Freedom of BLEEP

Facebook staff has displayed an appalling lack of ethics this week.

An Ad from Facebook

It should be pretty obvious that the “Get Your Obama Check” ad campaign is a total scam. Basically you give them five bucks and they send you a pamphlet so that you can get a “$12,000 bailout.” Then after stealing your money they probably sell your email address to a spam advertising company.

Why is Facebook hosting a scam campaign? All ads are hand-picked by Facebook (I know because I’m applying to advertise another project), so why would they pick a company that wants to steal your money? Since Facebook has a vested interest in the success of the scam campaign to maintain their client base, Facebook is essentially trying to scam you. They’re trying to take advantage of people who believe in our President.

Mark deserves a swift kick in the nuts for this. Send the creator of Facebook a message to express your displeasure (he’s the one with no “add as friend” link). He already knows about this campaign because I’ve sent him multiple messages about it.

By the way, you won’t be getting a $12,000 bailout. Obama has consistently fought against putting tax cuts in the stimulus package. Likewise, he has fought against grants for small business to stimulate the economy. As a matter of fact, the only funding he has pushed will give the government (and himself) more power.

More Scam Ads from Facebook

Nearly 60 people have died in Kentucky due to the recent ice storm, and most of them slowly froze to death while trapped in their own homes. Hundreds more could be dead; the local governments simply don’t have the man power or the equipment to cover the widespread disaster area.

Despite Obama’s campaign promise, there has been a shocking lack of support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Kentucky’s Emergency Management Director Randell Smith said the 25 local National Guardsmen who have responded “have no chain saws to clear fallen trees.”

“Some areas we haven’t even visited yet,” Smith said. “We don’t even know that they’re alive.”

Where has Obama been during this emergency? Well, Monday he took off work to read to second graders. “We were just tired of being in the White House,” he explained. He hadn’t even been there for two weeks yet! And still nothing has been done about this emergency.

Of course the media won’t question him, but people are dying while Obama’s busy with publicity stunts. Without showing signs of remorse, he loosens his tie and cranks up the heat in the White House.

Obama Cranks Up the Heat

Over 70% of U.S. businesses have announced freezes on hiring and/or pay increases. My employer is included in this figure, which is frequently hailed as one of the most recession-resistant companies in the world.

And it looks like the freezes will be around for a while. In the words of ADP’s CEO, this will “likely continue [...] into 2010.” Why do businesses in the United States expect this economic crisis to last so long? Isn’t the government about to pass out an $800 billion stimulus package?

Well, the Congressional Budget Office says only 25% of the money will go out this year. Most of it won’t be spent until 2011 or 2012. How is this supposed to help the economy?

It won’t. An analysis by the Wall Street Journal indicates that only 12% of the stimulus package legislation could plausibly be considered an economic stimulus. No wonder CEO’s have said they won’t be hiring for awhile.

It sure is convenient for the politicians though, as their porkbarrel money will be spent right before elections. And if you still think your government cares about you, think about what will happen to the economy when we print $800 billion dollars and just put it into circulation as if it were mana from heaven. Over the next four years, we’ll see inflation skyrocket while we are stuck with stagnant wages. But we’ll save the economics lecture for another post.

As a side note, the stimulus package could fund all of the soup kitchens in America for about 15 years if we eliminated the wasteful spending. And considering the direction that our government is taking us, this would probably be a good investment.