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Samuel Wurzelbacher - Americas bad joke

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sauronsfinger
Post subject: Samuel Wurzelbacher - Americas bad joke
Posted: Wed 29 Oct , 2008 3:09 pm
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Samuel Wurzelbacher is a name that has been on the lips of America for the past three weeks. Oh wait - you have never said it or heard it? How about this one then - JOE THE PLUMBER. Does that ring a bell? Unless you have been vacationing on Pluto the bell should be ringing at ear splitting levels.

The latest is that Sam has his own bus on the John McCain for President campaign and is making speeches on behalf of McCain. There is a draft movement afoot to run him for a seat in the US House of Representatives in two years from a Toledo, Ohio area congressional district and SW seems open to the prospect. He has an agent who is currently shopping book ideas in New York and is no shrinking violet from Publicity which he seems to crave.

Those who love him, seem to feel that Samuel Wurzelbacher is America. Those who hate him - and count me firmly in that group - feel that he is the symbol of much of what is wrong with America.

As a middle aged White Male living in the Midwest, I have known lots of guys like SW over the years. They seem perpetually angry with a chip on their shoulder produced by government resentment and bottom of a shot glass idealogy. They are not that bright, are not that skilled or talented, and seem to forever bounce around the working class as their dreams of riches and glory recede each year as their hairlines seem to do. And they have little practical control over either.

Joe the Plumber is a fraud and fiction. In fact, by the standards of Ohio, he is not even a plumber. He never even completed an apprenticeship and does not have a plumbers license. He can work as a laborer for a plumbing firm and do tasks which plumbers do - which he does - and he earns about 40 thousand dollars a year.

Like a lot of these beefy, angry white men, he has dreams of grandeur but fails to back them up with actual day to day effort and planning. You would think somebody who wants to own a plumbing company would have gotten his own license and became an actual plumber. You would think a guy who wants to own his own plumbing company would be saving for such a dream. You would think that a guy who wants to own his own company may have taken some courses to prepare him for the rigors of the businessman. But NOPE to all three.

Samuel, as it turns out has a convenient strawman for which to blame his failures and sad limitations of societal station upon. Its the mean old GOVERNMENT and their policy of taxation. And he fears that when Barack Obama increases the tax on incomes above 250K by a whopping 3 percentage points, that it will kill his dreams. Now lets conveniently forget the fact that SW could multiply his income by a factor of 6 and still not make 250K each year. And lets conveniently forget that under both candidates plans, SW would fare far better under the Obama plan than he would the McCain plan. And lets conveniently forget that even if Faeries from the Underworld magically appeared and gave SW a pot of gold today, he still would not have the skills or knowledge to run a company. But he believes that the GOVERNMENT and its tax policy are keeping him down and ruining his future. In fact we know know that SW is a tax deadbeat who owes the State of Ohio over a thousand dollars in back income taxes. Yeah, he hates taxes all right.

SW is a bad joke. He is symbolic of the white, male, angry American who always blames others for his own personal limitations. They are in every bar in America. Buy them a beer and they will complain to you half the night.

"I wanted to be a plumber, or company owner, or attorney, or doctor, or whatever, but the system was against me."

Sometimes its affirmative action giving all the spots to undeserving minorities who once they get the actual jobs have to have white guys doing their work for them because they are incompentent. Yeah right.

Sometimes its the pressure of the wife and kids and the bills which never stop preventing them from taking that four years for law school or medical school or getting that plumbers license or whatever. Yeah right.

And sometimes it the mean old GOVERNMENT which takes their money in the form of taxation and if they could only keep what they earn.... sorry... the fruits of their labor.... then all would be well and nirvanna would be achieved and all their dreams would come true. Yeah right.

Sometimes its the trifecta - all of the above.

I know people like this. I have one in my family. Most folks do. The are legion.

When will this nation give the firm back of the hand to jokers like Samuel Wurzelbacher and quit catering to their delusions and phony dreams?

The really sad thing is that the whole Sam The Plumber, sorry, Joe The Plumber thing seems to be finally gaining some traction in the McCain campaign and showing some results in some polls. If McCain wins, he owes alot to Sam/Joe Wurzelbacher. Maybe he can name SW to be Secretary of Plumbing in his next cabinet? Wait- there is not a position like that. Well then, maybe he can give SW a plunger and retain him to be his personal Keeper of the White House Toilet. That should pay more than 40 grand a year.

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There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. - John Rogers


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Ara-anna
Post subject: Re: Samuel Wurzelbacher - Americas bad joke
Posted: Wed 29 Oct , 2008 3:22 pm
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True story.

My friend and co-workers Cindy's boyfriend is Joe. And he is a Plumber.

And he is voting for Obama.

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Jude
Post subject: Re: Samuel Wurzelbacher - Americas bad joke
Posted: Wed 29 Oct , 2008 4:20 pm
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Well, that's interesting. I had assumed that Joe the Plumber was an expression meant to represent the average man-on-the-street (e.g. "Your average Joe"). I didn't know it was a real person.

So I did some googling and found this wikipedia article. It quotes a number of actual interviews with him, including this one:
Quote:
Wurzelbacher spoke to Katie Couric of CBS Evening News on October 15, shortly after the conclusion of the final debate. Asked whether Obama's proposed $250,000 tax threshold would affect him, Wurzelbacher replied: "Not right now at presently, but (...) he's going to do that now for people who make $250,000 a year. When's he going to decide that $100,000 is too much? (...) You're on a slippery slope here. You vote on somebody who decides that $250,000 and you're rich? And $100,000 and you're rich? (...) Where does it end?" He also said, "I asked the question but I still got a tap dance ...almost as good as Sammy Davis, Jr."
I wonder if the three dots represent pauses in speech, or whether text was edited out that would have actually made a point. What we have is an incoherent bunch of half-sentences strung together that don't actually say anything. Mind you, if the dots represent text that was edited out, possibly wikipedia has done Wurzelbacher a grave disservice.

But if not, the McCain campaign would be wise to distance themselves from this man, and stop using him as a mascot.

So - is the "Joe six-pack" I keep hearing about also a real person?

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Dave_LF
Post subject: Re: Samuel Wurzelbacher - Americas bad joke
Posted: Wed 29 Oct , 2008 5:20 pm
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Jude wrote:
What we have is an incoherent bunch of half-sentences strung together that don't actually say anything.
Sounds like he should fit right in. Palin/Wurzelbacher 2012!


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Ara-anna
Post subject: Re: Samuel Wurzelbacher - Americas bad joke
Posted: Wed 29 Oct , 2008 5:22 pm
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You betcha! ;)



I never understood Joe-Six-Pack. Good lord if someone comes home and drinks a six-pack everynight they may need to be looking into a good 12 step program. I guess I might be naive and just a left wing nut, but I would find being labled Jane-Six-Pack not a good thing. Of course being labeled a pitbull with lipstick on isn't my idea of a compliment either.

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sauronsfinger
Post subject: Re: Samuel Wurzelbacher - Americas bad joke
Posted: Wed 29 Oct , 2008 5:52 pm
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I believe the entire Wikipedia entry is part of a continual war between Democrats and Republicans who are constantly editing each others contributions to the topic. One of the really sad things about this election is the politicization of Wikipedia. It really got some push when the Republicans went into the Sarah Palin entry about 36 hours before the announcement and changed it to read like a Hollywood script.

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There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. - John Rogers


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sauronsfinger
Post subject: Re: Samuel Wurzelbacher - Americas bad joke
Posted: Thu 30 Oct , 2008 12:46 pm
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And the latest on Joe the wanna be Plumber and Business Owner ... it seems he has hired a publicist and agent to pursue a career as a singer of country and western songs. I wonder how that fits with the Congressional hopes and dreams?

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There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. - John Rogers


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Jude
Post subject: Re: Samuel Wurzelbacher - Americas bad joke
Posted: Thu 30 Oct , 2008 12:51 pm
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:LMAO:

srsly?

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Lidless
Post subject: Re: Samuel Wurzelbacher - Americas bad joke
Posted: Thu 30 Oct , 2008 1:16 pm
Als u het leven te ernstig neemt, mist u de betekenis.
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How on earth do you pronounce his last name? 'Weasel backer'?

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Ara-anna
Post subject: Re: Samuel Wurzelbacher - Americas bad joke
Posted: Thu 30 Oct , 2008 2:27 pm
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sauronsfinger wrote:
And the latest on Joe the wanna be Plumber and Business Owner ... it seems he has hired a publicist and agent to pursue a career as a singer of country and western songs. I wonder how that fits with the Congressional hopes and dreams?


What about that budding plumbing business he so was going to do that Obama crushed because of the ginormous tax increase? I guess country singers get tax breaks. Or could be he doesn't have to have a liscense to be a singer. It would help if he didn't look like Mr. Clean.

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sauronsfinger
Post subject: Re: Samuel Wurzelbacher - Americas bad joke
Posted: Thu 30 Oct , 2008 5:22 pm
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Country singers get really large tax breaks due to the expensive rhinestone studded costumes.

weasel-backer .... thats a great line Lidless. :LMAO:

And now Joe is holding court at Town Hall type meetings on the campaign trail causing even Fox News to correct his pronouncements. Only in America. :shrug:

this video clip from the campaign trail is pretty funny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2cf0KXL ... lykos.com/" target="_blank

looks like Joe did not even stick around for breakfast.

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There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. - John Rogers


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Ara-anna
Post subject: Re: Samuel Wurzelbacher - Americas bad joke
Posted: Thu 30 Oct , 2008 7:47 pm
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I'm Joe the Plumber, yes I'm the real Joe
All you other Joe the Plumber’s are just imitating
So won't the real Joe the Plumber please stand up,
please stand up, please stand up?

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