Oh Yeah, Well You Can't Get Falafel on the Street for $4 in Omaha. Am I right people??

It's not very often that my home state gets mentioned in any form of media that's not football or agriculture related.

However, every so often, the pages (in this case virtual) of a big city periodical will make a smidgen of room for the state that founded Arbor Day.

Daily Intel makes the point that things aren't so bad in fly-over country, especially with regard to unemployment. Nebraska actually ticked downward last month to 4.2%! The recovery is on!

Oh but wait...the boom was never really over or even going on for that matter. That's a major point of the post. Lots of the flyover states don't have investment bankers or luxury condos on beachfront property so things just aren't hurting as much...Most people in Nebraska would probably say "duh" (or perhaps "der") to this news but any press is good press Huskerinos, even in the blogosphere.

The Downturnaround Is Long Nebraska [Daily Intel]

I Guess Things Could be Worse...At Least Spring is Almost Here!

So being employed again has put me in a position of not being able to write as much. I know that's a lame excuse but there's only so many hours in a day and I require sleep...that being said, when someone calls me out, I feel it is my responsibility so answer some motivating criticism.

Two coerced readers (whom I send the posts to automatically via email) both were less than impressed with my link to the Financial Times article about the thousands of people at the New York job fair. Fine, so maybe I'm getting a little lazy.

As a response, I'll address a point that one of the readers brought up: what the hell has the special needs group known as Congress been doing for the past month and a half? Plus, it's been an on-going circus with the whole new administration. Michelle's arms, Rahm Emanuel likes to curse, the bloody dog, and the BIGGEST shocker of them all? Washington DC is still disgustingly partisan.

Aren't you glad that so many people voted for change? I mean, sheeeeesh, things are SOOOOO different. Banks are still being nationalized pre-privatized, companies are still laying off workers, baseball players are still getting outed for steroids, AIG is heating their buildings by burning their bailout money, General Motors still makes crappy cars, and Democrats and Republicans in congress still would rather break bread with Osama bin Laden than work together on any meaningful legislation that might actual accomplish something.

But our government officials really aren't that interested in doing anything but blaming each other. It's not in their best interest to work together. How the hell else are they going to get elected? They've got to be able to point to someone that isn't doing anything to help us (e.g. the other party). No one wants to point to, GASP, accomplishments.

A lot of this blame falls on the Democrats. I mean, they've got the power right? They wanted it so bad and now that they have it all they've done is continue blame the other party, "Just you wait Republicans! Once we get this ball rolling, you'll never win another election, EVER!" Too bad nothing has happened except unemployment rocketing through the stratosphere and the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging below 7k.

All of that being said, Republicans haven't done a damn thing either. All they're doing is going back to all their old cliches and making excuses. Like the whole notion that the White House talking about Rush Limbaugh and what a blowhard he is, is somehow distracting the American people from the adminstration's policies. Apparently, Lenin has taken residence in our new President and the only way they (i.e. the White House) can distract the American people is talk about Rush Limbaugh.

First of all, the "American People" are really more distracted by NASCAR, Bud Light commercials, and Brangelina then what's going on in DC. Second of all, the Republicans had the better part of EIGHT YEARS to do things and what did they do? They completely dropped the ball. Our country is in a total quagmire and it's largely their fault.

Did John Boehner think that the day that BO took the oath that all those lost jobs would come back? Sean Hannity is blaming BO retroactively to March 2008 when he "won" the election so all of this is clearly his fault.

On top of all this, it's becoming more and more likely that it will be necessary for ANOTHER stimulus package because the first one was too small. Aren't you glad that some of the scholars in the Senate cut some "wasteful spending" and "trimmed the fat"? We're right back to where we started becuase no one thought that unemployment would continue rising like A-Rod at a Madonna concert.

So what do we take from all this? We're clearly in the rut of electing some really good politicans and NOT electing problem solvers. Hey, it's just our country, what's a decade of economic turmoil going to hurt?

Donations Can Be Made on Behalf of All the Journalists Who Will Now Try Writing Spy Novels

This might be what we would read in the obituary of the Rocky Mountain News, whose last publication is today. Read about here, here, and here. Here's an "official" obit.

Apparently for this Greatest Depression thing to really gather some steam, a major Denver newspaper had to go down.

Is it sad? Sure. The Rocky was published for 150 years. The longest run business in Colorado. That's not exactly a weekend in the Hamptons (or Vail, the choice is yours). But what I think we're witnessing is another business model that has failed to keep up with the changing business environment and was just plain run by morons who probably don't know a damn thing about working capital or debt/equity ratios.

Hell, if banks and car companies don't have a chance, what kind of odds does a tabloid-format newspaper have?

Step in My Office...

Let me just first say that this posting has been a long-time coming. I've had lots of time to think about it so hopefully the wait has been worth it.

For me, getting laid off has been weird. Not weird in the sense of someone trying to open the obviously locked bathroom stall door while you're in the middle of an evacuation but weird in the sense of how happy I am as a result of this "reduction in force".

Which, for the record, is the stupidest buzz phrase for a massive nation-wide LAYOFF. You're not taking troops out of Iraq, KPMG, so let's just be honest...Just sayin.

Sorry about the disgression...Yes, I'm happy that I got laid off. Thrilled, in fact. Relieved too. Thinking about how hard I'm NOT going to be working during the months of January through April is a huge weight off my mind. I have many friends that are remaining in the trenches and I've got to say that it may not be the best year to still be there. The unfortunate reality of the sitch is that the amount of work has not changed and has probably increased. Meanwhile, the amount of the people working has most certainly decreased.

Now, you don't have to be a MIT graduate to figure out this equation: MORE WORK + LESS PEOPLE = MORE WORK PER PERSON. Oh and when MORE WORK PER PERSON goes up, your personal life GOES DOWN. BIG TIME. Does this clear up my serentity for you?

Regardless of my logic, there will be friends and colleagues that will think that I am still nuts and that's fine. I can't expect everyone to appreciate my perspective and that's not necessarily what this blog is about.

All I can say is, don't worry for me. DON'T. I'm asking this of you because not only am I happy, I'm feeling completely liberated. It's hard to explain. Perhaps it's the type of feeling that you have when you're so dissatisfied with a situation and then suddenly it is fixed far beyond your expectaions.

Not only that, I can't help but think that being a part of this large financial meltdown doesn't do something interesting for my life story...Granted, there are many people like me but they're not necessarily writing about it but certainly hope they are all enjoying themselves as much as I am.

Conviction by Embarassment

Wow - it's been a couple of week since I posted so getting back into it can be tough sometimes.  Now that the dust has somewhat settled after the nuclear winter known as the U.S. Economy, the public hangings can commence.  Most of these will be courtesy of Bill O'Reilly (via DealBreaker).  

Stan O'Neal, former CEO of Merrill Lynch (my 401k custodian), is up first.

Crisis? What Crisis?

Uncle Ben seems ok.