~ while the rest of us – or maybe 3% of us – struggle to pay our energy bills, yet still freeze our asses off whilst wearing four (4) layers indoors, obama likes to keep it warm enough to sit around in his shirtsleeves in january:

Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.

“He”s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama”s senior adviser, David Axelrod”

–nytimes.com

yet, a day or so earlier, he was admonishing the relatively southern city of washington, dc, because they don’t have enough snow shovels or mr. plows:

“My children’s school was canceled today,” Obama said, speaking to reporters before a meeting with business leaders. “Because of what? Some ice? . . . We’re going to have to apply some flinty Chicago toughness to this town.”

–washington post

despite obama’s strange ability to navigate blizzards with aplomb yet still be uncomfortable in a 64 degree room, and notwithstanding obama’s lack of ‘concern’ for either frugality or for the fate of those remaining polar bears perched on disappearing ice floes as the white house burns more than enough fuel, why can’t anyone determine where he is from – hawaii or illinois? i guess lincoln must have claimed to be from more than one state, too. meanwhile, jimmy carter was indisputably from georgia, and he installed solar panels on the white house.

~ under ordinary circumstances, we would be gleeful to hear about economic woes at starbucks – at least with regards to their closing stores. but earlier this week we heard about caterpillar and home depot laying off employees, so this seems like a too much of a mess for us to be excited. where else can people get jobs if not at a shitty ‘coffee shop’? has wal-mart fired anyone yet? after this starbucks news, we suspect that when the day arrives that mcdonald’s announces layoffs, we all should collapse to the ground and hope for an alien invasion, because there is nothing left to save us.

“Starbucks Corp. said Wednesday that it would cut as many as 6,700 jobs as it closes hundreds more stores and eliminates more positions at its corporate headquarters.

Faced with slowing demand for lattes and cappuccinos because of the recession, Starbucks plans to close 300 stores, including 200 in the United States, and eliminate about 6,000 store jobs. The company also plans to eliminate about 700 corporate jobs, including about 350 at its corporate headquarters in Seattle.

The coffee giant made the announcement as it reported that its profit dropped 69 percent in its fiscal first quarter with sales continuing to slide. ”

msnbc

“If we didn”t have marijuana, what would this county be like?” said Sligh. “I think we”d all be selling Amway. I mean what else are we going to do?”
–msnbc

1. build a house?
2. paint a self-portrait?

we are stumped!

“Kennedy’s withdrawal would leave New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo as a front-runner for the job. Cuomo is a former cabinet secretary under President Bill Clinton and the son of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo.”

of course he is.

~ a historically sad day for our country:

“…At this time the Pasta With Flax has been discontinued due to slow sales in all of our stores. This product was specifically produced for Trader Joe’s and is no longer being manufactured…”

~ to the hundreds of people being interviewed or providing commentary on npr – and likely elsewhere – today, the first indonesian president taking the oath to be a president of the united states is a historic, not ‘an historic’ event.