Showing posts with label unemployment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unemployment. Show all posts

Thursday, December 11, 2008

GOP Senators: Put USA First

What are the GOP Senators thinking? "Auto Bailout Clears House but Faces Hurdles in Senate." (WaPo)

"The House last night approved an emergency plan to prevent the collapse of the nation's domestic automobile industry, but the measure faces serious opposition in the Senate, where Republicans are revolting against a White House-brokered deal to speed $14 billion to cash-starved General Motors and Chrysler."

After giving white-collar financial types over a trillion dollars.... with barely a string attached.... to bail them out of the fix we're in largely because of their reckless lending and "bundling" practices, Republican senators.... especially southern senators who are protecting their foreign-owned local auto manufacturers.... are threatening to risk all to "stand on principle" and reject a comparatively paltry $14 billion bridge-loan to the blue-collar Big Three.

Risking all means.... bankruptcies that would throw up to 3 million out of work and possibly turn a deep recession into a 1930s depression!

Already rocketing unemployment makes such a denial of financial help an even more death-defying act.... "New Unemployment Claims Surge Unexpectedly." (Huffington)

"The Labor Department reported Thursday that initial applications for jobless benefits in the week ending Dec. 6 rose to a seasonally adjusted 573,000 from an upwardly revised figure of 515,000 in the previous week.

"New jobless claims last week reached their highest level since November 1982...."

And the GOP wants to play Russian Roulette with millions of jobs. It's time to forget mindless ideology and narrow lobbying interests.... it's time to vote for America. Pass the auto financial aid bill!

Monday, January 07, 2008

Disasterous Bush Beat Goes On

With the presidential primaries taking all of the oxygen from the room, you may not have heard that:

The Decider again defied Congress, allowing Mexican 18-wheelers to begin traveling freely into the United States after previously being confined at a 25-mile border zone. Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), who authored the provision that shut down the NAFTA Mexican trucking program, wrote to the Secretary of Transportation saying that the administration's violation of the law is arrogant and wrong.

The Pakistani government announced that it will not allow any country to conduct military operations on its territory after the New York Times reported the U.S. government was considering far more aggressive operations in Pakistan. The lawless tribal belt on the Afgan border is a haven for al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists. The Pakistani forces are engaging these militants, but an alliance with the U.S. in these operations would be deeply unpopular, and viewed by Pakistanis as doing the bidding of the United States... and these are our allies.

The unemployment rate soared and job growth came to a near-halt in December. Just 18,000 net jobs were created, and it takes about 125,000 a month just to keep up with population growth. "We are on the verge of a recession," said senior economist Robert A. Dye. This is just another economic jolt felt from the housing downturn and related crises in the financial markets. So much for The Decider's supply-side economics the NAFTA-ization of our job markets.

And, in an op-ed in the Washington Post today, George McGovern opines: "Why I Believe Bush Must Go..... Nixon Was Bad. These Guys are Worse." His opening salvo.... "As we enter the eighth year of the Bush-Cheney administration, I have belatedly and painfully concluded that the only honorable course for me is to urge the impeachment of the president and the vice president."

McGovern's reasons: "Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses. They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after time. Their conduct and their barbaric policies have reduced our beloved country to a historic low in the eyes of the people around the world. these are truly 'high crimes and misdemeanors,' to use the constitutional standard."

He then talks about some of these "high crimes and misdemeanors," a sad recital of "killing, immorality and lawlessness."

Still, McGovern thinks impeachment is unlikely although he insists we must still urge Congress to act. All the more reason the primaries and general election are so important.... we must cleanse our government of these criminals and those who would try to follow in their shoes.

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