President Obama’s Failed First Year

President Obama recently said as he accepted the Nobel Prize, “It is undoubtedly true that development rarely takes root without security; it is also true that security does not exist where human beings do not have access to enough food, or clean water, or the medicine and shelter they need to survive. It does not exist where children can’t aspire to a decent education or a job that supports a family. The absence of hope can rot a society from within.”

I wasn’t sure if he was speaking about a struggling nation somewhere in the world where a government had failed to protect its people from dangers pounding on it like a blistering winter storm blanketing its citizens with a few feet of snow, or the United States, for that matter. He spoke about people without adequate food, clean water, medicine and shelter, which are needed in order not only to survive, but also to provide a life for themselves and others. He emphasized that a nation is not a nation if it’s children, as well as others, do not have access to a decent education, or a job, which not only stimulates the economy, but gives life to families.

Was President Obama speaking about Iraq, Uganda, or, just maybe, the very country he presides over as its president?

How are we scoring Mr. Obama’s first year as our president? The very person who pledged to sail in Change We Can Believe In as if he were coming across the finish line of the Sailing Federation’s World Cup, it appears, as captain, has hit a sandbar just a mile into the race and tore a hole in its hull. His ship has been grounded.

I don’t see any accomplishments that as a progressive I can say were changes that I could believe in. Actually, they were policies that fit into the opposite category—failures.

We began the year with the Clintonian and Reaganesta economic toy soldiers who, in the past had spoken of different field instructions, more cautious in fact, about the economy, but once anointed by the new commander-in-chief went forward and continued the economic policies of Little Boy Bush by instructing the Federal Reserve’s Field General, Bennie-The Beard-Bernanke, to load up the wheelbarrows of cash and dump them into the laps of the very “infestment” bankstas that brought down the economy in the first place. No interest necessary Citi, or “Golden Sacks”.

The marching orders read that the “infestment” bankstas were to go forward and increase their capital reserves, since they never really had enough to cover the 30-year long betting cycle of risky loans, and credit default swaps, which made them all very, very rich upper classmen. So, to follow through they went ahead and gambled taxpayer dollars at the Wall Street casino tables, as well as moved forward advancing bets in foreign currencies, commodities, and in other stock markets. In other words, much of the cash they borrowed for free went overseas, just as the jobs they took away from us by outsourcing our own manufacturing livelihoods.

Bennie the Beard was crowned Man of the Year by Time magazine, even though he wrongly spoke about the security of our economy. Bada Bing Bernanke once said that the banks were not involved with subprime lending. In 2007, this economic crime syndicate field marshal general said, “ Importantly, we see no serious broad spill over to banks or thrift institutions from the problems in the subprime market…The troubled lenders, for the most part, have not been institutions with federally insured deposits.” Wow!! Was this guy trying to do some stand-up comedy when he said that?

It is hard to believe that since Bernanke, a PhD and expert in the Great Depression, was so successful selling so much propaganda about the economy, that he was able to be crowned Man of the Year. No doubt, he actually sold policymakers on taking a revised version of Alan Greenspan’s prior bag of crap and made it stick to the wall, such as believing that financial innovations were good for the economy and made banking safer!!! He threw up against the Wall of Crap a belief that our economy had entered a time in history that ushered in smaller and less frequent downturns, which he coined “the great moderation.”

These sweet-as-pie assessments of our grand ‘ole economy were made back in 2007 just before he went squawkin’ to Congress warning about a falling sky Chicken Little style; yet, Bennie The Beard was reading a brand of his homegrown tea leaves as the sky came raining down with Humpty Dumpty type banks, mortgage foreclosures, and failed financial innovations burning down the house so much that he needed a backhoe to get himself out from under the charred rubble. And, that backhoe was driven by Congress, which was blackmailed into accepting the Paulson-Bernanke-BushBoy economic extortion plan.

As we all know, five of ten of the nation’s largest “infestment” banking institutions were underwater with subprime loans that had to be bailed out by their field marshal general stationed at the Federal Reserve headquarters. These bankstas were so worried that they demanded from Congress the creation of a $700 billion bankster rescue program called TARP.

The reality is that Bennie The Beard actually failed to protect America’s depositors, homeowners, and investors to the tune of $12 trillion!!! Now, if that legacy deserves Man of the Year, then what would it take to deserve the dishonor of the Worst Man of the Year?

As the year progressed, the promise to end the war in Iraq became just an exaggeration, similarly to how Sarah Palin boasted to America using that infamous line: “I can see Russia from my house.”

Today, we are still in Iraq, and have escalated the troop deployment in Afghanistan. The war profiteers continue their gleeful praises of our War President. The stockholders of GE, General Dynamics, Halliburton, KBR, and the rest are so happy to see their end-of-the-year dividend/ 1099s all coming in profitably. In addition, Blackwater, ie. Xe, and now remade into The U.S. Training Center, has been allowed to become the new, domestic Brownshirts ready to be deployed anywhere inside the United States by our new president, even though Eric Prince, its commander-in-chief, should be put on trial as a war criminal. Our government continues to use Prince’s private, mercenary military force overseas, too.

More change we can believe in.

As we move threw the year, the bankstas were paying out huge bonuses funded by the taxpayers through various Fed and Treasury programs. There were no significant regulatory changes, nor the elimination of too-big-to-fail. The mega-banks were even allowed to become bigger as they gobbled up closed down smaller banks.

None of the mega-banking CEOs or top executives has been jailed for fraud, either. The Justice department has not done any serious, large scale investigations clearly defining why this economic fraud occurred, who were the ones to blame, and why are they still smiling.

We saw a token “real” economy bailout of only a couple billion dollars because the remainder of the economic stimulus package bailout went into tax-cuts. The Republicans hijacked a Democratic Congress, once again. The unemployed-under employed-no longer looking for work, and the part time wanting full time unemployment picture has reached a near Depression era aggregate figure of almost 20%. 16 million unemployed.

Foreclosures grew to 1 in 6 homeowners. Those still paying mortgages, but are now underwater is around 1 in 4.

Wages continue to erode or stay stagnant. Those who are leery of losing their jobs have cut back on their spending.

34,750 lobbyists continue to infect our government with powers that are unprecedented.

Corporate bankruptcies are looming on the horizon. Bank credit card defaults and those 30-60-90 days delinquent have been on the upswing. Professor Elizabeth Warren, PhD, and chairperson of the Congressional Oversight Bailout Committee has warned our president that we could be on the brink of losing our middle class!!!  But what does our president do when such an honorable and brilliant person hoists the distress flag on his ship? He goes out-of-town, gives a nice speech, and informally poses for pretty pictures. When not doing that he is ducking the issues, or letting others do the work.

Professor Drew Westen, PhD, and political psychologist, summed it up in the first paragraph of his outstanding article called, “Leadership, Obama Style, and the Looming Losses in 2010: Pretty Speeches, Compromised Values, and the Quest for the Lowest Common Denominator”----

“As the president’s job performance numbers and ratings on his handling of virtually every domestic issue have fallen below 50 percent, the Democratic base has become demoralized, and Independents have gone from his source of strength to his Achilles Heel. It’s time to reflect on why.”

Professor Westen goes on to say “What’s costing the president are three things: a laissez-faire style of leadership that appears weak and removed to everyday Americans, a failure to articulate and defend any coherent ideological position on virtually anything, and a widespread perception that he cares more about special interests like bank, credit card, oil, and coal, and health and pharmaceutical companies than he does about the people they are shafting.” Beautifully said!!! There is more!! “Consider the president’s leadership style, which has now become clear: deliver a moving speech, move on and when push comes to shove, leave it to others to decide what to do if there’s a conflict, because if there’s a conflict, he doesn’t want to be anywhere near it.”

YIKES!! Is this the Change We Can Believe In? Have we elected a cowardly president afraid to take on the opposition, the important issues and defend the very people that elected him president?

Dr. Westen continues the hammering. “Leadership means heading into the eye of the storm and bringing the vessel of state home safely, not going as far inland as you can because it’s uncomfortable on the high seas. This president has a particular aversion to battling back gusting winds from his starboard side (the right, for the nautically challenged) and tends to give in to them. He just can’t tolerate conflict, and the result is that he refuses to lead.” “This White House has no coherent message on anything.” Bravo! Bravo! I don’t feel alone anymore. I have been calling out President Obama since day 2, and now the crowd is thickening.

With health care, President Obama delivered nothing he promised. Dr. Weston says that “If the president had simply placed appropriate blame on the health insurance industry for its pre-existing conditions, it’s cutting off care for breast cancer victims in the middle of treatment, and its doubling [of] our premiums and co-pays during the Bush years, he would have harnessed populist anger and pushed this bill through six months ago, and it would have looked like the change we were told to believe in.” Well said!!!

There will be no public option. The health care industry will be covering nearly every American and receiving taxpayer dollars in return. More corporate socialism delivered to the richest sectors in the nation. The allowance to import drugs for Canada will continue to be outlawed.

The Employee Free Choice Act has not been made into law.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has said that the US president has failed to provide accountability on torture.

In the area of domestic spying, “The people at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) make a sobering case why President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice’s new arguments in a case involving warrantless wiretapping are much worse than those made by former president George Bush. In a motion to dismiss Jewel v. NSA, EFF’s litigation against the National Security Agency for the warrantless wiretapping of countless Americans, the Obama Administration’s made two deeply troubling arguments. First, they argued, exactly as the Bush Administration did on countless occasions, that the state secrets privilege requires the court to dismiss the issue out of hand. They argue that simply allowing the case to continue “would cause exceptionally grave harm to national security.” As in the past, this is a blatant ploy to dismiss the litigation without allowing the courts to consider the evidence. Then, Obama’s Department Of Justice second argument is the most pernicious. They claim that the U.S. Government is completely immune from litigation for illegal spying — that the Government can never be sued for surveillance that violates federal privacy statutes.

This is a radical assertion that is utterly unprecedented. No one — not the White House, not the Justice Department, not any member of Congress, and not the Bush Administration — has ever interpreted the law this way.” (http://fromtheleft.wordpress.com,“In Domestic Spying Case, Obama DOJ’s New Arguments Are Worse than Bush’s” 4-9-09)

We continue to see that President Obama has not been the person he claimed to be on the campaign trail, or on inauguration day. I see a person who has sold out to the corporate elite beginning on day two. He has become our Manchurian President. The question is will he show courage in 2010, and no longer remain the coward? Will he become a commanding leader demanding effective and necessary changes that we all can believe in? This remains to be seen, but from what he had thus far demonstrated, the answer is doubtful. FDR led from a wheelchair. His physical limitations were only that to him. President Obama must show progressive action, instead of allowing those with agendas to keep him in the deadly center leaning right.

Thanks for reading, jerry

Fresh Air's Terry Gross Interviews Joshua Kosman

The coming defaulting of companies purchased by some of the largest private equity firms in 2010. Joshua Kosman is interviewed by Fresh Air's Terry Gross. The starvation of American companies by private equity firms. He predicts 1.5 million unemployed because of these potential defaults. This is an amazing story! "Predicting The Next Credit Crisis".

Boycott Joe Lieberman's State of Connecticut

Here is the list of Connecticut companies. If you are so inclined to send a letter to Joe-the hoe-Lieberman stating that you will participate in a "buycott" of the companies in his state because of his dirty, sleazy, slimy manipulative, showboating actions so as to control the outcome of the Senate Health Care bill, then look here.


Here is a Connecticut PDF of the all the corporate headquarters located in his state. See them here.


The people of Connecticut should begin to proceed with a recall of Joe-the hoe-Lieberman as their Congressperson. He has lied through his teeth regarding a public option for Americans and when caught with his pants down, he says that his pants fit fine.


Here is his D.C address:  706 Hart Office Building, Washington, DC 20510, phone the hoe: 202-224-4041; fax:2022249750


thanks, jerry

TO THE REST OF THE WORLD PLEASE SEND HELP

Our government of the United States has turned against the people 100 percent. They are passing bills and giving advice to Uganda on how to kill gay people. Please tell every one you meet how the American masses have been exploited and forced into a mindless slave state. 300 million very sick and innocent people are being converted into mindless animals. Please send help. To Jerry's regular readers- thanks for supporting my pal's efforts, I don't post that often but recommend that you forward the blog, repost and link to Jerry's writings often. His voice is needed.
Thanks

Carl of http://www.ustream.tv/channel/eye-on-washington

Ben Bernanke—Disaster Man Of The Year!!!

I believe the nation is becoming a perverse environment. What has unfolded this week has begun to convince me that this government, and the insiders have hopped aboard something like the amusement park ride called the Drop Down Ride. This is the one where you are strapped into some kind of open-air harness, with your legs dangling below, and slowly pulled several stories up. You are up so high that from below you look like a lollipop dangling from a kite string. Then once you have reached the top, you are dropped down at full speed forcing your stomach up into your esophagus like some kind of internal jet ski ricocheting off your Adam’s Apple as the contents ejects out of you mouth, whereby if you have just eaten a chili dog or wolfed down a burger with all the adornments, you might find yourself wearing it on your shoes.

The nation is being pulled back up toward the top of the Drop Down Ride for the second time. America, and especially Time magazine, had forgotten the full drop down speed that many of us experienced at the end of 2007 and into 2008 as nearly $12 trillion in household wealth was puked up as a result of Little Boy Bush, Hank Paulson, and Ben Bernanke’s laissez-faire, neo-liberal, Chicago School of economic “infestment” capitalism. 

So, Time magazine chose from their three top national and international disasters picking Ben Bernanke to be the Disaster Man Of The Year. What an honor for Bennie-The Beard-Bernanke, crime syndicate operator royale, to be chosen from the list including Little Boy Bush, who was not chosen while president, since he was a complete disaster then, but now, since he is Silent Man, he was picked, as runner-up-ahole for his commitment-to-silence; and then, there was Vladimir Putin, Russia’s strong armed Soviet-styled crime syndicate boss; then, we had Mr. Manchurian President Obama, but he has already been showered with big shot honors, and has done enough bowing with smiling photo-ops accompanied by beautifully written speeches for the year; and finally, there were Steve Jobs of Apple computer for his innovations (he’s no disaster), General Stanley McChrystal for colluding with Dick Cheney in trying to cover up Pat Tillman’s friendly-fire murder, Nancy Pelosi for selling out the Democratic voters and 45 million uninsured, and 16 million unemployed Americans, the Chinese workers (it is not their fault) who work for way below minimum wage without benefits so that Walmart and the American consumer can buy cheap and, sometimes, toxic stuff; and finally, Usain Bolt, a world class Jamaican sprinter (he’s no disaster, either, but a winner!). 

Wow!!!! I would say this was a hard decision for Time magazine. Who deserves the Disaster Man of the Year award from Time magazine? I would say it should have gone to Little Boy Bush. He is the one that brought the economy down in freefall after more than 20 years of disaster being pulled to the top of the Drop Down Ride. It was Little Boy Bush who let the ride drop at warp speed to the ground as it crashed into the concrete base creating an economic earthquake that stretched from sea to shining sea.

Next year, Bennie the Beard and President Obama could be tied for Time’s 2010 Disaster Men of The Year for gutting our manufacturing sector via outsourcing and sending the under-unemployment figures to 20%, while including those who stopped looking for work, and want full-time rather than part-time employment, as well as enriching the bankstas even more, and further draining the average working person’s wages with higher costs, and pretending to regulate, scrutinize, and make transparent the “infestment” banking transactions, and further burdening and submersing the nation in two wars, and permitting Prince’s Xe, the Christian Fundamentalist War Crusader formerly known as Blackwater, and now known as The United States Training Center, the largest private military force in this country with its own air attack force, and sea attack navy, in addition to its ground forces.

 Our Manchurian President has kept Little Boy Bush as his lifeline. The U.S. Training Center’s private army is not only being investigated for its alleged criminal activities, and alleged murderous actions, it has been kept on to protect the elites in Iraq and Afghanistan through the State department. And in spite of Candidate Hillary Clinton pledging to cancel any and all contracts the government had with Eric Prince’s companies, if elected president, she is being escorted and guarded by this private mercenary armed forces.

What is interesting is that General McChrystal, under Dick Cheney, created a secret, below-the-public’s radar group called JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) operating inside the CIA. Blackwater, a private army, was co-joined with JSOC to conduct covert operations, such as assassinations, predator strikes, and secret intelligence. Now, General McChrystal is President Obama’s top military point man handling the joy-joy-stick in the Middle East combat zones. Does this sound like the Change We Were To Believe In? Was this what we voted for?

In addition to this, Mr. Manchurian President has just lost his lawsuit to keep 22 million BushBoy emails spanning for a few years, but mostly concentrated within a 94-day period more than likely including the cover-up of the person(s) who outed the covert identity of Valerie Plame, and the run-up to the Iraq War. This White House of President Obama had been sued by two groups wanting these emails to come out into the light from the dark, damp depths of Dick Cheney’s undisclosed secret bunker. Sorry Mr. President. This was not what we voted for. We heard you speak about transparency, but we did not know you were hoping to keep Bush’s “Lost Emails” from being found.

We also did not vote for a continuation by your administration to protect the “mega-infestment” banking industry from State regulatory laws preempting Federal laws as states try to strongly enforce anti-predatory lending practices through fines and court settlements. This occurred because the Feds were slow to control the predators as they went after consumers.

The USA Today’s editorial board wrote on 12-9-09, “The Comptroller of the Currency, for example, behaved much like a banking lobby embedded in the Treasury Department.” 

President Obama does not appear to be able to control renegade anti-consumer Democratic cretins oozing out of the New Democrat Coalition, such as Illinois Democon Melissa Bean, who appears to want to protect the “infestment” banks from strong regulation by the states, instead of those of her constituents who were severely damaged by them. The Infestment Banks are crying that some states might cap ATM fees, for example, and this would place a profit hardship upon their potential bonuses and raises. They call it “materially impairing” the national banking operations of the likes of JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, BoA, and Wells Fargo. Such Beans need to be ground up into flour and not left whole by President Obama. But No!!!! Barack, you have turned out to be NOT who we voted for. Had we known, we would have picked another candidate.

And there is more!! Edward Harrison wrote in “U.S. Forfeiting Billions in Future Taxes So Citi Can Exit TARP”, Seekingalpha.com, 12-16-09, “…the federal government has quietly decided to exempt Citigroup from a large future tax bill in allowing it to exit the TARP program. This is a backdoor bailout worth billions and is an outrage that demonstrates the lengths to which government will go to gift these organizations taxpayers money.” “Exemptions under this law are a huge hidden freebie.”

Too-big-to-fail Infestment Banks continue to operate without investigations or regulations by this administration. It has been business-as-usual nearly one year later after one damning Oval Office seat warmer was flown out of Washington as millions of Americans with raised fists and yelling expletives while cheering, and another quietly nestled in for four years.

And, the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, had been extremely slow in the investigations of the fraud and secret deals between the Infestment Banks. We all thought you, Mr. President, would be moving swiftly with a call for justice and truth.

“The SEC had accused Bank of America of failing to disclose to shareholders that it had authorized New York-based Merrill to pay up to $5.8 billion in bonuses to its employees in 2008 even though the investment bank lost $27.6 billion that year. Bank of America had agreed to pay $33 million to settle the charges without admitting or denying wrongdoing, saying it didn't violate disclosure rules but wanted to avoid litigation with the SEC at a time of market uncertainty.” 

“Some Republican lawmakers contend that the government forced Bank of America to take over Merrill, and they have accused the Democratic leaders of the oversight panel of covering up the role of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in the affair.

Geithner was chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York at the time of the merger in December 2008. His spokesmen have said he was not involved in any Bank of America decisions after being tapped for the Treasury post by President Barack Obama last November. The $20 billion Merrill deal, forged the same September weekend that Lehman Brothers collapsed, was first questioned after Bank of America disclosed that the investment bank would post 2008 losses of $27.6 billion – far more than expected. Bank of America, which had already received $25 billion in U.S. bailout aid, then asked for and received an additional $20 billion from the government to help offset those losses.” (SEC Widens Probe Into BofA, Merrill Deal, Marcy Gordon,HuffingtonPost.com 12/11/09)

To all of you investigators at the SEC, what about AIG and the rest of fraudster “infestment” bankstas? Barack, hey, this is NOT what we voted for! It is clear; your policies and actions are NOT what we voted for. Therefore, YOU must be the Manchurian President. Would there be any other reason?

Thanks for reading, Jerry        http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

P.S. 

Read more on Blackwater as reported by Jeremy Scahill.

Audio interview with Jeremy Scahill

America: The Land Of The Free Lords And The Indebted Serfs

The economy of the United States appears to have been divided into three parts, or “stimulus packages” that become clearer by the day. The most primary part is the financial-investment banking economy, or stimulus package, has been backstopped with nearly $13 trillion by the government. The financial stimulus recipients don’t have to ask for assistance when they are on the edge of bankruptcy. Government agents, such as former Treasury Secretary Hank “The Paulie” Paulson, current Treasury Secretary Timmie “The G” Geithner, and Federal Reserve chairman Bennie “The Beard” Bernanke all demanded that their financial crime syndicate bosses be thrown life preserves as their sinking investment banks were going down.

The next part of the economic stimulus is the War Profiteering-Pentagon-Homeland Security’s War on Terror economy. They drain over one-third from the yearly U.S. budget to fund private sector companies that are obviously unable to make a go of it in the private sector’s free marketplace. So, they are given lucrative contracts in order to enrich companies, such as Northrop-Grumman, Blackwater, Boeing, General Dynamics, GE, Halliburton, Bechtel, Custer Battles, BearingPoint, Exxon, Mobil, Chevron-Texaco, and a host more Treasury vampires feeding from the taxpayer’s cash troughs. These companies need the public sector, or one might say government “socialized” business contracts in order to satisfy their shareholders, pay bonuses, and fatten up business expenses. They don’t have to come ‘uh askin’ for the government’s socialized checks, they just answer the phone and write up the orders.

The third part of the economic stimulus economy is the most vulnerable. This is the real economy, which includes everyday working people packing up their lunch buckets, and filling their coffee thermoses as they head off to manufacturing and service jobs. Their goals are to create things, make things to sell in the export marketplace, as well as to sell domestically. They are asked by President Obama, “I want you to tell me what we (government) can do to bring back jobs.” The American worker has to come up with the ideas and plans to explain to the leader of the free world just what has to be done.

The workers that make real things that don’t go boom or poof in the night skies of our multi-billion dollar war zones have to go begging for lines-of-credit for their small business operations, since the gluttonous investment bankers would rather use the money they are “loaned” by the Federal Reserve at zero percent interest in Wall Street manipulative gambles, or in foreign currency speculation buys, or in commodities rather than expand lending to Main Street and Side Street in order to rebuild the crumbling economy of the United States after those very bankstas took it down slowly over the last 30 years, concluding with a full force gale of a collapse, with their fraudulent derivative and securities practices. They seem to forget that the cash they are loaned comes to them via the Treasury and taxpayer. But President Obama appears to like it just this way.

As Paul Craig Roberts wrote in “The Obama Puppet”,  “President Obama can promise health care to 50 million uninsured Americans, but he can’t override the veto of the war lobby and the insurance lobby. The war lobby says its war profits are more important than health care and that the country can’t afford both the “war on terror” and “socialized medicine.” “The insurance lobby says health care has to be provided by private health insurance; otherwise we can’t afford it.”

Dr. Roberts, former assist treasury secretary under Reagan, continued…”The war and insurance lobbies rattle their campaign contribution pocketbooks and quickly convinced Congress and the White House that the real purpose of the health care bill is to save money by cutting Medicare and Medicaid benefits, thereby “getting entitlements under control”.”

He went on to say that “Entitlements is a right-wing word used to cast aspersion on the few things that the government did, in the past, for citizens. Social Security and Medicare, for example, are denigrated as “entitlements”. The right-wing goes on endlessly about Social Security and Medicare as if they were welfare give-aways to shiftless people who refuse to look after themselves, whereas in actual fact citizens are vastly overcharged for the meager benefits with a 15% tax on wages and salaries.”

Mr. Paul Craig Roberts, Ph.D laid it out very clearly. There is a war against working Americans by the real entitlement class. The very people who have felt entitled to “steal” from Social Security by raiding it in order to demand tax cuts and expand the lucrative contracts by the war profiteers. President Obama, Congress, the Teabaggers, and the lapdog Blue Dog Democrats feel perfectly fine with the real entitlement class of those in the very top wage earning brackets feeding from the government’s socialized cash trough.

Fed Chairman Bennie “The Beard” Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee during his re-appointment testimony that he felt that Congress should make cuts in Medicare and Social Security in spite of the fact that the American worker is getting Pink Slipped, and real patriots, such as Dr. Elizabeth Warren, are loudly warning, while sounding the alarm bells that the middle class is on the brink of further disaster. The Beard calls for “Death To The Middle Class” while he hides those who he handed out zero percent cash loans to because he feels it is not his place to put the markets at risk, yet he is one who allowed the market players to collapse the real economy.

Dr. Elizabeth Warren has said, “One in five Americans is unemployed, underemployed or just plain out of work. One in nine families can’t make the minimum payment on their credit cards. One in eight mortgages is in default or foreclosure. One in eight Americans is on food stamps. More than 120,000 families are filing for bankruptcy every month. The economic crisis has wiped more than $5 trillion from pensions and savings and has left family balance sheets upside down, and threatens to put ten million homeowners out on the street.” (Dr. Elizabeth Warren, 12-2-09, Huffington Post)

Dr. Warren continued…”Families today spend less than a generation ago on food, clothing, furniture, appliances, and other flexible purchases—but it hasn’t been enough to save them. Today’s families have spent all their income, have spent all their savings, and have gone into debt to pay for college, to cover serious medical problems, and just to stay afloat a little while longer.”

As President Obama roams the brown fields of the once thriving manufacturing centers and passes by the empty factor buildings dotting Michigan, he has the gall to ask the unemployed and underemployed workers what would they want him to do. The truth is that President Obama has been told by the nation’s corporate oligarchs that they like things just the way they are.

For example, in Chicago, the president of the construction trades union is considering helping bail out a sunken developer with around $26 million in pension funds to finish his abandoned hole-in-the-ground surrounded by a chain linked fence. This skyscraper was planned to be the tallest building in Chicago, but went bust. It has gotten to the point where workers have to pay for their own jobs, while the bankstas sit fat and happy on huge piles of taxpayer funds. They don’t care if the finished building goes bankrupt trying to pay for itself just as long as workers pay for their own jobs.

The United States is turning into the land of free lords and the indebted serfs.

China pumps all their stimulus monies into manufacturing of exportable products, which can be also used domestically, yet the United States believes that Afghanistan needs around $200 billion more cash injections.

I don’t hear China’s president asking his people how to make their economic engine run faster. They have high speed rail to do that. We have Amtrak. China is building solar manufacturing plants in Pennsylvania, while President Obama is still asking what needs to be done after 12 months of being called ‘Mr. President’, and 2 years of campaigning,. Japan will be importing to their US Nissan dealerships a 100 mile ranged electric car (LEAF) for the masses in the next 12 months, which will take 4-8 hours to recharge when plugged in to your own outlet, and approximately 30 minutes at a quick charge station. But President Obama is still holding job summits, and giving speeches.

10% of the American workforce is in manufacturing. 17% of our GDP comes from manufacturing. What needs to happen, Mr. President is very simple. I believe a kindergartener could tell you what you should do. It is not rocket science. Simply stated all you do is beef up the manufacturing engine in this country. You tell the financial crime syndicate that the free ride is over and it is time they pay back all that they borrowed, with interest. You demand that the Federal Reserve gets audited so we can call in all the loans that Bennie the Beard passed out.

Next, you create a National Rebuilding Initiative, or something like that, by funding manufacturing jobs. Instead of workers sitting idle collecting unemployment benefits, you pay employers to hire workers to make things that will pull the nation forward, such as solar panels, wind generators, geo-thermal systems, electric vehicles, upgraded power grids, high speed rails, energy efficient products of all types, as well as things that will continue to allow America function. You demand that mortgage issuers cut mortgages that are underwater, but still being paid on, to street level values, and then reduce the interest rates. It is time that these bankstas eat some of their toxic garbage, and repair the damage they are responsible for creating.

Next, all workers get health care. As you put people back to work with a National Rebuilding Initiative Project by paying employers to hire workers at minimum wage, they get health care to boot. By putting America to work, workers learn new job skills, they sharpen existing job skills, which makes them more enticing to private sector employers. Taxes get paid. The GDP goes up. The trade deficit goes down. The nation becomes more self-sufficient. Workers become credit-worthy, once again, and banks begin to lend as they are supposed to. Also, you and Congress put limits on how big big-box stores can be and empower communities to refuse their intrusion into their communities. You strengthen communities so, once again, they become self-contained livable centers of life. While you are at it, give tax incentives for family farms, and place a tax on agribusiness conglomerates in order to rebuild family farms.

Regulate the investment-banking syndicate, and do away with too-big-to-fail.

Mr. Marshall Auerback, a Fellow at the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, with 28 years experience in the investment management and global portfolio strategy business, is a person who has expanded upon such ideas. (12-2-09, An Interview with Marshall Auerback, Mike Whitney, Counterpunch.org)

Mr. President, we are all waiting for the Change We Can Believe In, and the Yes We Can you promised. American cannot wait any longer; and, you know it, too!


Thanks for reading, Jerry


http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com