What a difference a year makes.

A little over a year ago, a close friend of mine was chosen by her company to attend a GOP fund-raiser. Her company paid a zillion dollars and in exchange, she and a handful of other VIP's from her Defense contractor, engineering firm were going to get to go through a line and shake hands with President Bush, then get to sit and listen to an hour of speeches.

For this to happen, her company had to write the big check and then submit the names of those who were going to attend so they could be vetted (I assume by the Secret Service).
Actually, getting to the event itself was a whole other story.

Although it was being held in a public convention center, the Secret Service had cordoned off a two block area around the facility, to include a public park. NO ONE gets in. In order to attend this event, my friend had to drive to a separate parking lot some miles away where she was to be screened again before being allowed to board a bus. The bus was then to take these vetted and thoroughly screened, paying guests to the event where they would be screened again before entering the venue.

Fast forward to a little over a year later. Now we have a new President at his first State function. An event in the White House itself. A facility where the most state of the art surveillance and screening equipment have been in place for some time now.
Yet, a couple merely playing the part of guests, two people who apparently didn't even have to produce any credentials what so ever, are allowed by the Secret Service to merely walk in the front door and shake hands with the leader of the free world.

This is simply unfathomable to me.

In a time in which public already has very little trust in our governments ability to do it's job, it would seem our secret service couldn't even manage to perform the most very basic function of their job, checking credentials at the door, in order to protect a Democrat President. Our first Black President. A President who had received a record number of death threats before he even swore the oath of office.

I just can't even begin to understand this incident. Because the simplest answers are simply unconscionable.

Unemployment - can you handle the truth ?

With all this talk about a "jobless recovery" and claims that we can't actually have a recovery unless the job situation gets back to normal, I've begun to question what normal really is (was?).

Looking at an "unemployment rate" graph from google, I see that since 1990 during any given 4 year Presidential term, the most the rate has changed (up or down) is about 3%.

I picked the "4 year term" time period because (right or wrong) "we the people" seem to correlate unemployment directly to actions taken (or not taken) by a Presidential administration. I only went back to 1990 because that was the only graphed data I could find at the moment.

So ... after the cataclysmic economic events in the Fall of 08, in which the unemployment rate spiked nearly 6% to a high of now 10.2% , the most we should seem to rationally expect out of an administration would be to lower that back down to around 7%
To get unemployment back down to the 4 - 5 % range would take the sort of extraordinary economic prowess not shown by either party in nearly 2 decades.

However, even that wouldn't really be "back to normal".

From the beginning of the Bush Presidency until the extraordinary events in the Fall of 2008, the unemployment rate only decreased 0.1%
Yes, they did have about a 3% change between their high and their low but in the end, almost 8 years later, all their efforts just managed to hold unemployment steady.

But the job scene was changing rapidly.
Corporate America was in full scale "right-sizing" mode and was trying to trim as much "fat" as they could get away with. The outsourcing of work to foreign countries and even the relocating of corporate headquarters was in high gear. Jobs were disappearing at a voracious rate.

The main thing that prevented the unemployment rates from drastically climbing during the last administration was long unemployed workers being dropped from the unemployment rolls and a massive amount of Government hiring.
The birth of the Office of Homeland Security was the creation of one of the largest, open-ended Government programs since Social Security! This massive expansion of the Federal Government helped to offset the number of "private" jobs that were being lost.

Where we now stand.

Pun-dents keep talking about the Obama stimulus effort not "creating jobs" yet "normal" would be to just stop the bleeding and hold steady where we are. As for actually lowering the unemployment rate, that may be a dream of decades long gone. With productivity on the rise (doing more with less) and overhead now as lean as it has been in decades, does it really make sense for corporations to return to the "bloated days" and hire all these U.S. workers back?

What about massive government spending to create jobs? The public didn't so much as bat an eyelash at the previous administration for doing this. Now though, with a LOT of cheer-leading from FAUX News and Hate Radio, it seems that the public has no stomach for the current administration's suggestions for doing the same.

So now what?

I really couldn't say but I do know that it is past time to embrace the changing reality of the U.S. employment situation and start making plans based on what we face and NOT on nostalgia for an era gone by.

Good news about the "TARP"

With everyone taking their shots at the administration's plans to save our necks, I thought I might share this example of where "Troubled Asset Relief Program" IS working.
Seems it can work when you can find bankers who want to make it work.

How the TARP Should Work: A Prime Example

One other note;
The Republicans are on a massive PR tour to try to talk up the amount of "pork" that was in the budget that got passed yesterday. They keep throwing out figures that are specifically tweaked to try and enrage the masses.
What they are NOT telling you is that the amount of earmarked projects that are in this Omnibus budget have been reduced to just 2% of the total. One of the lowest amounts of such spending in a long, long time.

BTW: I saw an interview with one of the chief Republican congressmen who is attacking the amount of earmarks in this budget. When the reporter pointed out the millions that had been put in for earmarked projects in HIS state, he said he would put those items back IN the budget if they were to get removed. Apparently it is only "pork" when the money goes to someone else.
Hypocrite.

Take. A. Deep. Breath.

If you watch CNBC or pay any attention to the news, you may be ready to throw your hands into the air and yell "We're screwed".

Commentator after commentator gets in front of a camera and talks about what is wrong with the Obama administration's economic plans and why they won't work.
This is where the controlled breathing needs to come into play.

Last Friday, the non-stop cry on CNBC was how terrible it was that The White House was leading us towards the "Nationalization" of our financial institutions. On Monday afternoon of this week though, the CNBC "Fast Money" folks were just tearing into the President because he wasn't going to "Nationalize the banks and get it over with".

Anecdotally speaking, if you had 10 "experts" come on CNBC to talk about what we need to do to fix this problem, the 1st might say that the President's plan was exactly what was needed and the other 9 would say it's the wrong direction.
However, if you took ANY of the other 9 and adopted ONE of their plans you would get the same "wrong direction" reaction from the remaining 9 "experts" !

It is also important to keep in mind that many of these "experts" represent the failed economic policies of the previous administration and they are just as terrified that this administration's plans WILL work as those who are worried that they won't! Also, many more of these "experts" are far more worried about what the stock market will get out of all of this then they are worried about how "mainstreet America" will fare. When a corporation ships it's work overseas, it's profits and stock price go up while life for it's former employees just gets more desperate.

The bottom line? Right now, there is simply NO consensus on how to fix things. We are in un-charted waters here. This global economic disaster is not like anything that has come before it. While there are many "plans" out there, none has any more support among the "experts" than does President Obama's.

This President is a very smart man. We trusted him enough to elect him. Giving up on him before his plans have even had a chance to be implemented just doesn't make sense.

"Confused" Grampa, Thriftfully Drives Car Off Cliff !

Old Grampa's confused state may make him a cute and cuddly member of the family ... but would you really pick him to lead you and your family out of a burning office building?

The group that is currently getting the most press coverage as they attack President Obama's stimulus efforts, has decided to choose Senator John McCain as their leader.

John McCain, the man who admitted just a few months ago that,

“The issue of economics is something that I’ve really never understood as well as I should.” (Boston Globe,12/18/07),

and then at the GOP debate in Fla clearly demonstrated his economic cluelessness by stating,

“I don’t believe we’re headed into a recession. I believe the fundamentals of this economy are strong, and I believe they will remain strong.” (GOP Debate, Myrtle Beach, FNC, 1/10/08)

Yes, this very same man is now saying that he has all the answers and we should scrap the plan of the man we just chose as our President and instead, follow him.
Either he has copious amounts of audacity or he suffers from short term memory loss.Or perhaps, both.

Still, he just might succeed in gathering a mob. Because, while the President is giving us the straight, hard news - Senator McCain is telling everyone what they want to hear.
This man, who told us that he didn't really understand the economy, is now saying that with his plan we can fix the economy at half the cost.
Swell.

Our economy is very very sick and the danger with Senator McCain's fairytale ending is that we will skimp on our unpopular meds, taking less then the prescribed dosage to save money.
The result? Instead of spending $850 billion and being on the road to recovery - we will have spent just $421 billion and be even sicker then we are now.

Specialists, (people who's profession IS understanding the economy) have prescribed some nasty tasting, VERY expensive medicine. No one wants to have to do this thing, Mr. McCain but sometimes you have to make the tough choices and you have to be strong and you have to take your medicine - ALL OF IT.

Thank you Mr. President

In a press conference today, President Obama finally spoke out against his critics and said what I had been writing here for days.

http://tinyurl.com/bsfxom

Obama said the criticisms he has heard "echo the very same failed economic theories that led us into this crisis in the first place, the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems."

"I reject those theories, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change," said the president, who was elected with an Electoral College landslide last fall and enjoys high public approval ratings at the outset of his term.

President Obama continues to "reach across the isle" and allow the Republicans to have their say on what spending items stay or go ... but it's time for them to come to terms with the fact that they are no longer steering this ship.

Welfare queen

Some of you kids out there may not remember this term. It was heavily used during Ronald Reagan's 1976 presidential campaign when he described a "welfare queen" from Chicago's South Side. In this "made for sound bite" tale, there was a woman receiving government assistance and she had supposedly used the money to buy a Cadillac and was living the "high life" on the Tax payer's money.

Soon, the far right was in full on "foaming at the mouth mode", crying out against an imagine army of "project" dwelling freeloaders.

All of this was far from the truth of course. While you can always find a handful of people to support ANY stereotype (especially when you are talking about the MILLIONS that require government assistance just to survive) this "living the high-life on taxpayer money" just wasn't a reality. Those that were abusing government assistance were a barely visable blip on the budget radar screen. The Reagan mob could have had every one of those who were mis-using their "welfare" checks shipped off to Gitmo and it wouldn't have reduced the money that was needed by even a 10th of a percent.

Still, the OUTRAGE behind this idea - the idea that ANYONE would take Government assistance and selfishly spend it on themselves - was pivotal in swinging voters to Reagan's side.

Fast foreword to NOW.

Through a series of VERY bad financial decisions based on terrible and inept judgment at best and simple greed at worst, Wall Street financial firms have destroyed themselves and much of this nations economy. Wasting no time, they marched into Congress and demanded that the Taxpayers bail them out of this mess or they were going to take everyone down with them.
So congress wrote them some REALLY BIG WELFARE CHECKS with the intention that they use that money to continue making payroll, pay their debts and lend it to Americans in need.

Instead, these modern day Welfare Queens used the money to go shopping for smaller banks, to prop up banks overseas, to share with their stock holders, and to pay themselves multi million dollar bonuses.
They took tax payer assistance money, meant to keep their doors open and paid themselves bonuses for the previous years disastrous efforts. Do you know how many Cadillacs 1 million dollars is?

Why is what they are doing any different then what the Regan administration was vilifying?

Where is the national outrage?

Pot calling kettle, come in kettle ...

Hang on, the spin is going into top speed.

The Republican's cry "PORK" over and over again but have you heard even one of them give any hard figures about how much of the proposed stimulus package they actually consider "pork"?
No, you haven't.
That's because all their rhetoric is just a smoke screen. If you cut everything out of this package that they don't like ... the price tag STILL doesn't drop below $800 billion!
In fact, since the bill has left the House and the President has continued to press the Republicans for their input ... the price tag has actually gone up! Gone up to the point that the President has had to instruct them to try and keep it under $900 billion.

The Republicans are crying crocodile tears, making a big spectacle over how expensive this is because they know how appalling it is to the tax payers. In reality though, they have no intention of reducing the price tag by ANY appreciable amount.
They just hope that if they protest about it loudly enough, the public will be duped into thinking they had nothing to do with it. They're patting the public on the head with one hand while slapping them in the face with the other.

In this together ... or are we?

As I watch the disciples of the failed, "trickle down economics" policies going rabid on CNBC ... It is becoming apparent that these people fear President Obama's success FAR much more then they do the consequences of another depression.
IF the President is correct with his economic theories and if he can turn this country around ... it might once and for all show these frauds for what they are - rellics of fanatical false religion.
I honestly believe they would rather see this country fail then to see the President be right.

One should also keep in mind that this sort of failure actually benefits the super rich who have received the special tax cuts for the last 8 years. When the economy turns down like it has and companies get in financial trouble, they don't just disappear. What happens is that their assets are quickly gobbled up by those same sort of individuals and companies who actually profited from the sale of all the "toxic" loans that helped get us here.

PLUS, strong companies who are still profitable - but that have seen their stock prices pulled down by the weight of the market(many by more than half!) suddenly find themselves becoming targets of hostel take overs as the robber barons swoop in to buy them out for pennies on the dollar. The result? In the end the very few will own even more and have even more power.

No, not everyone wants This President to rescue our economy and some are working very hard to keep him from doing so.

Bipartisanship does not equal capitulation

Some how, the Republicans have got it in their head that "Bipartisanship" means the Democrats should roll over on their backs and do what ever the Republicans want. Worse still, they are pounding away at the nations news outlets, pathetically bleating to anyone with a microphone about how horrible they are being treated. They are doing a hard sell to the American people who tend to believe who ever gets the last word in.

Let's make this clear. The country picked Obama to be their President because they WANT to go in the direction he has put forward. "Bipartisanship" DOES NOT MEAN that he should abandon his plan in order to follow the Republican's in the direction THEY wanted to go in.

What "Bipartisanship" does mean, is that the Republicas have a say in how we proceed in the direction that the President has chosen. It's a pretty clear distinction.

What is really going on here, is that the Republicans want to spend just as much money as the Democrats do ... the Republicans just don't like who the money is going to. President Obama has decided that we need to spend 1/3 the money on Tax cuts for small businesses and the lower/middle income tax payers. This isn't a "rebate". It is actually an emediate reduction in the amount that the Government takes out of your paycheck. The other 2/3rds he wants to spend on infrastructure projects (creates jobs, helps make the country safer, helps us face our energy needs) and for things like helping working Americans keep their homes. This is intended to insure our country continues to not only recover but get financially stronger and quite frankly, safer from foreign interests.

The Republicans, on the other hand, are insisting that ALL the money go for tax cuts for industries, major corporations and the top 2% income earners in America. Does that sound familure ? It is the same course they had us on for the last 10 years. The course that ran us right into an economic iceburg. A course they promised to continue if we voted for their candidate for president.
We didn't.

Let's make this perfectly clear to these people. WE VOTED YOUR IDEA DOWN SO QUIT TRYING TO SHOVE IT DOWN OUR THROATS!!!!!

President Obama is following the course that "we the people have voted on" so it's time to quit pouting and acting hurt because he won't follow your plan and start acting like the adults this country needs right now.
This 1/3 - 2/3 split in spending is the plan - so how about putting on your "big boy pants" and serving this country by helping to insure the infrastructure projects and the homeowner assistance projects and such, are the ones that are going to give us the best bang for the money spent.

The election is over. We have chosen someone ELSE to lead us. Your job now is to help make the President's plan the best it can be ... not to decide which plan we follow.

... by their own sword.

As I watch Republicans on CNBC this morning, swooning all over themselves about cooperation and "bi-partisanship" - I am thinking how lucky they are that Hilary Clinton isn't their new President.

When you think about the unprecedented powers that the Bush administration gave itself and how Dick Cheney declared that the Office of Vice President was not part of Congress and wasn't part of the Executive branch and therefor was answerable to NO ONE ... the Republicans should be giving joyous thanks that the new administration is headed by a man who seems to embrace civility and inclusiveness.

Somehow, I don't believe Senator Clinton would be NEARLY so gracious towards the party that, for the 6 years they controlled both Congress and the White House, made it abundantly clear that the democrats should just shut up and go away. Anyone who even questioned the ruling party was branded as anti-American and even traitorous. When the Democrats, who were excluded from Republican run hearings and meetings, tried to hold their own meetings - the Republicans had the sound systems shut down and the room lights turned off.

Do you remember how former President Bush had the U.S. Attorney General draft a memo stating that "During a time of War (even one declared solely by the President) - ANY action that the President took in Defense of the Country (with "defense of the country" being defined by the President himself) was fully lawful?

Now, imagine THAT power being handed to Senator Clinton. One of the very Senators the Republicans disenfranchised and a human being whom the Republican party has personally attacked and vilified.

Yeah, a part of me really wishes we could see that happen. There is nothing quite as satisfying as seeing a bully get the living crap kicked out of him. NOT stooping to those sort of base desires and bullying tactics, may perhaps be the biggest obstacle preventing the Democratic party from making this world a better place. It is also what separates the good guys from the bad guys.

So in the end, we have a President who already appears to be trying to build a representative government that INCLUDES people from a vast variety of views and opinions.
... and at least at this point, the Republicans should be counting their blessings because President Obama does NOT seem interested in retribution and comeuppance.

No mater how "Just" that might be, it's not in the best interest of this country's future.

Inauguration Day - Whew!

So, following the words he spoke at his inauguration "choose hope over fear"- he got out and walked (twice) ... and nothing bad happened.
Very relieved. :)

So I guess it's time to get on with the business of righting this ship of state.

One other note - I hear pundits throwing out that President Obama's (oooo, that's the first time I've gotten to type that!) campaign raised more money then any in history and also that this is the most expensive inauguration in history.

To those folks I would say, "What is your point?"
Look at the last inauguration ... most expensive in history, so were the 4 before that. Same with the last winning campaigns. Is that a good thing? I don't think so.
However, anyone who is trying to imply that this President has somehow done something unusual in this department ... is simply trying to manufacture a story.

Find me a winning campaign or inauguration that is cheaper then the one before it and THAT will be a story!

Inaguration Day - so far ... so good

Tentative sigh of relief as the swearing in went without incident.

Now for the parade. They are saying more then 1.2 million were on the mall to watch the Oath of Office. Now many of them are trying to get to the parade route ... that was already filled with people who camped out there. Now hearing that it is officially maxed out at 300,000 people and they are still coming.

It's a large crowd.
Hopefully they will remember the spirit of the occasion.

Inaguration Day - a NEW day

Overwhelmed.

Inaguration Day - security

Security.
Security.Security.Security.

I believe that this day is what is known as "testing their metal". I pray they are up to the task.

Things we don't like to think about -
Nearly our entire Government is in one target zone. Supreme Court Justices, legislators and Executive branch.
With one successful attack our system of government would suddenly change ... at least temporarily.

Apparently, Senator Obama's choice for Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, will be sitting out the event at an "undisclosed military base outside the target zone".
http://tinyurl.com/95d2bg
Being sixth in the presidential line of succession, he was selected as "designated successor" during Obama's inauguration should we suffer a worst case scenario.

Robert Gates was also W. Bush's Defense Secretary and was director of the CIA under Bush Sr.

Inaguration Day

Like everyone else in the world (it seems) I have a lot of thoughts about this day.

So as the day goes on I may try to post those ideas here, probably in a rambling and disjointed fashion. Not sure why but for this morning it feels like the thing to do.

First off - Not to be a downer ... but I am a little afraid of a "joy" hangover. Obama may be the smartest man we have had as a President in a long time but our countries current problems are serious and complicated and there is no quick solution.
Here is something I shared earlier on "The Deadpan" forum.

Obama is being handed the keys to a ship that has struck an iceburg and is half under water … oh and on their way into their own private lifeboat, the previous crew plundered all the cash and then set the place on fire. They lost the authority to decide which direction the ship is headed … so they have badly crippled it to make sure it won’t be going anywhere for the next 4 to 5 years. Very shrewd.



Let’s hope America TRULY grasps the reality of how badly the previous management has trashed the place … and will have the patients for how long it will take to clean up this historic mess!
Otherwise it’s going to be one heck of a hangover TOMORROW morning when America wakes up and realize that the ship is STILL on fire and STILL sinking.

8:46am (We'll see if I keep adding to this or make new posts for each entry)
I know that some of my gay friends are dissapointed with Obama's choice of Evangilist Christain, Rick Warren to give his invocation today. As it turns out, there are other groups feeling slighted too -
http://tinyurl.com/aykkcp
Missing from the Inaugural Dais: Rabbis and Priests

Yep, Catholics and Jews want to voice their desent. I'm guessing they can get in line with the Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu and Baha'i clergy that also won't be at the podium.
But you know who I think will be the MOST annoyed at Obama's decision to go with an all "Evangelical Protestant Ceremony"? It will be the "hate radio" folks and their sheep listeners (like a 70 year old relative of mine) who STILL insist that Obama is Musluem.

Oh, they will continue to believe he is Musluem but it will make them have to work that much harder to maintain their delusion.
Sen. Obama is a smart man and I see this as another "well thought out" move to prove his critics wrong.