posted September 18, 2010 10:04 AM         

What a deal, and those rude, nasty republicans say El Presidente Loco's jobs program isn't working!

I think someone in the White House must have gotten their hands on some of those stimulus funds to run a study...call it medical research:

"A STUDY TO DETERMINE THE EFFECTS OF LOCO WEED ON COGNITIVE ABILITY"

I have a suggestion.

Since it's obvious the White House test subjects have been breaking into the Medical Loco Weed stash; lock it up...between tests.

Oh, one other suggestion.

Since Joe "Plugs" O'Biden sounds like he's high all the time..."The Stimulus is working", "It's a Big F-ing Deal"....drop Joe "Plugs" from the White House Loco Weed Study.

Employment generation disappointing: LA City Controller
By IB Times Staff Reporter | September 17, 2010 3:41 AM EDT

The Los Angeles City Controller said on Thursday the city's use of its share of the $800 billion federal stimulus fund has been disappointing.

The city received $111 million in stimulus under American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) approved by the Congress more than year ago.

"I'm disappointed that we've only created or retained 55 jobs after receiving $111 million," says Wendy Greuel, the city's controller, while releasing an audit report.

"With our local unemployment rate over 12% we need to do a better job cutting red tape and putting Angelenos back to work,” she added.

According to the report, the Los Angeles Department of Public Works generated only 45.46 jobs (the fraction of a job created or retained correlates to the number of actual hours of work) after receiving $70.65 million, while the target was 238 jobs.

Similarly, the city’s department of transportation, armed with a $40.8 million fund, created only 9 jobs in place of an expected 26 jobs.

The audit says the numbers were disappointing due to bureaucratic red tape, absence of competitive bidding for projects in private sectors, inappropriate tracking of stimulus money and a laxity in bringing out timely job reports.

“While it doesn’t appear that any of the ARRA funds were misspent, the City needs to do a better job expediting the process and creating jobs,” she said.
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/63228/20100917/american-recovery-and-reinvestment-act-arra-los-angeles-stimulus-wendy-greuel.htm

posted September 20, 2010 03:24 PM         

The “Great Recession” has ended, officially.

At least, that's the word from the private, nonprofit research organization that calls the beginnings and endings of recessions, the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The NBER said Monday that the recession which began in December 2007 ended in June 2009, which marked the beginning of an expansion. The announcement rules out the possibility of a so-called “double-dip” recession, because any new downturn would be seen as a brand new recession.

President Barack Obama said that even though the NBER officially named an end to the recession, the economy has a long way to go and much work to be done to become healthy again. "Something that took ten years to create is going to take a little more time to solve," Obama said at a town-hall-style meeting shown live on CNBC.

The NBER said it chose the June 2009 date based on examination of data including gross domestic product, employment and personal income.

"The recession lasted 18 months, which makes it the longest of any recession since World War II. Previously the longest postwar recessions were those of 1973-75 and 1981-82, both of which lasted 16 months," the NBER added in a press release on its website.

Just because the recession ended 15 months ago, it doesn't mean that the economy is healthy, the NBER asserted. "Economic activity is typically below normal in the early stages of an expansion, and it sometimes remains so well into the expansion," the NBER said.

In April, the NBER declined to call the end of the recession, and some of its members said at the time they were concerned the economy could dip back into negative territory. In Monday's announcement, the NBER said any fresh downturn would mark a new recession, not a continuation of the one that began in December 2007.

"The basis for this decision was the length and strength of the recovery to date," the NBER said.

U.S. officials have been struggling to find a way to speed up a sluggish recovery that has left unemployment at a painfully high 9.6 percent. The U.S. Federal Reserve's policy-setting committee meets on Tuesday and is widely expect to discuss whether additional measures are warranted to bolster the economy.

The NBER normally takes its time in declaring a recession has started or ended.

For instance, the NBER announced in December 2008 that the recession had actually started one year earlier, in December 2007.

Similarly, it declared in July 2003 that the 2001 recession was over. It actually ended 20 months earlier, in November 2001.

Its determination is of interest to economic historians — and political leaders. Recessions that occur on their watch pose political risks.

posted September 21, 2010 12:04 PM         

have you not read this jwhop? it is right down your alley with its insinuation that socialism is the vehicle by which this tactic is facilitated...however it points out the result as including the completely tax-free status of the very richest people on earth...and also points out that whatever the administration SAYS it is doing, it is furthering the ambitions of those very richest...(you know, the rockefellers, rothschilds etc of the world).

so while i actually think that $250K is a bit low for the top margin tax cutoff point, giving the wealthiest this break feeds right into the pockets of those who hold the real pursestrings in the world.

and you will notice that no one is going after getting the rockefellers to actually pay any taxes. it is the guys just under their bracket being targetted. do you really think the upper middle classes are going to be much hurt by this roll back? keeping in mind that the increase is only on that portion of income above $250K, not the whole pie...whereas eliminating the shelters of the REAL moneymen would bring in so much money the shortage would be over in no time...and hardly be socialism either.

posted September 22, 2010 10:12 AM         

one reviewer of your book had this to say:

quote:

---

Now it is back in publication. I imagine it's because the plan has gone far enough that it can't be stopped. Now it's easy to look back and say if only we'd realized that it was up to the people, not the government to take care of us. But at that time there was no internet. The few of us who actually questioned were considered 'kooks'. The idea of keeping them separated, divided, and marginalized worked very well

---

Thanks for posting this- I am reading the PDF that you kindly provided.

There were those in 1777 who used the same tactics but our system was created differently to specifically waylay the monied corporate power brokers of the day. Those safe guards [The Bill of Rights] and the Constitution are chipped away little by little every year. They escape true notice as they seem somewhat insignificant, when you add them all up they are very significant.

For instance in less then 2 years alone members of the conservative right wing have offered over 45 amendments to the constitution.

*NYorker on Koch Bros

quote:

---

With his brother Charles, who is seventy-four, David Koch owns virtually all of Koch Industries, a conglomerate, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, whose annual revenues are estimated to be a hundred billion dollars. The company has grown spectacularly since their father, Fred, died, in 1967, and the brothers took charge. The Koch's operate oil refineries in Alaska, Texas, and Minnesota, and control some four thousand miles of pipeline. Koch Industries owns Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, Georgia-Pacific lumber, Stainmaster carpet, and Lycra, among other products. Forbes ranks it as the second-largest private company in the country, after Cargill, and its consistent profitability has made David and Charles Koch—who, years ago, bought out two other brothers—among the richest men in America. Their combined fortune of thirty-five billion dollars is exceeded only by those of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

---

rather princely?

David H. Koch in 1996. He and his brother Charles are lifelong libertarians and have quietly given more than a hundred million dollars to right-wing causes

posted September 22, 2010 10:42 AM         

don't you just love those "libertarians" who think they can buy the government they want?

gary allen, back in 72, identified the moneymen's tactic of putting countries into deep debt - to them - by funding wars, usually backing both sides and then deciding who should be punished afterwards as well...what happened to greece just recently may not have been due to war spending but is a prime example of how the banking cartel BUYS countries...and has been working on the US for decades with just that end in mind. the debt and interest for iraq alone put us in jeopardy...though bucky fuller said in 1980 that we were already bankrupt (since the cold war arms and space races)...

i don't believe it is ever too late though. and i don't believe socialism itself is the problem, but the way it has been distorted to fit the desires of the oligarchs. after all "real" socialism does NOT provide for an elite ruling class who prospers while the populace starve...that is a major perversion.

posted September 22, 2010 10:54 AM         

I am noticing that there are 10 pages to that NYorker article, gotta go, will read later meanwhile:

quote:

---

few weeks after the Lincoln Center gala, the advocacy wing of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation—an organization that David Koch started, in 2004—held a different kind of gathering. Over the July 4th weekend, a summit called Texas Defending the American Dream took place in a chilly hotel ballroom in Austin. Though Koch freely promotes his philanthropic ventures, he did not attend the summit, and his name was not in evidence. And on this occasion the audience was roused not by a dance performance but by a series of speakers denouncing President Barack Obama. Peggy Venable, the organizer of the summit, warned that Administration officials “have a socialist vision for this country.”

Five hundred people attended the summit, which served, in part, as a training session for Tea Party activists in Texas. An advertisement cast the event as a populist uprising against vested corporate power. “Today, the voices of average Americans are being drowned out by lobbyists and special interests,” it said. “But you can do something about it.” The pitch made no mention of its corporate funders. The White House has expressed frustration that such sponsors have largely eluded public notice. David Axelrod, Obama’s senior adviser, said, “What they don’t say is that, in part, this is a grassroots citizens’ movement brought to you by a bunch of oil billionaires."

---

posted September 24, 2010 03:38 PM         

Ignorance on parade.

Rasmussen does NOT, repeat, does NOT exclude demoscats from the polls he takes.

That means Rasmussen does NOT, repeat, does NOT screen out likely O'Bomber voters from the polls he takes.

posted September 24, 2010 04:17 PM         

he may not say "i exclude obama voters" but he has chosen the demographic he thinks most likely to vote for obama as UNLIKELY TO VOTE. how many times do you need me to say it? i know you think repetition is the ultimate in teaching tools, but crikey man, open your eyes. here it is again. of course you can pretend you haven't seen it again, nothing i can do about that!

It is important to remember that the Rasmussen Reports job approval ratings are based upon a sample of likely voters. Some other firms base their approval ratings on samples of all adults. President Obama's numbers are always several points higher in a poll of adults rather than likely voters. That's because some of the president's most enthusiastic supporters, such as young adults, are less likely to turn out to vote. http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_adm inistration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

posted September 25, 2010 11:25 AM         

The Rasmussen Poll is a Poll of LIKELY VOTERS.

However, the Rasmussen Poll closely tracks many other polls...including those dedicated to REGISTERED VOTERS.

Don't you think it's just wonderful that the intellectual pygmy O'Bomber is putting people back to work...for only $2 Million dollars per job?