What the hell is the Obama White House doing?

Yes, what the hell are they doing?

This stance on cutting deficits will wipe us out, totally in November.

Why?

This country wants the government to SPEND MONEY FOR JOB CREATION, but the Obama White House is on the side of Republicans for cuts.

This is totally, fucking, STUPID amidst 9.5% unemployment and close to 20% underemployment. I mean fucking stupid.

All this cutting will throw policemen, firemen, teachers, in the pile of unemployment.

All this cutting will blow the unemployment numbers up even more.

All this cutting will double and triple classrooms across this country, along with massive school closings. These cuts should anger ALL AMERICANS across this country for schools.



Look, it is nice that Washington, D.C. is full of rich ass people, yes, RICH ASS PEOPLE. They are so far removed from what is happening out here that they don't get it. The Obama White House is starting to look like that.

It is very dangerous to keep very mum while millions of Americans checks are being revoked due to fucking games being played in Washington, D.C. It is even more dangerous to try to frame the unemployed Americans as lazy bums or "Welfare Kings or Queens". Many of these folks have worked ALL THEIR LIVES and have lost or are losing everything that is equal to the American Dream. Playing around with this is a political bomb that the Democrats need to be in front of. And I mean 24/7.

Also, being bold means bringing plans, ideas to get this country BACK TO WORK. Even if it means SPENDING. If you have a solid idea that can get this country back to work, the American Public will stand with you. They will not stand with you if you are perceived as not knowing what the hell to do about it. It also does not mean to play into the Republican meme of cutting the deficits. Not when this country is sinking into the abyss.

Want to cut something that will bring big time revenue? What about that fucking defense budget? What about getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan? What about that? What about nation building HERE in this country instead of in Afghanistan and Iraq? What about plugging the corporate loop holes for companies off shore? We are arguing over keeping teachers and first responders who are NEEDED in this country, but just let that defense budget continue to bloat. But cutting money to educate our kids, our future leaders is just OK.

We need to stop this shit.

As long as folks are not working, as long as the the unemployment roll continues to rise, as long as this White House is acting clueless on what to do about it, we lose in November. ****And if the Obama White House has a massive program to get folks back to work, SHARE IT, I have not seen or HEARD IT. Just putting that out there....****

Barack Obama needs new advisers and a new White House. The ones he has now are unimpressive and clueless as to what is going on out here. If the Democrats lose massive in November, expect messaging and communication to be key here. This White House is the worst White House for making sure the public understands what they have accomplished, because many believe they have not done ANYTHING. How is that? The right track/wrong track numbers. This is about the public not understanding what this White House has done and that is an Obama White House problem.

Finally, the deficit is #4 of what Americans care about, behind the economy/jobs, oil spill and health care. That should tell the Democrats something, but it seems they are just ignoring this.

From The Dylan Ratigan Show:



President Obama touting his economic policies, which is all nice, but what about talking about JOB CREATION IN THIS COUNTRY:



Update [2010-7-7 17:56:28 by icebergslim]:

Usual suspects are angered and good. Let it ALL OUT. We all should be angry because November can be a slaughter house. We don't have the juice, excitement on our side. If we lose massively, the question is this, "Why?" And many can write a book on that one.

Update [2010-7-7 20:16:17 by icebergslim]:

To be clear, in case you forgot or did not know, President Obama asked congress for 50 billion dollars for the states to save the SAME JOBS he saved last year from the stimulus bill. If President Obama had 50 billion lying around, he surely would have sent it to the states from the stimulus package, but he does not. The Republicans are stating to get it from the stimulus money and asking for more money in their eyes is a second stimulus.

President Obama urged reluctant lawmakers Saturday to quickly approve nearly $50 billion in emergency aid to state and local governments, saying the money is needed to avoid "massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters" and to support the still-fragile economic recovery.

In a letter to congressional leaders, Obama defended last year's huge economic stimulus package, saying it helped break the economy's free fall, but argued that more spending is urgent and unavoidable. "We must take these emergency measures," he wrote in an appeal aimed primarily at members of his own party.

The letter comes as rising concern about the national debt is undermining congressional support for additional spending to bolster the economy. Many economists say more spending could help bring down persistently high unemployment, but with Republicans making an issue of the record deficits run up during the recession, many Democratic lawmakers are eager to turn off the stimulus tap.

Since D.C. is all about "deficits" does anyone believe that congress will actually save all these jobs? The only jobs congress cares about is their own, certainly not ours.

Update [2010-7-7 22:5:8 by icebergslim]:

Arguing about points in the diary is warranted and wanted, but personal attacks as some are doing do nothing but discredit you. Don't like what was written, you write a diary explaining, the Obama Administration's JOBS PROGRAM. We all are waiting, along with millions who need a job, but as long as we continue to see this administration kowtow another point AGAIN, this time for the deficit in one of the worse recessions if not DEPRESSIONS ever, then they deserve to be criticized.

Update [2010-7-7 22:56:5 by icebergslim]:

Final update and h/t to divineorder on this administration's mixed messages:

During the recent G20 in Toronto, more mixed messages emerged, with our President encouraging member nations to spend more to prop up their failing economies while his administration seeks to gut Social Security and Medicare at home. Europe is also cutting back on public programs, hitting the most vulnerable. The major world economies, including us, need to pump money into jobs, new technologies, infrastructure and manufacturing to increase revenues, not cut services. Instead, the G20 ended on a down note, with little accomplished and governments throughout the world agreeing to shirk their responsibilities to their citizens all at once by withdrawing stimulus.

How encouraging.....while we have congress just press the mute button on the jobless....

An international economic organization criticized the U.S. Congress on Wednesday for allowing extended unemployment benefits to lapse at the end of May, a move that thus far has denied more than 2 million Americans a critical lifeline during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

In its report on the global employment outlook, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development noted that a "particularly worrisome feature" of America's deep recession is the high number of workers who have been unemployed for more than six months.

Cross-posted @ Daily Kos

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Pensacola official WRONG on re-opening the beaches

Remember Buck Lee, the Santa Rosa official who authorized the beaches back open?

Well, now we have hundreds of folks complaining about illnesses related to getting into that water:



Federal health officials wanted the beach closed, but local officials re-opened Pensacola Beach?

What is the authority for the safety of humans?

Now these beaches have local authorities on site to keep people out of the water, claiming high tide, surf, but what about some truth telling here.

These local business owners are acting like that Mayor from Jaws, remember him:



Now the EPA tours the Pensacola Beaches:



Now caution to avoid oil at the Pensacola Beaches?

I am just shocked because we all KNOW that contact with toxic crude, along with the dispersant in these waters is a cocktail for DEATH for human consumption. We don't need the government or local officials to tell responsible individuals this, yet how the EPA can not trump local officials is baffling to me. Also, I can not believe that the EPA has not tested the water, ALONE, on the Florida beaches. But in the end, it is about MONEY. Money can make everyone make BAD DECISIONS.

``We don't know how long this nightmare is going to move in slow motion,'' said Greg Brown, the property appraiser for neighboring Santa Rosa County. Though he has no firm estimates, Brown said the county's tax rolls could drop 25 percent this year because of the oil spill. ``It's well within the range of possibilities,'' he said.

{snip}

Sam Bearman, a Pensacola lawyer working on real estate claims against BP, said a plunge in vacation-home bookings has already ravaged property values.

``We're seeing much more of a ripple effect than you would have ever imagined,'' he said. One client has a home that ``she was intending to sell for $500,000. I'm not so sure she thinks she can get $100,000 at this point.''

{snip}

Fred Simmons has exposure to all facets of the tourism economy here -- he owns the Paradise Bar and Grill, the Paradise Inn and the Paradise Coastal Realty.

He has seen sales drop 40 percent since the April 20 oil-rig explosion in the Gulf ``and it's getting worse daily.''

``I don't know where this is going to end up,'' he said. Of BP, he said: ``I'm just hoping and praying they're going to pay. It will end my career if they don't.''

At least one person admitted that this oil catastophe is not one summer but many to come.....

And now the reality of what has been kept under wraps for a while, "Gulf spill 'bigger and uglier than we had hoped'". NO SHIT.

How dead is the Gulf of Mexico?

It is perhaps the most important question of the BP oil spill — but scientists don't appear close to answering it despite a historically vast effort.

In the 2 1/2 months since the spill began, the gulf has been examined by an armada of researchers — from federal agencies, universities and nonprofit groups. They have brought back vivid snapshots of a sea under stress: sharks and other deep-water fish suddenly appearing near shore, oil-soaked marshes turning deathly brown, clouds of oil swirling in deep water.

But, with key gaps remaining in their data, there is wide disagreement about the big picture. Some researchers have concluded that the gulf is being spared an ecological disaster. Others think ecosystems that were already in trouble before the spill are now being pushed toward a brink.

"The distribution of the oil, it's bigger and uglier than we had hoped," said Roger Helm, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official and the lead scientist studying the spill for the Interior Department. "The possibility of having significant changes in the food chain, over some period of time, is very real. The possibility of marshes disappearing . . . is very real."

I am not an ecological or environmental professional, but it does not take a rocket scientist to understand that all the crude oil spouting daily, along with the dispersant on the rampage daily does not bode well for the Gulf of Mexico. Both ingredients are toxic and you need haz-mat equipment to even deal with it, yet the down playing of this is very bothersome, along with the continued control by BP in regards to the media to show the full affects of what is happening in the Gulf. This is all about trying to convey that spill is not as bad, as many thought, when in fact it it worse. And the government? They are no better.



Lastly, to expect BP to make everyone whole is a joke. BP will fight giving anymore money after their initial 20B payment and this payment is over 3 years. The Florida Coast is upward of 60B alone. What about property damage, as in its worth? Businesses going belly up? Massive job loss in Florida alone? Trusting BP with their disastrous safety record, all for money should not make anyone comfortable. In the end, we will pay for this, as usual. The buck is always passed along to tax payers for corporate fuck ups. My question, "When is that going to stop?" And that loop current? From a previous diary, looks like the oil is already there.

Cross-posted on Daily Kos

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California has NOTHING on Illinois for fiscal disaster

For years, many Illinoisans have heard the rumors of the fiscal house is shaky, well now we see how shaky it is.

There is no way Illinois can survive without drastic cuts in services, re-doing its pension programs, and laying off massively all over the state.

Even by the standards of this deficit-ridden state, Illinois’s comptroller, Daniel W. Hynes, faces an ugly balance sheet. Precisely how ugly becomes clear when he beckons you into his office to examine his daily briefing memo.

He picks the papers off his desk and points to a figure in red: $5.01 billion.

“This is what the state owes right now to schools, rehabilitation centers, child care, the state university — and it’s getting worse every single day,” he says in his downtown office.

Mr. Hynes shakes his head. “This is not some esoteric budget issue; we are not paying bills for absolutely essential services,” he says. “That is obscene.”

For the last few years, California stood more or less unchallenged as a symbol of the fiscal collapse of states during the recession.

Now Illinois has shouldered to the fore, as its dysfunctional political class refuses to pay the state’s bills and refuses to take the painful steps — cuts and tax increases — to close a deficit of at least $12 billion, equal to nearly half the state’s budget.

[snip]

Then there is the spectacularly mismanaged pension system, which is at least 50 percent underfunded and, analysts warn, could push Illinois into insolvency if the economy fails to pick up.

States cannot go bankrupt, technically, but signs of fiscal crackup are easy to see. Legislators left the capital this month without deciding how to pay 26 percent of the state budget.

The governor proposes to borrow $3.5 billion to cover a year’s worth of pension payments, a step that would cost about $1 billion in interest. And every major rating agency has downgraded the state; Illinois now pays millions of dollars more to insure its debt than any other state in the nation.

“Their pension is the most underfunded in the nation,” said Karen S. Krop, a senior director at Fitch Ratings. “They have not made significant cuts or raised revenues. There’s no state out there like this. They can’t grow their way out of this.”

[snip]

The Community Counseling Centers of Chicago is another of those workaday groups that are like the stitches on a baseball, holding together poor and working-class neighborhoods. With an annual budget of $16 million, the agency tends to families torn by crime and violence as well as people who are psychologically stressed and abusing drugs.

[snip]

On any given Monday morning, the agency’s chief administrative officer, John J. Troy, 61, has no idea how he is going to keep its doors open until Friday. He said the state had not come through with an expected $2.2 million, which is about six months of arrears. He has laid off and recalled employees three times in the last two years.

“Two weeks ago, I had days to meet my $420,000 payroll and all I was looking at was a $200,000 line of credit from a bank,” recalled Mr. Troy. “I drove down to Springfield and said, ‘Hey, you owe us $3 million.’ They said: ‘Oh, that’s nothing. We owe another agency $10 million.’ ”

“The fact of the matter is,” he added, “I don’t sleep much these days.”

The reality is this, many of these states across this nation was helped by stimulus money and they need the same money to keep their doors open, as last year. The other reality is that this economy has not grown much, the stimulus stopped the states from closing doors and laying massive employees off. If these states do not get any more stimulus money, which looks like they will not, expect double digit unemployment. THE REAL NUMBERS and far worse than the 9.5-10.0% that this country has been lingering at since 2009.

NYT

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President Obama's speech on comprehesive immigration reform (Video, Transcript)

President Obama calls for both parties to come together to fix a broken immigration system and implement comprehensive reform that demands accountability from government, from businesses, and from individuals. July 1, 2010.



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Jobless rate 9.5%, jobs lost in June, still bad all around for jobs

The 9.5% is for folks that have stopped looking. The jobs lost are those CENSUS JOBS, the TEMPORARY JOBS. The hiring from private industry is only 83K and jobs in this country are still non-existent. And ain't it nice that congress gets to go home without extending unemployment benefits for the over 1.2M that need it. In fact, when they get back to D.C. and look it over, more than 2M will be bounced off. Nice, congress, for an institution that has more DAYS off of work than actually DOING WORK. And D.C. wonders why people HATE congress....

A wave of census layoffs cut the nation’s payrolls in June for the first time in six months, while private employers added a modest number of jobs, according to the government’s latest report on the labor market.

Employers cut 125,000 jobs last month, the most since October, the Labor Department said Friday. The loss was driven by the end of 225,000 temporary census jobs. Businesses added a net total of 83,000 workers, an improvement from May. But that's also below March and April totals.

The unemployment rate dropped from 9.7 percent to 9.5 percent, the lowest level since July 2009. But it fell because 652,000 people gave up on their job searches and left the labor force. People who are no longer looking for work aren't counted as unemployed.

Source



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President Obama's Town Hall Meeting on the Economy in Racine, WI (Video, Transcript)

This town hall meeting was in Racine, Wisconsin, June 30, 2010



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