, March madness is afoot. My team (Univ. of Utah) doesn’t play until tomorrow night. So I guess that I don’t really have a good excuse to take off work. I’m pretty excited about it though. U of U had a pretty good season, winning the MWC. I wish that I would have been able to follow the action more closely this year. They are going into the tournament as a No. 5 seed and the first game is against Arizona. I haven’t done a bracket this year. I guess I’m in denial that March is already here. People who are way busier than I am (with stuff like solving financial crises, commanding, chiefing, etc..), have still found the time to fill out a bracket. You can check out President Obama’s bracket here.

Utah, arch rival, No. 8 seeded BYU started their first round this afternoon against Texas A&M. I wasn’t able to watch the actual game, but I followed the web cast. I know it is bad for the conference and everything. But for some reason, I just love to see the Cougars choke. Barack likes Utah and BYU in the first round, but that’s as far as they get, on his bracket. Unfortunately for El Presidente, BYU has already taken a dive. Way to go Cougs. Now you have let down our country, too. Hahahaha. Let’s hope that Obama is better at his political and economic predictions than he is at predicting college basketball tournaments.

Participants of WWF’s Earth hour will turn off their lights at 8:30 local time on March 28. Get on board. Check out the details here.

Who is better?

Obama:

or Bush:

Thanks for the heads up, Jansen.

Normally I like to leave posts about Politics and Economic woe, for allupinyour.biz, but I saw this graphic today on Animal New York, and it got me thinking.

The amount of money represented in the graphic above, is one billion dollars. One trillion dollars is one thousand times what you see in the picture. That’s a lot of cash. Ok, now that you have the mental image of one trillion dollars, try to put it into a practical example. I hate Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh as much as the next guy, but Rove has published a couple of articles recently that have really gotten under my skin (not because of the author). The reason they bothered me, is because the content of the articles, points to all of the discrepancies of the campaigning Obama, vs. Commander in Chief Obama. Today, a different Carl, sent me the link to an WSJ Op. Ed. piece authored by Rove. A lot of it was repeat content of an article published earlier this week, also authored by Rove, dealing with bait and switch. But the part of today’s article that blew my mind, was the following:

Not even Team Obama can forestall unpleasant reality. And among those America now faces is Mr. Obama adding $3.2 trillion to the national debt in his first 20 months and 11 days in office, eclipsing the $2.9 trillion added during the Bush presidency’s entire eight years.

Whoa! $2.9T is a lot any way you slice it. But to Bush’s credit, it was spread over 8 years, including all of the 911 and war crap. The Obama administration is a runaway train and the boiler fire is being stoked by pallets full of money. 20 months?!!! $3.2 trillion?!! Ok, so now take the money in the picture, multiply it by 1 thousand, then multiply that by 3.2. It may just be my limited imagination, but I’m having a hard time even picturing the image of 1 thousand times what is in the graphic. Was this really the kind of change that we were looking for?

I was dying, when I saw this picture on Gothamist. It appears that someone is voicing their displeasure with NY politics, by spoofing on the “Keep it Going NYC,” Campaign. Who ever you are, nice work! Hahahaha.

Earlier this week, I came across this quote by John Adams, in the book I’m currenty reading. It was taken from one of his writings contemplating the post British rule, state of the Colonies. He wrote:

We may please ourselves with the prospect of free and popular governments. But there is a great danger that those governments will not make us happy. God grant they may. But I fear that in every assembly, members will obtain an influence by noise, not sense. By meanness, not greatness. By ignorance, not leaning. By contracted hears, not large souls.

I could not agree more. But I really appreciate the fact that he has the character to follow up the above statement with this observation:

There must be decency and respect, and veneration introduced for persons of authority of every rank, or we are undone. In a popular government, this is our only way.

The second part is a lot more difficult to practice, even if you agree with it.  I will try to reflect on it, every time that I start to get annoyed about the guy in the governors mansion. The guy who nobody voted for, wearing jogging shorts, with his feet up on the desk.

I’m really seeing the fruits of that hard fought stimulus package, right about now. Or maybe this is just a reaction to Oscars, Hahahah. Wouldn’t it be awesome if bankers had a Wall Street equivalent of Hollywood’s Oscars? All of the Wall Street players could have a big televised party  where they get together,  blow smoke up each other’s arses  and give each other awards on TV. Don’t forget to mix in some extremely biased political views during the award speeches. Why not? I feel like Bernie Madoff and John Thain are probably as notorious as Sean Penn, these days. Forgive my cynicism. Sometimes, I just can’t help but let it fly.

I thought it was fitting that I finish the book “1776″ on Presidents day. I guess it would have been more fitting, had I finished it on Independence Day, but whatev. Presidents day is cool enough. I also hadn’t realized before reading this book, that I was born on the 200th anniversay of the battle of Pell’s Point. I would never have guessed that the book would be such a page turner. Most of the second part of the book takes place steps from where I live, as well as from where I work. So, as nerdy as I am, I couldn’t help but to try to imagine what it must have been like during the winter of 1776. Especially when I was running through Fort Tryon park last week. I tried to imagine what the battle at Ft. Washington must have been like.  I wondered if there were the remains of any fallen Patriots, Hessians or British buried somewhere in the park.  I suppose that my locale was part of the reason that my dad recommended (and sent a copy of ) the book to me. So, thanks again, dad.

I appreciated “1776″ so much, in fact, that I started McCullough’s “John Adams” on the train this morning. I’m sure that it will prove to be equally entertaining.

Shepard Fairey is back at it, producing artwork for a “good cause.” The image to the left, is for a World Wildlife Foundation campaign to get everyone to turn out their lights for an hour on March 28th. Lets hope that Shep doesn’t get in any trouble for this one. He has been going through some rough times lately, including being arrested last Sunday. In addition, he is being sued by the Associated Press, for infringing copyright.

The iconic “Hope” image that was created and distributed by Fairey, during the Obama campaign, was tracked back to an Associated Press photo taken by Mannie Garcia, on assignment  by AP. The AP is now suing Fairey, claiming copyright infringement. Can you image the can of worms that is liable to open? Anyone who has done a stencil, can now owe royalties to the photographer who produced the picture it was taken from? Is the guy who took the Andre the Giant photo that Fairey modeled his “Obey” campaign on, now going to come out of the woodwork demanding cash?

Fairey’s lawyers argue that there is no infringement, under the “fair use” doctrine. I feel kind of bad for the guy. I hope that he doesn’t lose this one. Can you imagine the kind of damages that he would have to pay? That “Hope” piece was EVERYWHERE. I hope that if he does lose, that the court at least takes into account the fact that the profit generated from the piece, was primarily used to print and distribute more copies.

Here is the AP photo and the Fairey piece, side by side. You be the judge.