Bring It On! National News

I had no sooner clipped the coupon for the rope that I was going to hang myself with from the Sunday paper Home Depot flyer and I was saved by what is supposedly the end to the Writers Guild Strike. Much like most of America and I’m sure all you Canadian satellite dish TV borrowers (wink, wink), I have been at my wits end with reruns and reality television programs that seem to go nowhere other than proving that there are jerks in the world that will do anything for a dollar.

I’ve backed the Writers Guild of America from the start of the strike because of the simple fact that writers create the content that shows up on the screen. Everything you see on your television or buy online of any television series was written by someone and in that effort they deserve to be monetized wherever that product is sold. If somebody is getting paid to resell that content then the writers deserve payment too!

Over at the Washington Post they have this to say on the WGA strike resolution vote.

Guild Leaders Urging Writers to VoteBy LYNN ELBER
The Associated Press
Sunday, February 10, 2008; 6:34 PM

LOS ANGELES — The Writers Guild of America moved swiftly Sunday toward a resolution of its three-month-old strike, with guild leaders deciding to recommend the contract to members and ask them to vote on a quick end to the walkout. By calling for separate votes on ending the strike and accepting the contract, the union cleared the way for the entertainment industry to return to work almost immediately.
Membership meetings will be held Tuesday in New York and Los Angeles to allow writers to decide whether the strike should be brought to a speedy end, said Patric Verrone, president of the guild’s West Coast branch.

“This the best deal this guild has bargained for in 30 years,” Verrone said.

The tentative contract secures writers a share of the burgeoning digital-media market, he said, including compensation for Internet-delivered TV shows and movies.

“If they (producers) get paid, we get paid. This contract makes that a reality,” Verrone said. But, he added, “it is not all we hoped for and it is not all we deserved.” - Washington Post

Neither party really wins in these sort of situations but they are necessary for the progression of fair business and fair labor practices for future generations of writers and producers. All of the lost wages by the writers and producers working for the entertainment industry will never be recouped but the principal of the strike was sound. Congratulations go out to both sides for coming to a possible resolution to some of the issues they have.

In the end the real winner in this discussion is the customer that views or reads the products created from the minds of not just individual writers but groups of them that make that favorite television show possible. You the viewer will benefit from the fact that the people writing those dramas, comedy and family based shows will have fresh writers ready to burn up the keyboards and make your television come to life once more. Now that the throw up reality crap is not the only thing to watch, real mind blowing twists and turns and plots of deviation with an evil undertone where the sexual innuendo is a mile a minute will broadcast into our homes once more. And that is just the cooking shows….

Papamoka

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Originally posted at Papamoka Straight Talk

It’s not uncommon for any political candidate to loan their campaign money during any election but it is newsworthy when the supposed front runner in the Democrat race for the President campaign is broke. It was revealed today that Hillary Clinton had to loan her campaign five million bucks to keep going. Apparently, the donations have not kept up with the need for the campaign to spend during the run up for the Super Duper Tuesday election.

This just in from The Caucus over at the New York Times…

February 6, 2008, 3:25 pm
Clinton Lent Campaign $5 Million, Considers More
By Kate Phillips

Updated LOS ANGELES — Our colleague Patrick Healy tells us that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, facing big primaries against her rival Senator Barack Obama in places like Ohio and Texas, is weighing whether to lend her campaign money.

And in a quick update, her campaign has just confirmed that she’d already lent her coffers $5 million of her own money in late January. A just-issued statement from her camp:

The loan illustrates Senator Clinton’s commitment to this effort and to ensuring that our campaign has the resources it needs to compete and win across this nation. We have had one of our best fundraising efforts ever on the Web today and our Super Tuesday victories will only help in bringing more support for her candidacy.

More Updates: At her news conference this afternoon, Senator Clinton acknowledged the loan, saying: “I loaned the campaign $5 million from my money. That’s where I got the money. I did it because I believe very strongly in this campaign, and we had a great month fund-raising in January, broke all our records, but my opponent was able to raise more money and we intended to be competitive – and we were – and I think the results last night proved the wisdom of my investment.” - New York Times, The Caucus

If you think running for office is cheap then talk to someone who is running for a local political office in your city or town. Most political candidates pay for all of the materials needed to run a campaign out of their own pocket. Running for Dog Catcher isn’t as easy a task as it used to be. Hell, Mitt Romney must have turned his head and coughed up ten times the amount Hillary Clinton has loaned her campaign but that isn’t news because Mitt is a mega hundred millionaire and a Republican.

What the real story is behind the words in the NY Times piece is that Hillary is running for broke and pulling out all the stops to get the job done. She might pull it off but the wave of donations running into the Obama camp hit $30 million in January alone. That is the real story along with the fact that many of Obama supporters have not maxed out their contributions to the primary election or the general election campaign.

One of the problems over at the Clinton camp is that they maxed out their credit card or political supporters early in the race and you simply can not tap that well again. Which leads anyone with a political mind to wonder if the Clinton donors are of the elite in the political party and thus a pulse on who is the Clinton base. Obama on the other hand has the numbers working for him with the ten and twenty five dollar donors donating in mass over and over again.

Tim Russert did a piece on the NBC Nightly News with his magic number boards and the remaining campaign states left. Based on polling numbers today the election process between Clinton and Obama would be a tie separated by three or four delegates going into the convention. One thing he did not figure into the equation was if the Clinton campaign did not have the money to place ads on the air or pay staffers in those states.

This race is by far not over.

Papamoka

Originally posted at Papamoka Straight Talk

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Not since the days of Ronald Reagan have you seen or heard of so many people that will cross party politics to vote for the opposing political parties candidate. Even on talk radio there are many die hard Republicans that are running for the Democrat side of the possible ticket if McCain wins the Republican nomination for President. What’s intriguing is that they would vote for Barack Obama over McCain if that was the choice they had to face at the voting booth.

Republican’s are suffering from the same malaise today that Democrat’s faced in the campaign of Jimmy Carter versus Ronald Reagan. Our entire nation was in a state of depression over the economic status in our lives and the message the Republican Party of hope, unity, and an America that could be proud once more steam rolled with Democrat voters its nominee Ronald Reagan into the White House.

Barack Obama is not stealing from the Reagan playbook for this election and does not need too. He has the message of change and a better America for all of our people that you can actually believe when he tells you that change is coming to America. That is something Hillary or the rest of the Republican’s running in the race for President of the United States that can not converse to the people. Words are easy to speak but the speaker or candidate actually has to believe that change is possible.

Over at Newsweek they have this on the flood of Republican’s for Obama…

Barack + GOP = ‘Obamacans’
Some prominent Republicans have caught Obama fever.
By Richard Wolffe Newsweek Web Exclusive
Feb 1, 2008 Updated: 7:02 p.m. ET Feb 1, 2008

Susan Eisenhower is more than just another disappointed Republican. She is also Ike’s granddaughter and a dedicated member of the party who has urged her fellow Republicans in the past to stick with the GOP. But now Eisenhower, who runs an international consulting firm, is endorsing Barack Obama. She has no plans to officially leave the Republican Party. But in Eisenhower’s view, Obama is the only candidate who can build a national consensus on the issues most important to her—energy, global warming, an aging population and America’s standing in the world.“Barack Obama will really be in a singular position to attract moderate Republicans,” she told NEWSWEEK. “I wanted to do what many people did for my grandfather in 1952. He was hugely aided in his quest for the presidency by Democrats for Eisenhower. There’s a long and fine tradition of crossover voters.”

Eisenhower is one of a small but symbolically powerful group of what Obama recently called “Obamacans”—disaffected Republicans who have drifted away from their party just as Eisenhower Democrats did and, more recently, Reagan Democrats in the 1980s. They include lifelong Republican Tricia Moseley, a former staffer for the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, the one-time segregationist from South Carolina. Now a high-school teacher, Moseley says she was attracted to Obama’s positions on education and the economy.

Former GOP congressman Joe Scarborough, who anchors MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” says many conservative friends—including Bush officials and evangelical Christians—sent him enthusiastic e-mails after seeing Obama’s post-election speeches in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. “He doesn’t attack Republicans, he doesn’t attack whites and he never seems to draw these dividing lines that Bill Clinton [does],” Scarborough told NEWSWEEK. - Newsweek

One thing is certain and that is the fact that Barack Obama does not need to attack anyone from any political party when our nation is faced with so many problems. Selling the possibility of hope and change is not easily spoken if you are just not believable. A distinct advantage Obama has over Hillary Clinton.

With supper dooper Tuesday election day coming up, the lot in life of each of the candidates in both parties is up in the air. There is no clear winner in either party but there is a sense that our nation needs a different captain at the helm. With the vote to come and any decision for any candidate we need to think not of ourselves but who can serve the nation best. Who can make the biggest difference that crosses all political party lines. Hope is not just a Democrat or Republican state of mind or thought, it is an American belief in a brighter tomorrow.

Hillary Clinton has been too locked up in the political machine of her husband and national politics that she would not recognize her own self of twenty years ago in the mirror. How she can speak of change and believe the words coming out of her own mouth is unbelievable. Her experience and politics are far too damaged by the legacy she and her husband left behind them that makes her words not worthy of even one vote. Maybe the experience she is trying to sell is something we have seen before. Former President Clinton is not a uniting force of America and the more he speaks on her behalf, the more people look to Obama as the beacon of hope. Party politics and affiliation aside.

Anyone but Hillary is the strongest message coming from the people. I’m voting Obama and for hope. You should too!

Papamoka

Originally posted at Papamoka Straight Talk

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When you think of a political ideology like liberalism then one of the front runners in that thought process is Move On. I like to think of them as my loony friends on the left simply because I love being a moderate liberal. I’m not an extremist but I believe in my heart many of the same thoughts that Move On proposes as they seek a progressive liberal agenda. They give a sense of direction for the political junkies amongst us and in that direction millions more that are not members or affiliated with Move On tend to lean on the fence post and listen, read, and form our own opinion.

Move On is endosing Barack Obama and over at the New York Times they have this little piece on it…

February 1, 2008, 12:11 pm
MoveOn Endorses Obama
By Jeff Zeleny

LOS ANGELES – Senator Barack Obama has won the endorsement today from the membership of MoveOn.

In a vote of the group’s members, Mr. Obama outpaced Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton 70 percent to 30 percent. The political action committee of MoveOn.org has 3.2 million members across the country, including 1.7 million members who live in the 22 states with Democratic primaries or caucuses on Tuesday.

“Our members’ endorsement of Senator Obama is a clear call for a new America at this critical moment in history,” said Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn. He added, “The enormity of the challenges require someone who knows how to inspire millions to get involved to change the direction of our country, and someone who will be willing to change business as usual in Washington.” - New York Times

After watching the love fest debate of Obama and Clinton on CNN in California several differences emerged between the two candidates. Politicians are sneaky and vague for the most part but one thing I noticed was the use of two simple words. When and If. Two little words but when they are used in a political debate they can portray a great difference between the candidates talking about the issues. Those two words play to the back of your mind and depending on the topic and how they are used can have a direct effect on how you subconsciously perceive the discussion.

In the debate I found it ironic that in many of the replies that Senator Clinton gave were started with “If” which opens up the question of doubt as to her ability to achieve the high goals she has set for her platform and candidacy. So many “If’s” seem to have to happen “If” she can deliver the promises she proposes in her universal health care plan. That in itself wreaks of a true politician telling you what you would like to have happen in our nation “If” we can overcome all the hurdles she spoke of. It almost seems that she is afraid to cross the secret line of politicians in Washington? You tell me?

On the other side of the cookies and milk debate was Barack Obama using the word “When” in many of his responses. Along with that word he used the word “We” which seemed more appropriate when you are talking about the political issues that will effect 300 million plus Americans. “When” we negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry for lower prescription costs and “When” we pass health coverage is just more believable. Backing it up with an insistence on CSPAN coverage of the actual debate on health care for all takes the closed doors discussion of screwing America out of the equation.

In the end the debate was not a debate in the sense where one politician calls another on the carpet on any issue. The questions were all softball lobs and played into both of the candidates best interests.

It’s all politics but I have to go with the majority of Move On members and believe that Obama is the path to a new America and the force for change in all of our lives.

Hillary can be very articulate in her answers to any question but she proved last night during the CNN debate that she can circle the question directly asked with the best of them and never answer the question asked. I tend to think that as things go, “If” Senator Clinton were the party nominee, and “If” she were to become President, then we could be faced with two many “If’s” and not enough “When” or “We“.

Papamoka

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Originally posted at Papamoka Straight Talk

Don’t for a minute think that this post is about you the disenfranchised foreclosed on former first time home owner. Even though you were told by your lending professional, abandoned on the side of the road used car salesman, small appliance repair, and fortune teller that you could afford your recently foreclosed home, this story is not about you. Justice is never about you so this post is not about anyone at or below the middle class income level that lost their home to dubious lending practices.

One thing is a given in America, the only justice is for the millionaires that can afford to demand it. All of the bum loans that the mortgage lending and banking industry gave out like free cheese to the poor was not a big enough problem to look into. And yet when the millionaire investors start loosing their shirts it just might be a problem.

F.B.I. Opens Subprime InquiryBy REUTERS
Published: January 29, 2008

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 (Reuters) — The F.B.I. has opened investigations into 14 corporations as part of a crackdown on improper subprime lending, agency officials said on Tuesday.F.B.I. officials told reporters that the inquiry involved potential violations including accounting fraud and insider trading.

Separately, Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley said government investigators were seeking information from them about their subprime mortgage activities. But it was not immediately clear if the disclosures by the three banks were linked to the F.B.I. probes.

F.B.I. officials did not identify the companies they were looking at, but said the investigation reached across the industry to include developers, subprime lenders, companies that securitized loans and investment banks that held them.

The cases could lead to potential civil or criminal charges, the officials said.
The F.B.I. said it was investigating the cases with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has opened about three dozen investigations into the subprime market collapse.

Targets of the S.E.C. probe include the investment banks Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, as well as the Swiss bank UBS and the bond insurer MBIA. It was not clear whether any of those companies were involved in the F.B.I. investigation.

The S.E.C., which has formed an internal subprime-mortgage task force, is looking at how financial firms priced mortgage-based securities and whether they should have told investors earlier about the declining value of those securities. - New York Times

All of the businesses that sold the loans to you the former homeowner hardly ever hold on to those loans. They sell them to bigger banks and bigger banks bundle them all together and sell them as investment vehicles for the mega rich. Now that the loans are being defaulted on in larger than life numbers those investment vehicles are up on cinder blocks with tickets on them from the board of health as a public nuisance. AKA losing money for the mega rich people and businesses that invest in them.

What the F.B.I. is investigating at the banks is the fact that the SEC has some serious rules about selling bovine by product as any kind of investment product. Especially, when those products are purchased by the mega dough bucks people at the top of the income earners heap.

Now it’s officially a Subprime Lending crisis! Now let’s see who goes to minimum security, weekends off for god behavior prison? Maybe when these guys have to loose their golf handicap they might see what justice is really all about.

One more note, Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have all dropped in shareholder value between $15 and $20 in the last three months. Things that make you go hmmmm or screw them too?

Papamoka

Originally posted at Papamoka Straight Talk

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While on a recent road trip Hillary Clinton is talking about the economy and now is the time to talk about the economy and how we all got into this horrible mess. The near future is not as positive as some people would like to think and a clear path through it is needed. With the latest reports coming in from all of the world stock exchanges, the “Maybe Recession” is a world wide concern when you are talking about the United States of America. World economics is the key to saving not only our own economy but the worlds.

One of the key factors to the U.S. economy is the middle class and the shear numbers of them with disposable income. The facts are simple and the middle class in America has been downsized and locked out of the “Bush” economy from benefits too salary increases. In that same time period the cost of living in America has gone through the roof. One large contributor to that lockout was the executive release of responsibility in corporate America. In the world of business it should be called a signing statement, similar to the thoughts of our current President and the Constitution. Downsizing and outsourcing of entire manufacturing plants out of the country not to be competitive but to ensure the yearly top executives bonuses are protected and of course adjusted for inflation.

In some circles it could be argued that NAFTA and every other acronym for free trade helped to boost the economy in America but they never really stipulated if it was South America or North of the border of America? In reality, free trade literally meant a migration of American middle class jobs out of America and that is yet just one more source of the downfall of our economy. When our government supports the rights of other nations citizens for good jobs at good wages you better look at your last days of employment because that is the first tax break for corporate America to send your job over the border. Key phrases for shutting a factory or manufacturing plant here in the states is “Stock Holder Value”. Largest benefactors to stock holder value are CEO’s and top executives with stock options.

Senator Clinton in her race for the White House spoke about where she thinks we as a nation need to be and it is hard to argue with her thoughts when you look at the numbers realistically. Over at the New York Times they have this interview with Senator Clinton…

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said that if she became president, the federal government would take a more active role in the economy to address what she called the excesses of the market and of the Bush administration.In one of her most extensive interviews about how she would approach the economy, Mrs. Clinton laid out a view of economic policy that differed in some ways from that of her husband, Bill Clinton. Mr. Clinton campaigned on his centrist views, and as president, he championed deficit reduction and trade agreements.

Reflecting what her aides said were very different conditions today, Mrs. Clinton put her emphasis on issues like inequality and the role of institutions like government, rather than market forces, in addressing them.

She said that economic excesses — including executive-pay packages she characterized as often “offensive” and “wrong” and a tax code that had become “so far out of whack” in favoring the wealthy — were holding down middle-class living standards.

Interviewed between campaign appearances in Los Angeles on Thursday, she said those problems were also keeping the United States economy from growing as quickly as it could.

“If you go back and look at our history, we were most successful when we had that balance between an effective, vigorous government and a dynamic, appropriately regulated market,” Mrs. Clinton said. “And we have systematically diminished the role and the responsibility of our government, and we have watched our market become imbalanced.”

She added: “I want to get back to the appropriate balance of power between government and the market.” - New York Times

Senator Clinton is obviously correct in stating that the markets from housing to Wall Street’s power brokers are out of control and need government oversight more now than ever. If our nation is to survive the current recession then restraints and intervention needs to come from our government. If it does not then the Robber Barron’s of days long gone will run the economy and the nation into the ground and ride out the destruction on the billions earned prior. And you can bet your last Rockefeller shiny new dime that they will pull their investments out of the stock market long before it crashes and outsource it to safer shores.

Salaries of record for one year to think about from Too Much…

$118.9 million for Leslie Blodgett, CEO of Bare Escentuals, who cashed out over 5 million option shares in her cosmetics company for a $117.6 million personal profit.$415.5 million for Occidental Petroleum CEO Ray Irani. To reach this total, the Times added to Irani’s $52.1 million in pay, as calculated by Equilar, the $270.1 million Irani cleared from cashing out stock options and the $93.3 million he withdrew from his deferred stock plan. Irani still holds another $124 million in deferred pay.

$647 million for Apple CEO Steve Jobs

$127 million for UnitedHealth CEO William McGuire

$32.6 million for Todd Nelson, CEO of the Apollo Group, a profit-making collection of higher education institutions

$131 million for Robert Nardelli, the Home Depot CEO forced out in January

$97 million for Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis

$1.5 billion for James Simons, Renaissance Technologies

$39.1 million for Ford CEO Alan Mulally, a sum that includes an $18.5-million bonus for leaving Boeing to join Ford. Ford had six executives in the industry’s top 15, despite record 2006 losses of $12.6 billion.

Some people would say that each one of these people earned their pay and in some cases I might not argue with you. In most cases though it is a race to the top of the heap and they never look back at all the folks they stepped on to get those annual salaries and mega stock options. That is not part of the horizon they are looking at when they cash out, sell out or move on to another corporate position to repeat the process all over again. Once there they never forget the politics that kept them there either with donations that max out. Atilla the Hun would have been very comfortable in corporate America but he would have owned it all.

Hillary Clinton is talking the talk and I would not be surprised if she became President that she would look at corporate politics with an evil eye but she will not hesitate to cash those campaign checks coming in till that day comes. She isn’t alone in the cashing of those check and that my friends scares me.

If your interested in seeing whom is giving political donations to whom and how much then I highly recommend NewsMeat. It’s a great search engine for political thoughts and seeing who is maxing out to their favorite candidates.

Papamoka

Originally posted at Papamoka Straight Talk…

Popular vote aside, Obama won Nevada by one delegate to the Democrat convention. Popular vote aside, the message of Obama and hope lives on in Nevada. Hillary will get all the headlines but the truth of the matter is that the real decision of the voters is based on the delegates to the convention so Hillary Clinton’s win is not really a win. Somebody call Bill Clinton and tell him that he is about to get slapped upside the head again by the wife.

The Tsunami wave of Obama is coming to fruition all across America and it can not be stopped. His message is clear and his points are not about looking at the past but at the future of America and the outlying folks in Nevada voted for a new future in our nation. That future is full of hope and of brighter days to come that are not filled with isolationist ideology and war mongering. Out in suburbs of the big cities of Nevada they saw the difference and voted for change. Out in the suburbs is the key words there. Regular people, not millionaires, not people even making a hundred thousand dollars a year. Obama has the heart beat of the people at the bottom of the economy that always look to hope and that is someone running for President that believes that we can be saved from the plight that is corporate America’s intolerance of us. Nevada voted for hope and in that message Obama won Nevada at the convention with more delegates than Hillary Clinton.

Over at the Washington Post they have this breakdown of the Nevada election results…

Clinton and Romney Win in Nevada
By Chris Cillizza
washingtonpost.com staff writer

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton beat Sen. Barack Obama in the popular vote in the Nevada Democratic caucuses today, while former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney prevailed earlier in the Nevada Republican caucuses.

With 97 percent of the vote counted, Clinton led with 51 percent to 45 percent for Obama (Ill.). Former senator John Edwards trailed far behind with four percent. However, although Clinton captured the popular vote, Obama edged her out for delegates at stake, taking 13 to her 12, according to an Associated Presss analysis.

“I guess this is how the West was won,” Clinton told cheering supporters in Las Vegas. The popular victory was her second straight, coming after an upset win in the New Hampshire primary.

The disparity between the raw vote total and the delegate apportionment is centered on the fact that Obama beat Clinton in the state’s sparsely-populated northern reaches and more rural areas — a statewide showing that left him with a narrow delegate victory if not a popular majority.

“We came from over 25 points behind to win more national convention delegates than Hillary Clinton because we performed well all across the state, including rural areas where Democrats have traditionally struggled,” said Obama spokesman Bill Burton. -Washington Post

Some people wonder if America is ready for an African American President and I wonder if we are ready for another eight years of another Clinton disgrace series of real legislation subdued by controversy from the first Clinton Presidency revisited. When the Clinton’s claim in deceptive words to be the first African American President I shudder at the disgrace that they propose on African Amrican’s. As a white man I can not see through the eyes of any African American and I can not say that racism is dead in America because it is not. Racism is born out of misunderstanding and hate passed down from generation to generation. Even in New England where the bluest of blue states are it is ignorance rather than knowledge that prevails. If you were blind and listened to the messages of all of the candidates not knowing if one is Black or the other is a Woman you would see the true difference.

A good friend of mine is slowly going blind, my heart felt prayers are with him and his family every single night. I beg God above that he would have his vision back because he is not of the opinion that America should be divided racially but united simply as Americans. And yet in his heart and soul I know him as a friend that would give his vision and life if he could erase the ignorance that is race relations between all people that are the melting pot of America. His heart is genuine and his soul pure of thought.

I would give my own life to find hope in America and I am not living the life of any African American, and I am not going blind.

Vision is sometimes found in the heart and not your eyes. Hope is never in the form of a question, it is a matter of belief. That is the question you need to ask when you cast your vote in the primaries.

Papamoka

As I sat and listened to the Idiot-in-Chief, I wondered if he actually believed what he said or just hopes to hell that we believe it.

He wants the tax cuts for the top one percent to be made permanent, but the ones he is outlining for the rest of America should only be a one-time deal.

Of course the following part really jacked my jaw: Folks at the extreme bottom of the economic rung shouldn’t get squat..because that is considered welfare.

Fark you Frat boy.

Here it is, what the Jackass-in-Chief wants and what lies and half-truths he spewed. Some lowlights:

The economic team reports that our economy has a solid foundation, but that there are areas of real concern. Our economy is still creating jobs, though at a reduced pace. Consumer spending is still growing, but the housing market is declining. Business investment and exports are still rising, but the cost of imported oil has increased.-Ok, the December report on how American’s spent their money showed it was in the toilet, the worst since 1991. The New York Times stated: Strong evidence is emerging that consumer spending, a bulwark against recession over the last year even as energy prices surged and the housing market sputtered, has begun to slow sharply at every level of the American economy, from the working class to the wealthy.

Sorry Bush, but your full of bat guano on that first point right out of the box. The way the government fixes it’s statistics on job growth have been crap for years. Too many variables that should be included in that statistic aren’t.

Wages are stagnant and good paying jobs disappear while the income of the top one percent of Americans that don’t actually work for a living and that love their stocks and hedge funds has continued to grow. To say we are growing and jobs are being created might be true..but what is the average wage of those ‘new’ jobs? The NYT article linked above shows how the lifestyles of average American’s has changed drastically:

One consequence is an upending of the traditional pattern, in which middle-aged children take in an elderly parent. As $15-an-hour factory jobs are replaced by $7- or $8-an-hour retail jobs, more men in their 30s and 40s are moving in with their parents or grandparents, said Cheryl Thiessen, the director of Jackson/Vinton Community Action, which runs medical, fuel and other aid programs in Jackson and Vinton Counties.

The Economic Policy Institute, EPI tells you and shows you graphs and charts on how wages have suffered for the working part of America:

With the release of today’s consumer price index for December—up 0.3% for the month and 4.1% for 2007—we can now examine how real hourly and weekly earnings did over the course of last year (comparing this December to last December).

As shown in Figure 1, both hourly and weekly earnings fell in 2007, a sharp reversal from the gains in 2006. After growing by about 2% in 2006, both hourly and weekly earnings fell, after adjusting for inflation, by about 1% last year.

More from The Shrub’s speechifying:Passing a new growth package is our most pressing economic priority. When that is done, Congress must turn to the most important economic priority for our country, and that’s making sure the tax relief that is now in place is not taken away. A source of uncertainty in our economy is that this tax relief is set to expire at the end of 2010. Unless Congress acts, the American people will face massive tax increases in less than three years. The marriage penalty will make a comeback; the child tax credit will be cut in half; the death tax will come back to life; and tax rates will go up on regular income, capital gains, and dividends. -Notice that he really wants to keep those on top of the foodchain safe, but not anyone else. God forbid their taxes go back up in the form of capital gains, dividends and the estate tax.

For the 99% of American’s that actually work for a living, their income isn’t growing like the income for the wealthy at the top of the economic food chain. From the latest data that is complete:

From 2003 to 2004, the average incomes of the bottom 99 percent of households grew by less than 3 percent, after adjusting for inflation. In contrast, the average incomes of the top one percent of households experienced a jump of more than 18 percent, after adjusting for inflation. (Census data show that real median income fell between 2003 and 2004. Average income is pulled up by gains at the top of the income spectrum; much of the 2.3 percent rise among the bottom 99 percent seems to largely reflects gains by households in the top decile of the income spectrum. In contrast, trends in median income capture the experience of households in the middle of the income spectrum.)

The top one percent of households (those with annual incomes above about $315,000 in 2004) garnered 53 percent of the income gains in 2004.(emphasis mine)

Sadly the reality is..it’s worse than that. The CBPP explained that the enormous gains at the top of the income foodchain caused a rise of income as a whole. But average income dropped between 2003 and 2004, and has not risen appreciably since then. In short, while the top one percent get richer, the middle class is shrinking, as economist Paul Krugman pointed out in a speech earlier this year:

By the time World War II was over, we had become the middle-class society that the baby boomers in this audience grew up in. We had become a much more equal society. That high degree of equality began to go away — depending on exactly which numbers you look at — during the late 70’s, maybe a little earlier than that. And at this point we’re basically back to pre-tax and transfer to the levels of inequality that we had in 1929.

What happened in 1929? The Stock Market crashed and burned.

The final blurb from our Frat Boy in the White House: In a vibrant economy, markets rise and decline. We cannot change that fundamental dynamic. As a matter of fact, eliminating risk altogether would also eliminate the innovation and productivity that drives the creation of jobs and wealth in America. Yet there are also times when swift and temporary actions can help ensure that inevitable market adjustments do not undermine the health of the broader economy. This is such a moment.

I don’t really want to call our Decider-in-Chief a delusional moron or better yet a lying sack of crap, but if that shoe fits… you hold him down and I will stick it on his foot, while I put the other one where the sun doesn’t shine, otherwise known as his behind.

While all the politicians including the Hack in Chief of the United States are finally noticing that the economy is in a free fall the latest news everywhere is not enlightening on how to fix it. While one political party is calling for more tax cuts for the middle and upper classes the other is presenting tax cuts for the middle and lower classes. Stimulus tax cuts they call them. In a realistic world they would be called one layer of gauze tape to stop the bleeding of a lost limb.

Our nation is being bled dry not by outside influences but by our own behaviors as a nation. Rather than facing our worst fears we point out who is to blame and then head on over to Walmart or any other super store to save a few dollars on our household needs. It may not be fair to single out Walmart alone simply because every store you go into for any product your family needs and it has become increasingly harder to find products that are actually “Made in the U.S.A.”. Which should also mean made here and not just packaged here. All of the manufacturing jobs that used to make that tooth brush or that nail clipper or toaster are gone. Walmart is hiring part time workers though so you can make minimum wage being a greeter or cashier.

There is an enormous difference between a manufacturing wage and a retail wage. Huge difference! Our nations middle class economy is based in the manufacturing sector and when that is sold out to Wall Street and jobs shipped overseas, it tends to have a negative effect on local economies all across America.

Free markets without controls and rules are dangerous as ignored by the former majority political party and the latest reporting of the mega banks writing off hundreds of billions in foreclosed mortgages is outrageous. Without clearly written government rules, the industry of home lending is imploding on itself with bad loans for people that could not afford them to begin with and it is a self fulfilling prophecy. Greed will do that in a pyramid scheme when you leave the next guy holding the bad loan bag.

“We’re facing a recession in the economy,” Clinton told a predominantly black church outside of Los Angeles. “I know it’s already arrived.” - New York Times

“We don’t know whether we are already in a technical definition of a recession, but what I know from traveling all across the country is families have been struggling for a long time — even prior to the sub-prime lending crisis,” Obama said in San Francisco. - New York Times

John Edwards… We have to strengthen and grow the middle class, which is struggling mightily in this country today. And one of the reasons that we’ve lost jobs, we’re having trouble creating jobs, we’re having trouble growing & strengthening the middle class is because corporate power and greed have literally taken over the government. - On the Issues.org

Instead of a “Stimulus Tax Cut” lets look at the highest affect of the economy and largest creator of the American recession. Oil prices. Everything in your personal life is bound to the price of oil even if you are a new born child. All of the food on your table has a transportation cost to get it to the market and then to your refrigerator. I won’t even start on plastic products which are all oil based. You are not alone when you think that three bags of groceries should not cost fifty dollars when it was twenty less than six years ago. Transportation cost are passed on to the consumer in every industry product on the open market except the ones coming from China? They may now call it Black China as an accounting term rather than a political one. Government supports in China make the products the cheapest in the world and the cheapest on the shelf here in America.

Instead of a tax cut, we should urge our government leaders to propose a Legal Aid for America. awyers with a free will to go get them attitude with a government badge. How many of the best legal minds in America would sign up for a commission basis result of prosecuting market manipulation in the oil markets from any sector. We could call it the Green Beret’s of the Justice Department and just the site of any single one of them in the lobby of any Wall Street firm or Big Oil companies front office would set off the sprinklers in the CEO’s pants. Prices at the pump would drop and so would the preposterous ten and twenty billion dollar quarterly profits reported by the largest of oil companies. Not to mention the hundred million dollar bonuses for the top of the top on Wall Street every single year.

We need strong leaders and a strong legal arm of the government that is not beholding to the President no matter who it is. Our economy is being sucked down the drain because the friends of this current President are at the end of the money pipeline with his time left in office.

It was rather ironic that recently the most powerful man in the free world was forced to beg and kiss the ring of the King of Saudi Arabia to open the spigots to relieve the world oil supply needs after being rebuked by the King’s Oil Minister. Now that tells you who is really running the world doesn’t it.

Then of course there is the bleeding of our treasury to fight a war that has no end in the Middle East. Our nation is sending so much money into this endless pit that it has become an addiction of pride rather than an admission of the truth. Can’t fix it, won’t ever be fixed, and the people that live there don’t want it fixed. And yet the American people are screwed by the King of America and the King of Saudi Arabia.

I know that I personally thank our President in my own special way every time I fill up my tank. How about you? Do you feel no longer like an American and just another money chip on the political poker game table? If you do then voting now is more important than ever.

Papamoka

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Originally posted at Papamoka Straight Talk

Now that reality and what it means to be an actual American is in the head lights of the politicians running for President maybe they will all see that it is the economy that is the heartbeat of America. With the hundreds of billions of dollars flowing out of America to pay for an endless war it is finally hitting home in the nations capitol.

We have had eight years of a President that simply can not stand Americans but loves to only show up at military bases and closed public meetings that are invitation only events. It has been a late revelation to me but something I have slowly put together over the last few days but I’m sure others have conceived the thought before I. George Bush is terrified to be President.

We have had eight years of a President that does not see the tasks of lenders that would lead to a housing market and ownership collapse. One thing that all economist know as the standard bar to base our economy on is the housing market. Right now and for a long time now the housing market has been in a free fall. And just not the President but the entire Congress has looked the other way from the millionaire club seats that most of them come from. None of them have lost their homes and most likely not one soul that they are familiar with has lost their home. While President Bush is on the road to the Middle East all you have to do is watch his body language to see that the suit does not fit. He is no more comfortable with that situation as much as he is facing the fact that he and our government can no longer fix the housing market free fall.

Some Fear Economic Stimulus Is Already Too LateBy PETER S. GOODMAN and FLOYD NORRIS
Published: January 13, 2008

As leaders in Washington turn their attention to efforts to avert a looming downturn, many economists suggest that it may already be too late to change the course of the economy over the first half of the year, if not longer.With a wave of negative signs gathering force, economists, policy makers and investors are debating just how much the economy could be damaged in 2008. Huge and complex, the American economy has in recent years been aided by a global web of finance so elaborate that no one seems capable of fully comprehending it. That makes it all but impossible to predict how much the economy can be expected to fall before it stabilizes.

The answer could be a defining factor in the outcome of the fiercely contested presidential election. Not long ago, the race centered on the war in Iraq.

But now, as candidates fan out across the country, visiting places as varied as the factory towns of Michigan and streets lined with unsold condominiums in Las Vegas, voters are increasingly demanding that they focus on the best way to keep the economy from slipping off the tracks. - New York Times

Americans need to face the facts and know that the government is no longer there to help you. That is till you stop paying taxes and feeding the machine with a bottomless appetite. Then they really care about you as an individual. So much so they will provide you with three square meals a day, a bed and a room mate to talk to in your prison cell.

Some how it was decided that everyone needs to stand on their own two feet. Be you man, woman or beast you must stand on your own two feet! Then the Republicans gutted the Veterans Administration that treated all the so called leaches needing medical help that fought for the nation they love. That is the true difference between a Democrat and a Republican, Democrats will recognize a veteran that was disabled in service to their nation, Republicans look at them as an expense on the backs of hard working people. One of them is wrong.

I know what the loss of hope is. I’ve lived it, I’ve fought it and still fight it every single day. So does every single American under the screw you and do it your damn self policies of the Republican Party. That is why change is so critical in our nation right now in this point in time. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama can bitch and moan who moved or advanced civil rights to the center stage of American politics and it wasn’t John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson or even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It was people that were sick and tired of the loss of hope. People like you, your neighbor and people that knew America could be better. People in mass made the difference by seeking change in their elected leaders.

A good friend reminded me that some people believe that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves but it was not only his actions and words that eventually lead to that freedom existing in this nation. It was the actions of many willing to fight for that freedom and die for it. Not just white men but black men as well. Words are easy, fighting for what you believe in and putting your life on the line for it are true forms of courage that few politicians have the stomach for.

When Barack and Hillary figure out who is a racist and who is a bitch then somebody please pass a note or tell them that “It’s the damn economy!” Vote for change or fight for your bread in the next economy.

Maybe the problem we as Americans have is we keep electing millionaires as President that have forgotten what it is truly like to be hungry. Not politically hungry, stomach pain, have not eaten hungry.

Papamoka
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Originally posted at Papamoka Straight Talk and Cross posted to Michael Linn Jones.com