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My vote is much less likely to go to Joe The Plumber than it is to Joe The Biden.
Showing posts with label Joe The Plumber. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joe The Plumber. Show all posts
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Joe The Plumber visits 2009
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Let me be the first fourth-tier blogger to predict the obvious: if the Republicans do not find an effective way to steal the 2008 presidential election through perpetrating massive vote fraud, declaring martial law, launching nuclear war on Spain, or staging a violent coup, then it seems certain that we may expect Larry Flynt Publications to try recruiting Joe the Plumber to star as himself (or someone exactly like himself) in a series of pornos paired with a Sarah Palin lookalike.
Personally, I don't think Joe will go for the bait. Sure, he could probably make $300K-plus per film on the basis of his cashbox name and likeness, but he wouldn't be able to afford the taxes Obama would impose on that income. And that would be bad for the economy.
Let me be the first fourth-tier blogger to predict the obvious: if the Republicans do not find an effective way to steal the 2008 presidential election through perpetrating massive vote fraud, declaring martial law, launching nuclear war on Spain, or staging a violent coup, then it seems certain that we may expect Larry Flynt Publications to try recruiting Joe the Plumber to star as himself (or someone exactly like himself) in a series of pornos paired with a Sarah Palin lookalike.
Personally, I don't think Joe will go for the bait. Sure, he could probably make $300K-plus per film on the basis of his cashbox name and likeness, but he wouldn't be able to afford the taxes Obama would impose on that income. And that would be bad for the economy.
Friday, October 17, 2008
SCOTUS does its job [updated]
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This is welcome news on the pushback-against-election-theft front: the U.S. Supreme Court knocked down the Republican attempt to intimidate 600,000 new voters when they come out to vote on November 4. Now Mickey Mouse and Jive Turkey will be free to try voting, if they dare. And so will Deli Meat's little pals at college as well as Joe The Plumber, whose name is misspelled on the Ohio voter registration rolls.
Update. In the comments thread, Anonymous pointed out that the ruling actually came from the U.S. high court, not the Ohio Supreme Court as I'd originally written. Judicial restraint --- how about that?
This is welcome news on the pushback-against-election-theft front: the U.S. Supreme Court knocked down the Republican attempt to intimidate 600,000 new voters when they come out to vote on November 4. Now Mickey Mouse and Jive Turkey will be free to try voting, if they dare. And so will Deli Meat's little pals at college as well as Joe The Plumber, whose name is misspelled on the Ohio voter registration rolls.
Update. In the comments thread, Anonymous pointed out that the ruling actually came from the U.S. high court, not the Ohio Supreme Court as I'd originally written. Judicial restraint --- how about that?
Thursday, October 16, 2008
We Joe, you decide
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One more link for the Joe The Plumber Files, this one from the New York Times, spied via TPM. I don't get it. Joe runs his own plumbing business, but he wants to buy a plumbing business. He appears to be afraid that his annual income will rise above $250,000 per year and that, therefore, he would have to pay more taxes on said income next year than he would have had to pay this year, had he bought a plumbing business other than the one he runs. He also doesn't seem capable of distinguishing between the gross receipts of a business he wants to buy and the taxable income that he might draw from that business.
Bah --- I grow weary of this nonsense! StuporMundi has spoken!
One more link for the Joe The Plumber Files, this one from the New York Times, spied via TPM. I don't get it. Joe runs his own plumbing business, but he wants to buy a plumbing business. He appears to be afraid that his annual income will rise above $250,000 per year and that, therefore, he would have to pay more taxes on said income next year than he would have had to pay this year, had he bought a plumbing business other than the one he runs. He also doesn't seem capable of distinguishing between the gross receipts of a business he wants to buy and the taxable income that he might draw from that business.
Bah --- I grow weary of this nonsense! StuporMundi has spoken!
Joe The Trojan Horse [updated]
*As Oil Can Harry hypothesized in a previous comments section on this blog, Joe The Plumber may have more in common with the McCain family than with us Main Streeters, Memory Laners, and other assortment of American flotsam. You see, Joe the Plumber thinks Social Security is a joke and "hates" it. Is it possible that Joe's resemblance to a dick is more than skin deep? Let's allow Joe himself to answer that.
Joe (from SkyNews): Speaking about his previous encounter with the Democrat, he said: "I asked the question but I still got a tap dance... almost as good as Sammy Davis Junior."
My sources say "yes." My sources, word- and picture-wise, are used for nonprofit research and education purposes as circumstantial evidence to support the hypothesis that Joe The Plumber may possibly be a racist dickhead.
Afterthought: Joe referred to the experience of seeing McCain and Obama talking to him on TV as "pretty surreal, man." Surreal. Don't you think it's a pretty elitist plumber who uses twenty-dollar words like that? Who does he think he is --- a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA) or something? And while I'm having afterthoughts, here's another one: does anyone think it's a fortunate coincidence that Senator McCain just happened to know about Senator Obama's audience with an everyman plumber at an Ohio political rally? Or that "[w]ithin six hours of the end of the presidential clash, Joe the Plumber T-shirts and baseball caps were on sale"?
Update: Oh the humanity! (Sorry about that. I generally try to avoid cliches like the plague.) Someone in the comments section of Lawyers, Guns and Money, where I found the link (after starting from Eschaton, for purposes of a complete cite) says the Martin Eisenstadt oppo material may be fishy. I don't know if it is fishy or not. And nobody is going to give a drizzle$#i+ about Joe The Plumber if the Dow loses another 1,000 points. But at the least it begins to look as if Joe The Plumber's 15 minutes of fame might be a media stunt brought to you by the McCain/Palin campaign. I say equal time for Josephine The Plumber! (She even talks like Palin!)
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Joe The Plumber oppo
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Inspired by a comment in the previous comments thread by Oil Can Harry, I must interject a bit of reality into the procession toward a knee-jerk beatification (and, later, inevitable mockery) of America's newest sweetheart, Joe The Plumber.
The average annual salary for a plumber, as the editor of E&P claims in HuffPo, does not in fact appear to be $45,000. Here are some figures from WikiAnswers, which are more in line with my experience in hiring plumbers. A plumber's "helper" earns about $25 per hour, which would amount to $52,000 gross for a year assuming full-time employment and no benefits. A "decent" Journeyman (presumably a competent tradesman who can work independently with little supervision) earns $68 or more per hour. That would amount to more than $140,000 per year, assuming full-time employment. And a Master Plumber? Try $175 an hour. You do the arithmetic. Yes, I understand that many plumbing jobs may be cyclical, like constuction jobs. No, I do not know whether they receive healtcare benfits, paid vacation, etc. But it would seem that a journeyman plumber could work half time and make about $70,000 annually.
So which kind of plumber do you think our hero Joe might be? How many plumber's "helpers" do you think could be in a position to buy a plumbing business on a salary of $50,000 or $60,000 a year? On that salary a guy is lucky if he can pay his mortgage, make his car payment, keep a 12-pack in the fridge every weekend, and take a 2-week camping trip once a year. However, if Joe is a Master Plumber, earning $364,000 a year (i.e., working 8 hours rather than 10 or 12 a day), then he might have reason to be concerned about losing his Bush tax cut. And if that's the case, then he can eat shit before he gets any sympathy from me. Fuggin' plutocrat.
PS: here is a nice picture of Oil Can Harry for you. It is presented here for nonprofit education and research purposes only, in order to show you what the nemesis of Mighty Mouse looked like in the 1950s. Boss zoot suit!
Inspired by a comment in the previous comments thread by Oil Can Harry, I must interject a bit of reality into the procession toward a knee-jerk beatification (and, later, inevitable mockery) of America's newest sweetheart, Joe The Plumber.
The average annual salary for a plumber, as the editor of E&P claims in HuffPo, does not in fact appear to be $45,000. Here are some figures from WikiAnswers, which are more in line with my experience in hiring plumbers. A plumber's "helper" earns about $25 per hour, which would amount to $52,000 gross for a year assuming full-time employment and no benefits. A "decent" Journeyman (presumably a competent tradesman who can work independently with little supervision) earns $68 or more per hour. That would amount to more than $140,000 per year, assuming full-time employment. And a Master Plumber? Try $175 an hour. You do the arithmetic. Yes, I understand that many plumbing jobs may be cyclical, like constuction jobs. No, I do not know whether they receive healtcare benfits, paid vacation, etc. But it would seem that a journeyman plumber could work half time and make about $70,000 annually.
So which kind of plumber do you think our hero Joe might be? How many plumber's "helpers" do you think could be in a position to buy a plumbing business on a salary of $50,000 or $60,000 a year? On that salary a guy is lucky if he can pay his mortgage, make his car payment, keep a 12-pack in the fridge every weekend, and take a 2-week camping trip once a year. However, if Joe is a Master Plumber, earning $364,000 a year (i.e., working 8 hours rather than 10 or 12 a day), then he might have reason to be concerned about losing his Bush tax cut. And if that's the case, then he can eat shit before he gets any sympathy from me. Fuggin' plutocrat.
PS: here is a nice picture of Oil Can Harry for you. It is presented here for nonprofit education and research purposes only, in order to show you what the nemesis of Mighty Mouse looked like in the 1950s. Boss zoot suit!
Final-debate snipes [updated]
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John McCain thinks autism is the same thing as Down syndrome. He thinks his running mate has an autistic baby.
John McCain said "We need to change the culture of America." In that respect, he has more in common with Osama than with Obama.
John McCain said several times that Barack Obama is "eloquent." I guess that's even worse than being "elitist."
Barack Obama joined in the fun tonight by talking with McCain's imaginary friend, Joe The Plumber. He missed a chance to pick up some stray Hillary voters by failing to invoke Josephine The Plumber, however.
Update: ZOMGZ! Joe The Plumber is actually real! Well, by those same standards, then so is Josephine. Except that I have no reason to think Josephine, in real life, was a stupid jackass.
John McCain thinks autism is the same thing as Down syndrome. He thinks his running mate has an autistic baby.
John McCain said "We need to change the culture of America." In that respect, he has more in common with Osama than with Obama.
John McCain said several times that Barack Obama is "eloquent." I guess that's even worse than being "elitist."
Barack Obama joined in the fun tonight by talking with McCain's imaginary friend, Joe The Plumber. He missed a chance to pick up some stray Hillary voters by failing to invoke Josephine The Plumber, however.Update: ZOMGZ! Joe The Plumber is actually real! Well, by those same standards, then so is Josephine. Except that I have no reason to think Josephine, in real life, was a stupid jackass.
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