President Obama’s Jobs Speech sounded hopeful. The delivery was excellent. I did not see it, but rather heard it on the radio. It’s easy to misinterpret the sound of applause, politicians being the actors they are. On the other hand, when listening only, one gets more of the intended content and the writing than when confronted with all the visual distractions.

Putting people back to work in public works projects is something some have been begging the administration to do for some time. It worked in the past, but in today’s divisive and corruption laden environment, it remains to be seen if the pork can be kept out of the beans, as Obama promised in his speech.

Extending unemployment for another year is at odds with putting people back to work. Some have been on unemployment for many years now, and I believe that is just wrong. It’s not just my personal experience; I’m one of those who has steadily paid into the system, and yet have never qualified for Unemployment Insurance even when I needed it most. It’s not sour grapes, but I am here to report that I made it through just fine, and although at times I had to search hard for work, and sometimes settle for what some would see as menial jobs, I perservered. So, in my view, many who are on the dole appear to be either lazy or gaming the system.

Despite the media reports, which are based on official numbers, which are based on a lot of bull, it can be observed that there are plenty of jobs available. Illegal Mexican immigrants continue to stream across the border to take them, because hardly any Americans will “lower themselves” to take the jobs the Mexicans will. There are service jobs everywhere, and that has increased steadily in the last year. Reports indicate that $99,000/yr jobs are going begging in the latest oil boomtowns in North Dakota, where Walmart sells out every day and McDonald’s pays workers $15/hr and still needs more.

In the face of the empirical evidence, it seems wrong to extend Unimployment Insurance. I fear the manifestation of a “lost generation” of workers who have no job skills, no understanding of how to look for, perform on, and keep a job. This is a crowd lacking in determination, with a sense of entitlement to an income, or worse, a job that requires no work. Such a generation would be a drag on the economy for as long as they live. True, ending the extensions to UI would cause some pain, but clearly, there are some who need to feel some pain. And the pain of our current economic situation is something that should be shared: for unless that happens, there will be insufficient motivation to the populace to drag our sorry butts out of the pit we’re in.

Back to the Obama proposals, I wish them well. His bill goes beyond anything the pain-averse lamer politicians in the Congress and Senate could come up with. That bunch needs to be sent out into the fields to pick fruit and nudge out some of the illegal workers. It would be a hit on their income and a rude awakening, but something they desperately need.

That’s my two cents. What’s yours?

I decided to catch up on politics a little before my vacation ended. I don’t watch TV, so I used my Internet device that’s designed to allow the cable company and websites more completely monitor my every move. I pulled in “State of the Union” with Candy Crowly (“the bear”). She was Interviewing some Republican would-be contender.

I had just seen some clips of Sarah Palin squeaking and barking like an obese prairie dog begging for chocolate by the side of the road. I’d also seen President Obama pontificating in New Jersey, flanked by the local limelight-seeking politicians, before an illegal migrant whose home had been wiped out by the flooding. The illegal was sobbing, and it seemed as if Obama, in a flash of cognition, grasped that the woman was not impressed by his pontificating. He stopped his spiel, bent over her, and put his arm around her shoulder in a choreographed display of political correctness. He said to the woman in an unconvincing attempt to be empathetic: “it’s hard, I understand.” The woman sobbed even harder, and the program cut back to the anchor.

And so, when a Republican functionary exposed bits of his underbelly to “the bear” in return for a shot at nearly an hour of TV time, I couldn’t help but feel that the whole thing was, like, so last week. Where are the aliens when we need them? Not the illegals, but the ones from outer-space. We desperately need something new in the way of leadership, but Democrats and Republicans just don’t seem to be up to it.

So, my vacation is over, and I’ll have to return to Earth. I’ll watch as the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging, in the form of over a dozen Republican candidates, marches by. I’ll wish that the media didn’t have a blackout on Ron Paul’s candidacy. I’ll pray for a visitation by aliens with greater intelligence. I’ll hope that when they come, we don’t treat them like we did in District 9. I figure alien’s inhumanity to man can’t be much worse than man’s inhumanity to man, and may well be better. I’ll wish that Americans on Unemployment Insurance realized there are good paying jobs in North Dakota, and that they should get off their 90% (or whatever the percentage is) obese butts and go take those jobs, most of which pay way more than I make. Even if they’d rather watch their big screen TV’s and stay stuck where they are with their ex’s and weekend visitation. I’ll wish that President Obama would change that, but he’ll embrace and subsidize it further instead.

That’s my welcome back.