Your Weekly Address from the President-elect Nov. 22, 2008
By Heather Saturday Nov 22, 2008 7:00pmPresident-elect Barack Obama announces he has directed his economic team to assemble an Economic Recovery Plan that will save or create 2.5 million more jobs by January of 2011. For more information, visit http://change.gov.
Login or Register to post comments.
Heck of a job, Fuckhead!
Thank god we have a person who has a clue. Where the fuck has George been the past few weeks? Keep him there before putting him in jail!!!!!
{Deleted, Dual comments. Waste of bandwidth. SiteMonitor}
How could anybody not have voted for this man. They would have to be racist,greedy and ignorant people.
In my lifetime I don't recall a President-Elect taking so strong a leadership position before his inauguration.
Obama, Bush urge vastly different approaches to ease economic crisis
he is a pariah
we now have 8.2 percent unemployment in cali
we need a massive works program...which is an investment in the future and will stimulate the free market
bush's policies didnt work...no matter how the right spins it
At least one county is 15%.
earlier today, I snapped a pic of a vehicle in front of me. It was a very old RV with a sign in the back window which said "Our Wealth has been Redistributed."
I found it very, very sad.
over at Washington Monthly had a piece today saying almost the same thing.
If only... (dreaming)
Obama's riding in the lead car of the rollercoaster that's hurtling us all into the bowels of the capitalist hog carcass we've been feasting off. The fat cats have butchered it and sliced off the juiciest choice cuts, but there's still a living to be made off the bones and entrails that are too raw and gnarly to turn a quick profit.
and yours is appropriate. The heads of the auto companies are circling overhead in their private corporate jets, toasting their "successes" with white wine and caviar; and down there I see the blody red faces of Hannity and Rush and Laura Ingrqahm... still gorging themselves on the last of the partisan RED MEAT they can find in the remains of the vital organs.
To listen to someone that is interested in solving problems instead of creating them. It's going to be a long hard slog, but hang in there folks. It will be worth it to your kids and grandkids.
Time for Him to Go
Unanimous.
Oh no. You didn't see Dick Morris in the back there. He was on his knees licking the toes of Michelle Malkin who's hands were raised but not to vote. They were raised in orgasmic ecstasy. And Dick didn't notice to vote.
If Bush resigns, at this stage of the game, I believe that that would make Dick Cheney the lame duck president, and not Barack Obama.
I'm not sure about this, but I think that that would make a constitutional crisis. Dick, as still acting president, could do a LOT of damage. Even more than Bush.
Cheney resigns first (no fucking way anyone wants Cheney anywhere near POTUS), then Bush resigns. That makes Pelosi POTUS. She would immediately give way to Obama, the president-elect.
Rebuilding roads? Is this the ghost of FDR speaking?
What needs to be done is trust needs to be regained in Wall Street and in the corporations. But, honestly I can't imagine why anyone should invest their time and money in these organizations. Without the proper regulations in place, you might as well toss your money out the window.
Umm... have you been to the midwest? Or the south? Or the north east? Or California? The roads are disastrous and in dire need of repair. And anyway, I think the idea is to get people without extensive post-secondary education working again. The old Keynesian theory that (and I'm really paraphrasing) it's better to pay folks to dig holes and fill them in again than for them to be unemployed. Of course wall street and corporate America need to be fixed too... but that's a completely different (albeit parallel) story.
and it wont just mean jobs for the less skilled (no such thing as an unskilled worker) it will have a ripple effect
for every works program needs higher education types to manage it
technicians, engineers, etc
fdr knew that it made sense to go into debt, as long as there was a payback down the road
this is what obama is pushing to do
at the same time, he can wipe out all the crap that bush did
I've been to Chicago, which are roads that Obama is familiar with, and the road, particularly highways, are not good.
Minnesota Bridge.
Infrastructure creates jobs which pay enough for people to have disposable income. Disposable income = money to buy stuff. Buying stuff is what drives an economy and puts other people to work.
That is the kind of trickle up Obama is talking about.
But you are right about outside investment. Enron was the canary in the coal mine...and Bush let every one of those birds die a quiet death.
You know, I had a thought the other day. How much public transportation infrastructure could have been built for 750 billion? How many architects, engineers, services, construction workers, metallurgy workers, ect could have been put to work with 750 billion dollars. No, instead its going to go to the same fuckasses on Wall Street that refuse to admit they're dinosaurs on the way to extinction. Their reign and their party is over, at least for another 75 years until we get lazy, cynical, and stupid enough again for the same mistakes to be made.
but bush wasnt presenting congress with an alternative
congress should not be taking a thanksgiving break
they should go back in...and take back all the monies handed to paulson...arrest him...toss him in prison...
Here's what they need to do:
Start a new WPA public works program to build a high speed and light rail national transportation infrastructure. This will create jobs and opportunities for the unemployed and small and large businesses alike. Screw Detroit and the airlines, we need a 21st century, green transportation infrastructure that will pay off in the long term and employ people in the short term.
Is Obama visionary enough for that? Maybe, but we need to turn the screws on him and the Democratic Congress to make it happen. Our elected representatives won't do it on their own.
who voted that we should pay for high speed...when it should come from the government
prob is...it will take about 10 years with enviromental impact and right of way, before the project even gets off the ground
You want to create jobs, but then you say screw Detroit? What a stupid, ignorant, uninformed thing to say!
The auto industry employ's directly or indirectly, 1 in 9 people in this country. Good way to stimulate the economy!
Also, that would be the end of the U.A.W., one of the last bastions of organized labor. The ultimate coup for the idiot criminals in the Bush administration on their way out.
Not to mention the untold misery that would be created for millions of people, and would be felt for years to come. How many State and Local governments would be economically decimated? The corporate repukes would have an orgasm. No more Union workers, no more taxes to government agencies, bring on the cheap labor - YAHOO!
And remember, it's not the workers who made the idiotic decision to keep building SUV's, it was the moron's running the companies who made 100's of million's of dollars for their idiotic choices. Just like their first cousin's on Wall Street.
Use your brain before you shoot your mouth off please!
I have never been comforted by our federal government. I am 29 years old and voted for the president elect (The first time I've voted for a winner of the presidency in my life) on the 4th. I am an independent, and became very interested in Obama as an alternative to Hillary Clinton late 2007. There was no reasonable candidate running on the republican side, and I felt this year was FAR too important to vote 3rd party. I wished there was a viable third party, and still do. I had no particular animosity for Senator Clinton until the last 3 weeks or so of the primary when she reached into the Rove bag o' tricks. I feel she will make an exceptional SOS, regardless of my feelings towards the Clinton administration (which are actually pretty favorable minus NAFTA, Rwanda, and the Pacific Rim IMF debacle).
Every decision our new commander in chief made during the campaign has turned out to be (in the face of MASSIVE scrutiny) the correct one. Everyone was concerned about Wright. Joe Biden. Measured response to the economic crisis. Agreeing with McCain at all during the debates, as well as the cool persona. Guess who had it right at every step of that circus?
It seems I will have a president who will be able to calmly explain the problems, and his intended solutions without resorting to fear or talking points (at least mono-syllabic talking points!) for the next four years.
Color me comforted!
You know, I wonder why the entire prospect of raising a nation's collective confidence in themselves and their leaders through rational and thoughtful analysis was ridiculed by McCain/Palin and ignored by the mainstream media.
You had two polar opposites running for President. One represented horror and failure, and one represented hope
For Strza
Its going to be a difficult four years but you have hit the nail on the head. You are wise beyond your years!!
I can definitely relate. I'm 22, and this is my second time voting in a presidential election, and the first time having the candidate for whom I voted win.
The past eight years, which essentially compose my entire (young) adult life, have jaded me beyond belief. I can't begin to tell you the animosity I feel toward those rich old people who fucked this country over (a sentiment largely shared by my generation).
Suffice it to say, I'm eager for a change of regime.
The first glaring contrast I have noticed is the one of transparency: the Bush administration seemed to do everything behind closed doors; just trust us, they'd say, the only way Americans can be safe from the Terrorists and Nuclear bombs and Gays and WOMEN WHO ARE PRO-ABORTION ZOMG is if you have NO CLUE WHAT WERE DOING. And gosh darnit it's unpatriotic of you to ask us any questions. I've gone from that my whole political life, to a change that's dizzying it's so different in its' approach. President-elect Obama has done everything he can to make it clear what he wants to do, or is doing, rather, and why. He is in many ways doing his part to educate the American people. I think he understands that once more people comprehend what is really going on, they'll be in a better position to support the rebuilding (literally and metaphorically) of America.
I am an incredibly cynical person (perhaps for self-preservation... who knows), but, I have to admit, I have hope.
that it is young folks like you that make me proud to be American and gives me hope for our future.
Aww, thank you. It's older folks like you (and I say that with the utmost respect; at 22, anyone older than 30 seems old) that remind me that not everyone born before 1978 are ignorant racist homophobic sexist bible-thumping asshats who took too many drugs in the 60s and 70s and road the coattails of their prosperous parents who had reasonable success in the 40s and 50s and just turned this country to hell.
As a native Detroiter and current resident of Washington, D.C. (my career as a geospatial analyst moved me out here), this sure is an exciting time in the political sphere for me. As a young woman, it's exciting to see women playing a more substantial role in government, and I have an interest in preserving my right to be treated like a first-class citizen in America (I'm talking about Roe v. Wade); as a young professional I have a vested interest in rebuilding this economy; as a Michigander I want to see our government help hundreds of thousands of white and blue-collar workers involved in the American auto industry (including a dozen or so immediate family members) repair and rebuild three failed and corrupt corporations; and hell, it was just exciting to see Virgina go blue.
Like I said earlier, I have hope. That's the greatest part about all of this. I don't say this often, but I actually think it could end well.
I was a teenager then but I remember the Wall Street line "greed is good" and that was what happened to our entire society. We became a society of ME ME ME and screw you you you. I was disgusted by the movie and by what we became during that period.
I love these young kids! I work in one of the few ultra republican regions of Michian that still exists, and the young people here have very different views from their parents.
Many have told me they don't understand "why their dad keeps voting republican." That is amazing! These rich kids have seen what Bush and the GOP have done to their parents, and they have no use for them.
One of the best things to happen during this election, was that 70 percent of the people 18-29 years of age voted democrat, and that every pole shows that they absolutely loathe the GOP, and all that it stands for.
I am not just happy about our win, but I can calmly tell my fellow baby boomer's (GOP = generation idiot) that they better learn to like liberalism, because it's only going to get worse for them in the coming years and decades, no matter how many corporate wingnuts scream that were a center-right nation.
Center-right nation - ROFLMAO!
People just do not have money to spend. Their credit cards are maxed out and they are not getting any more cards in the mail and a lot of house payments are about ready to adjust and even if people do have a little extra cash every week they don't want to spend it because there may not be a job next month because nobody is spending money. Next step in this bail out money give away is for the credit card banks to wipe out credit card debt. That would give people at least the amount of money they are paying on their credit cards every month, it would give that much to spend. And the credit card banks have to severely limit that amount of credit it gives out. If they give out $20,000 worth of credit to Joe Sixpack and Betty Winebox they are going to use it. They already have used it and they can't pay it back.
...money, that is, for regular folks. I was suggesting a million bucks for every adult (with income restrictions, etc.) figuring at the most that might be 300 million people (but probably far fewer). So, if they can give $700 Billion (up to $2 Trillion, some say) to banks and failing companies - and the crooks and liars that run them - they surely ought to be able to come up with $30 Billion for the People!
I know they won't do "stimulus checks" for that much - but it needs to be much more than $300. Most people would be putting it right back into the economy and making investments in those new companies, creating new technologies.
700,000,000,000 /
300,000,000 =
2,333.33 Dollars per American Citizen.
Pretty amazing, huh?
If my fiancee and I had $4,666.66 dollars handed to us next year, we'd save it for a down payment for our home. And that would be awesome.
I think your math is off.
$1 mil X 300 mil = 300 trillion.
If you're talking about giving a THOUSAND dollars to 300 mil people, THAT would total $30 bil.
Just take it from Bush and all his criminal cronies. They stole it from the rest of us in the first place.
I could pay mine back if they weren't charging me 29% interest!
All right! Looks like the man is on the case! Let's go! XD
Every time I hear Obama speak I thank all the deities I can think of. Soon we will have a president that is playing with a full deck. Finally someone who is smarter than I am! I just hope his honesty surpasses his intelligence! !
in its entirety since Nixon resigned. Or have I listened to one speak without throwing some blue language around the room.
Not since 8 August 1974 (the night of Nixon's last address to the nation) have I been interested in what one of them has to say.
I agree overall. However, Clinton had some authentic moments in the first couple of months of his first term. Then, his spine took a hike and he ended up with the criminal Gramm legislation that has been one of the primary reasons for the global economic maelstrom. Methinks he might have been boinking some British bird while at Oxford instead of reading Samuelson, Keynes and Schumpeter.
"throwing some blue language..."
What a neat idiomatic expression.
Consider it stolen :)
this is the greatest thing ever. a 4 minute a week address from the president of the country. no more guessing whats going on with our leader or getting it from second hand talking points through opinionated people who arent supposed to give us their opinion.
if all goes well, maybe he'll have guest speakers, have a day of the month where he answers utube responses and, like, have puppet shows n shit.
but it was on radio
obama is the first geek prez
from comic book collector/star trek fan...to the white house
I live in Washington, DC, and I see kids larping on the grounds near the Washington Monument. A dream of mine is for them to be able to larp one day a year in the White House gardens...
sirius?
...send a comment or question on the Change.gov website and include your email address, you get the weekly messages sent right to your mailbox.
While Bush does nothing to help Americans in this crisis and no one is looking for him to do anything. Yes Bush is praised and hailed as the Commander-in-Chief by the public as Hank Paulson keeps giving out the bailout money to friends. Yet the out cry from the American people is when will Obama do something to fix this mess. He isn't doing anything to make things better for the people. What good is he if he can't help. That just shows how stupid Americans are. As Senator Obama said there is only one President at a time. We picked Bush twice so we're stuck with him. If Americans knew how the Govement works they wouldn't be so confused. Bush could care less about the millions of people losing their jobs, homes and life saving. His phase is GREED IS GOOD and he'll continue until the end. Obama will bring back our Economy and the racist out their will benefit but still attack him. Why, because that's what idiots and non educated people do. We saw America has more smart people with the 365 electoral votes Obama/Biden got. Yes McCain/Palin got millions of votes and today those same people are hearing that their jobs will be gone. Look at Michigan Republican voters who took McCain at his word that Republicans would save the Auto Industry and jobs. Where's McCain now? As Repbulcian even Mitt tell the Michigan voters and the Auto Industry close shop you get no help. More Americans will soon wish they had voted for Obama/Biden and even had impeached Bush/Cheney.
"The high office of the president has been used to foment a plot to destroy America's freedom, and before I leave office I must inform the citizens of this plight."---President John F. Kennedy, Ten days before his assassination.
“Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: ...... The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society ....... For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence--on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations. President John F. Kennedy (April 27, 1961) - •
I wonder if Obama will bring to light the William Pepper trial in Memphis for the real killers of MLK, Jr.?
I doubt it.
I wonder if Obama will bring to light the real crimes of the Bush Administration?
I doubt it.
I wonder if Obama will put an end to the Phony and Fraudulent War on Terror (on the basis of the Officially Accepted Nine 11 hoax)?
I doubt it.
But if he was going to upset the apple cart he probably wouldn't lead too many people to believe or think he was going to do it. He would probably surround himself with the strongest opponents and people in government and then break the bombshell, so everyone is involved. We'll see. I hope so. Might as well encourage him though. Isn't that our role as citizens. Peace.
I wonder if Obama will warn us about the secret society that Kennedy did? ...aww hell I wonder if he is even aware of Kennedy's speech on secret societies?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=17106...
Kennedy was a warmonger and a stooge for the corporate elite. Operation mongoose?? The placement of American ICBMs in Turkey that threatened Soviet ciities and industries and that forced Kruschev to bully the Cubans into accepting the installation of nuclear missiles?? How about the slippery slope in Vietnam??
Programs work at repairing infastructure. Only problem is, they don't pay Joe and Betty Sixpack enough money to do anything with. Any government works projects I've ever seen in my lifetime in Canada pay minimum wages to the workers, and the big companies take all the real dough.
Thanks to the unions you hate.
Unionized government works programs? Never heard of that one before.
Don't answer that. I already know the answer.
The government pays construction companies who pay their workers. Construction workers here do not make minimum wage.
Government construction contract jobs definitely pay significantly more $$$ than private sector construction. They pay the prevailing wage specific to the state for union workers, which is usually $6-10 more per hour than the worker's regular rate.
I work payroll. *blows smoke off fingers*
Hey miss know it all. I work in construction. Government works programs DO NOT put money in construction worker's pockets. You don't seem to grasp reality. Government works programs are run by the government, NOT by construction companies. Have you ever had a job in the construction field? Did all the slave labourers in the New Deal get huge wages and benefits? You think the government is going to subsidize construction at unionized wages? Oh my. Obviously, you have never lived through a REAL recession.
instituted by roosevelt, that bush used exec powers to rescind after katrina
its called the prevailing wage
that means all public works programs must pay the prevailing wage of the area...not minimum wage
but you wouldnt know that, because you have beady little eyes and a flapping head
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66N6ifAFrFs
First he will bitch about minimum wage, and now he will bitch that they make too much. Fucking Americans...we're so stupid we can't do anything right.
I kinda liked Uncle Fucker, myself. Cracked me up.
But it's shitheads like this that makes war with Canada sound better (sorry to my best friend in Ottawa).
Well hey, you forgot the rest of the new Democratic Talking Points prevailent on the net since the election. "Shut up all who dare question King Obama". Hey why not. We all know how great the government has done in getting to this point. So you are right. Might as well trust government to fix it. Betcha telemarketers love Americans. Just sayin.
LOL...I may have beady little eyes and a flapping head Uncle Joe, but I've also lived long enough to see real recessions. Prevailing wage will go out the prevailing windows as the economy shittanks even more. One of the last government works programs we had up here was SUPPOSED to operate the same way. The government subsidized minimum wage, and the employer was to "top up" that wage to the prevailing wage. People still waiting for that decades later, would be classified as idiotic.
This is bullshit.
Not supporting him sooner. What a president we will have!!!
change.gov? that is truly frightening. I officially predict that Obama will be the first President to podcast the State of the Union Address directly into the masses iPod's, so they have something to listen to while they work in their mandatory 'Citizen Service' brigades.
Mandatory? You are an imbecile!
How can one country have so many ignorant, stupid people?
Obama's website used to say mandatory...until it got changed.
maybe mjUltra didnt notice, or has'nt visited Obamas website lately?
Honestly, I never thought that. Even on here, until the day after the election. People truly are idiotic.
Ignorant....
Obama scrubs website!
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=26114
stupid...
Oh my. Don't prove them wrong. They'll call you all kinds of names and say you are an idiot. They are all stuck in the same partisan crap that Republicans are.
I just visited that website. Talk about extremist.
IMO Obama does much better when he is just speaking. When he is reading, he's slow and pauses at odd moments. I feel as though he's being too careful with his words. That maybe he's readingwhat someone else wrote, or at least heavily edited.
I'd like Obama to just speak to us. Not read to us anymore.
One project i can think of that could be achieved if this country could learn not to be so obsessed with 4%-GDP-for-military-budget would be use that money to build French style TGV type rail lines along the Boston-New York-Philadelphia-Washington DC Megalopolis, plus a similar high-speed electrified line to Chicago and extending across the border to Toronto.
The current Acela Express goes at speeds that do not give airlines a run for their money. We need a high capacity service that goes on average 300mph or even 400mph if we can.
On the Western seaboard, another high-speed line along San Diego-Los Angeles-San Francisco. When the country has a less serious economic problem, it might even go for cross country lines.
Another reason is that its ironic that countries France and Japan are much smaller but have trains going at around 300 mph. The US needs it more than they do for its size.
High speed lines, although have high initial capital and maintenance costs, pay dividends in the long term since it brings far flung cities closer together, and improves movement of goods, services and people, hence interstate trade improves, further strengthening the economy. South Korea already realized this with their own high speed line between Seoul and Pusan using French built trains.
Trains require less time to board than planes, so lot less delays.
The whole construction project will be massive enough to put people back to work.
Login or Register to post comments.