Putting the Power Back in Your Hands

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Dictatorship, Dirty bureaucrats, Dirty Politicians, ELECTION 2010, Fascism, First Amendment Violations, Government corruption, Government coverups, Government spending, Government War on Individual Constitutional Rights, Government Waste, Govt Intervention, Govt Intervention Religion, Govt Regulation, Govt War on Constitution, Govt's War on America, Healthcare Reform, Higher taxes, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, Islamic Fundamentalism, Islamization of America, Liberals, obama, Obama Administration, Obama doctrine, Obama lies, Obama's legacy, Obamacare, Plantation Politics, Progressivism, Propaganda, Re-distribution of Wealth, RECESSION, Scandal, socialism, socialized medicine, Soros, TARP, Tax Hikes, Tax Increases

REASONS TO VOTE:

MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL: Lest We Forget: Liberal Progressive ‘Science’ Was At The Core Of The Holocaust

Gallup — Unemployment at 10% — predicts jobless rate to jump higher

Boeing To Shift Some Health Costs To Workers

Prolife group protests muzzling of free speech in Ohio

Don’t believe the hype: Obama’s not Robin Hood

Taliban’s Influence Expands Into Northern Afghanistan

It’s Official: Obama Has Now Borrowed $3 Trillion…

The Senior Wave: Older Voters Set for Historic Turnout

Obama mission: Billions to Pakistan, billions from India

Immigration Courts Tossing Out Record-High Number of Cases

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Forget the Great In Britain

Tags

RECESSION, UK

 Newsweek

“Its fall was inevitable, but the economic crisis will shrink the last pretenses of empire faster than anyone expected.

Even in the decades after it lost its empire, Britain strode the world like a pocket superpower. Its economic strength and cultural heft, its nuclear-backed military might, its extraordinary relationship with America—all these things helped this small island nation to punch well above its weight class. Now all that is changing as the bills come due on Britain’s role in last year’s financial meltdown, the rescue of the banks, and the ensuing recession. Suddenly, the sun that once never set on the British Empire is casting long shadows over what’s left of Britain’s imperial ambitions, and the country is having to rethink its role in the world—perhaps as Little Britain, certainly as a lesser Britain.

This is a watershed moment for the United Kingdom. The country’s public debt is soaring, possibly doubling to a record high of 100 percent of GDP over the next five years, according to the International Monetary Fund. The National Institute for Economic and Social Research forecasts that it will take six years for per capita income to reach early-2008 levels again. The effects will cascade across government. Budgets will be slashed at the Ministry of Defense and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, affecting Britain’s ability to project power, hard and soft. And there’s little that can be done to reverse the trend, either by Prime Minister Gordon Brown or by the incoming government of David Cameron’s Conservatives, assuming they win a general election that must be held within the next 10 months. As William Hague, Cameron’s deputy and shadow foreign secretary, said in a recent speech: “It will become more difficult over time for Britain to exert on world affairs the influence which we are used to.”

History has been closing in on Britain for some time. The rise of giant emerging economies like China and India always meant that Britain would have a smaller seat at the increasingly crowded top table of nations. It also meant that the United States would recalibrate the so-called special relationship as it sought new partners and alliances, inevitably shrinking the disproportionate role Britain has long played in world affairs. Brown’s predecessor, Tony Blair, made a final stab at greatness with what amounted to a 51st-state strategy: by locking Britain into America’s wars—on terror, in Afghanistan, and in Iraq—London achieved an importance it hadn’t had since Churchill and the war. But whatever advantage Britain gained in the short term was wiped out by the political damage Blair’s strategy caused at home. Ordinary Britons and even members of the British establishment grew increasingly critical of what they saw as London’s subservient relationship with Washington. Blair’s authority was diminished, his political agenda at home suffered as a result, and it became clear that Britain’s geopolitical default setting would no longer be to automatically follow America’s lead. In fact, Blair may merely have postponed the inevitable: a lesser Britain is a consequence of world events, not unlike the slow relative decline of the United States, which finds itself today where Britain was at its apogee….”

 

Incredible and Obama wants to be like Mike, er the UK.  We are fast heading in the direction of exceeding Britain’s GDP and no one is taking the time to watch, stop, think, listen and most importantly learn.  Arrogance and stupidly aids in speeding up one’s pace to destruction.

Happy Days Aren’t Here Again – We’re Not Even Close (UPDATED)

Tags

Economy, RECESSION

The recession is over.  Yeah, who says? The recession is not over.  Do not believe the hype. Hard times are still ahead. What we are experiencing now America is known as artificial growth, which is by the way temporary.  

Bear in mind, millions of Americans are still out of work.  As many as 1.5 million jobless Americans will use up their unemployment insurance benefits by the end of the year as jobs remain scarce and State unemployment offices are running out of money. 

Although unemployment rates rose in all 100 markets during the past year, forty-one of the nation’s 100 major labor markets now have double-digit unemployment rates, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

VOA

“The U.S. government says the number of laid-off workers applying for first-time jobless benefits rose slightly more than expected last week.  A Labor Department report Thursday shows the number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits rose by 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 584,000 in the week ending July 25. That is above analysts’ estimates of 570,000.”

The Cash for Clunkers deal ran out of money in four days.  Hence, msm and the government in tandem are lauding the success of this program, when in fact it is more proof of how screwed up things become once government gets involved.  The bottom line America is that a depression is on its way and it will get worse before it gets better being the fact that government has not learned a lesson from its previous failures.

PRISON PLANET

“Have you heard the great news? The recession is over! It’s true; I saw it on TV. Why fret about growing unemployment lines when banks are paying big-time bonuses again?

Proof of the turn was apparently revealed by the 2nd quarter GDP figures that showed that the economy declined by only 1%. After four consecutive quarters of negative GDP, the green shoots now assure that growth will resume over the summer. But before we pop the corks, it may be worthwhile to ask, ‘what really has changed, and what is responsible for our new lease on life?’

In truth, because of the continued profligacy of the government and Federal Reserve, the imbalances that caused the current recession have actually worsened. We are now in an even deeper hole than when the crisis began. Rather than wrapping up a recession, we are actually sinking into a depression. If things look better now, it’s just because we are in the eye of the storm.

We must remember that recessions inevitably follow periods of artificial growth. During these booms, malinvestments are made which ultimately must be liquidated during the ensuing busts. In short, mistakes made during booms are corrected during busts – and in the recent boom we made some real whoppers. We borrowed and spent too much money, bought goods we couldn’t afford, built houses we couldn’t carry, and developed a service sector economy completely dependent on consumer credit and rising asset prices. All the while, we allowed our industrial base to crumble and our infrastructure to decay.

In order to lay the foundation for real and lasting recovery, market forces must be allowed to repair the damage. However, current policy is counterproductive to this end. Trillions in stimulus dollars have kept the party going, but now what? How does deficit spending by the government address the problems that brought about the crash? It doesn’t; it just delays and worsens the hangover – and we have to hope we don’t die of alcohol poisoning.

By interfering with the unpleasant forces of the recession, we simply trade short-term gain for long-term pain. By propping up inefficient companies that should fail, we deprive more effective companies of the capital they need to grow. By holding up over-valued asset prices, we prevent the prudent or less well-off from snatching them up and, in doing so, creating a new price equilibrium based upon reality. By maintaining artificially low interest rates, we discourage the very savings that are so critical to capital formation and future economic growth. In addition, the false economic signals the Fed sends the market prevent a more efficient re-allocation of resources from taking place and leads to even more bad economic decision being made. By running such huge deficits, we further crowd-out private enterprise by making it harder for businesses to invest or hire.

The recently passed ‘cash for clunkers’ program (currently on-hold, as it ran out of funding in one week) is a perfect example of how government policy can make the economy worse. By incentivizing Americans to destroy fully paid-for cars so they can go deeper into debt buying brand new ones, the government weakens an already crippled economy. The last thing we want to do is subsidize Americans to go deeper into debt by buying more stuff. Don’t they realize that is precisely the behavior that got us into this mess?

Think about it this way. If your friend were in trouble because he had too much debt, would you encourage him to take on even more? Wouldn’t a real sign of progress be a reduction of debt, even if he had to cut back on his everyday expenses? What is true for an individual is also true for a collection of individuals, even if they call themselves a ‘government.’ If, as a country, we are even deeper into debt now than we were before, we are worse off. Period. The fact that the additional debt enabled better short-term GDP numbers is a long-term negative.

Since we have learned nothing from past mistakes, we are condemned to repeat them. As if we have not already suffered enough as a consequence of the Bush/Greenspan stimulus, Obama/Bernanke are giving ever-larger doses, which will prove lethal to any recovery. The recession is over; long live the depression!”

 

 

Source: Double-digit unemployment hits 41 markets; PRISON PLANET; US Jobless Claims Rise Slightly More Than Expected

OBAMA BEGS FOR OUR PATIENCE AND UNDERSTANDING

Tags

Economic Recovery Package, Economic Stimulus Plan, Economy, obama, Obama Administration, Pelosi, Pork, RECESSION, Recovery Package, Stimulus Plan, UNEMPLOYMENT, USA

Less than six months ago, the Obama administration sought the perfect opportunity to take advantage of a good crisis.  The Democratic Party worked feverishly to pass and force feed a pork laden stimulus plan at the sum of $787 billion down the throats of Americans with the promise that once passed; it would immediately begin to put Americans back to work.

Obama: Stimulus will create 4.1 million jobs, 01/10/09, MSNBC 

“If nothing is done, economists from across the spectrum tell us that this recession could linger for years and the unemployment rate could reach double digits — and they warn that our nation could lose the competitive edge that has served as a foundation for our strength and standing in the world,’ he said.  

The president-elect said that a new analysis by his economic advisers indicated that his economic recovery plan ‘will likely save or create three to four million jobs.”  

Obama: Stimulus to save 3.5M jobs, put Americans to work, 02/18/09, The Biz Journal

“The White House estimates the legislation will save or create 3.5 million jobs…‘We are putting Americans to work doing the work that America needs done in critical areas that have been neglected for too long — work that will bring real and lasting change for generations to come,’ Obama said.”

Stimulus package would create/sustain 228,300 NY jobs, 02/04/09, The Business Review

“President Obama hopes that his proposed economic stimulus will create or save between 3 million and 4 million jobs across the nation through 2010. Members of Congress are currently debating a similar stimulus package valued at more than $800 billion.”

Congress Must Move Quickly on Stimulus Package, 01/08/09, PBS, THE NEWS HOUR 

“REP. NANCY PELOSI:  Well, you know, rather than go over the particulars of the plan, may I just say that what — in a broader sense, from the standpoint of our investments, as well as in the tax cuts and credits, what we want to do is to create 3 million jobs….

But one thing is for sure: We must have a bill signed into law by the middle of February. Our economy requires it. The American people need it desperately.”

 

Feeling the pressure of a failed stimulus package and the growing dissatisfaction of a nation, immediately once May’s dismal unemployment statistics were released in June, Obama countered with the assurance that Americans would see the stimulus package in action by summer’s end with the creation of over 600,000 jobs by the end of the summer, courtesy of summer employment.

Obama confronts doubts on stimulus, vows faster spending, 06/10/09, L.A. Times

“Reporting from Washington — President Obama billed it as an adrenaline jolt — a $787-billion stimulus package that not only would put people back to work, but also underwrite construction and energy projects the country had long neglected.

But with the economy still sputtering and some experts doubting the program was meeting its goals, Obama vowed Monday to accelerate stimulus spending with the goal of creating or saving 600,000 jobs by summer’s end.”

What summer employment jobs is supposed to do for the economy right now would be no more than putting a non-adhesive bandage on a festering sore since most summer employment programs are run through neighborhood youth corps programs and are clearly intended for teenagers in families earning below a specified income. 

However, in the world of Obama, such bogus nonsense would serve to give him a temporary reprieve.

Earlier this year, Obama also indicated that he expected the unemployment rate next year to reach into the double digits.

According to the Department of Labor, unemployment rose to 9.5 percent in June 2009 from 9.4 percent in May.  In the month of June alone, the economy shed 467,000 jobs.

As of June 2009, there are 14.7 million unemployed persons, and since December 2007, unemployment has risen by 7.2 million.

The Business Journal

“The number of persons unemployed for 27 weeks or longer continued to increase in June. The 4.4 million long-term jobless individuals accounted for 3 in 10 unemployed persons.”

It is clear that the Obama is out to lunch on this one, but refuses to own it.

Obama Says Economic Stimulus Plan Worked as Intended, 07/11/09, Bloomberg News

“President Barack Obama said his $787 billion stimulus bill “has worked as intended” as he pushed back against Republican criticism that his recovery program has failed to rescue the economy.

‘It has already extended unemployment insurance and health insurance to those who have lost their jobs in this recession,’ Obama, who is traveling today in Ghana, said in his weekly Saturday radio and Web address. ‘It has delivered $43 billion in tax relief to American working families and business.”

“$43 billion in tax relief to working families and business?”

Obama insults us by the very words he uses.  What good is an extra $13 a week in one’s paycheck when the government has put a tax on everything but the air.  Oh wait, they’re working on that one.  Small businesses have received no type of reprieve.  What little there is for small businesses come with so much red tape that a business could go under while trying to decipher the b.s.

Enough of the double talk, denial, excuses and passing the blame. This economy belongs to Obama has belonged to him for some time now.  He must wear it and face up to the fact “you cannot spend your way out of a bad economy.”

Obama and Biden confirms did not know what he was doing back in January and he does not know what the hell he is doing now.

BLOOMBERG AUTHORIZES $69 MIL IN BONUSES FOR HIS MANAGERS/STAFF ON THE DOWN LOW

Tags

Michael Bloomberg, NYC, RECESSION

New York City along with the rest of the country is in the midst of a deep recession.  While Bloomberg has terminated hundreds of relevant City programs due to the City wallowing in debt, he has seen fit to quietly authorize hefty pay increases over a two year period for 6,692 of his managers and nonunion employees, at the huge sum of $69 million.

Bloomberg’s entire City Hall staff will receive salary increases which match the raises given to the city’s largest municipal union, District Council 37.

“There will be a 4% raise retroactive to March 3 of last year, and a compounded 4% raise – or 4.16% – retroactive to March 3 of this year.

Those getting the raises will get lump-sum retroactive checks covering 16 months.

The seven deputy mayors will get raises ranging from $16,978 to $18,541, with the salary of First Deputy Commissioner Patricia Harris rising to $245,760.

Top commissioners will get a $23,247 raise, bringing their salaries to $189,700.”

NY DAILY NEWS

The announcement for the salary increases did not come until late Friday in an effort to slip through unnoticed.

It is appalling that Bloomberg who has cut so many programs vital to the middle class and poor  of New York would give his staff bonuses and raises at a time when everyone else is towing the line.

Hence, this is yet another example that Bloomberg is totally out of touch with the people of New York.  Clearly, he is one in his own zone who feels he is untouchable and can do no wrong.  Well this, Mr. Mayor, is very wrong.  I see it and can only hope and pray that the rest of New York sees it as well.

New York cannot afford and does not deserve a third term of Michael Bloomberg.  It is time to send him on his merry way to La La Land.

San Diego Federal Money for Disadvantaged Kids Used to Pay for Venison, Lobbying

Tags

Education, fraud, RECESSION, Recovery Package, Stimulus Plan

“While schools froze their spending to survive a bruising budget crisis, San Diego Unified spent more than $2,000 in federal money for disadvantaged students to send Superintendent Terry Grier to a conference in Washington, D.C., including more than $550 for meals for Grier and other school district staff and trustees.expense reports and receipts obtained by voiceofsandiego.org through a California Public Records Act request.”

Staffers said the costs were reasonable and credited the March conference and lobbying with helping to steer stimulus money to San Diego schools. But Deputy Superintendent Chuck Morris, who approved the spending, now says charging the federal fund for the expenses was inappropriate and vowed to correct it when it was brought to his attention by voiceofsandiego.org late last week. Using the money to pay for Grier may have also violated federal rules that bar the funds from being used for lobbying.

‘I screwed it up. I shouldn’t have done that,’ Morris said. He had believed that the whole conference was related to the federal money for disadvantaged students, he said, and was therefore an allowable expense for Grier. The money will now be charged to the Office of the Superintendent.

The erroneous costs included dinner at a Georgetown restaurant, where Grier picked up the tab for himself and other school district staffers and trustees. The dinners ran more than $57 per person and included two plates of venison ($29 per entree), two orders of striped bass ($28 each) and two orders of a gourmet beef called wagyu ($32 each), according to expense reports and receipts obtained by voiceofsandiego.org through a California Public Records Act request.

People are losing their senses over POTUS’ spendulous plan.  What an invitation to waste and fraud.  In the meantime, those who were missing out a year ago continue to miss out.  And those who were stealing misappropriating funds have been given more money to play with.  Accountability is too much to ask for.  ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

VOICE OF SANDIEGO.ORG