The Summer of America's Discontent
From Denny: This summer in America will truly be remembered as The Summer Of Discontent. The American public - on both sides of the aisle - are just not happy with their government.
The Republicans are unhappy because they are not in charge. The Republicans are unhappy out in Arizona because the federal government has only done a pittance to guarantee their border safety. Right now, there are kidnappings and murders of regular citizens by Mexican drug dealers overrunning our borders.
Immigration and Violent Mexican Drug Cartels
The Homeland Security makes idiot comments like, "The border with Mexico is porous and we will never be able to plug all the holes." That isn't what people want to hear and it certainly isn't what a real leader does. You don't just throw up your hands and say, "Sorry, no can do!" Or worse, sit on your hands and do nothing or virtually nothing.
To solve the problem you throw federal funds out to the border states to hire hordes of police and then you send down hordes of federal border police agents to actually enforce border security. There is no excuse for lame excuses from our government. Americans should have a reasonable expectation of safety in their own backyards.
Then, to add insult to injury President Obama decides to sue Arizona over their idiot attempt at immigration law. If this White House had an ounce of sense they would have sat back and allowed the law to go into effect so that Arizona would have figured out on their own how difficult it would be to enforce. Obama isn't winning any votes among Hispanics whatsoever and killing votes among Independents and some Democrats.
He never was going to be successful at sweet talking any Republican voters. Republicans don't respond to sweet talk in the first place. They respond only to force and dominance. It's what makes them tick; it's what makes them feel safe and secure in this world. Bizarre but true. Don't look at me, folks, I'm just writing the honest truth of how some segments of American society roll.
The BP Gulf Oil Spill and Moratorium
Here's another non-winner with the populace. People in Louisiana and on the Gulf Coast are absolutely furious with BP and the federal government and the Coast Guard. It's like a bad TV comedy episode where no one can seem to get organized or in timing. Sort of like watching two people try to do the Tango dance and end up entangled and falling down on the floor, slipping while they try to get up. Yeah, it's that bad here on the Gulf Coast.
To add insult to injury Obama continues this idiot moratorium. During this time he has had since 22 April to get going on the safety inspections, his government is still in the planning phase of just how to go about hiring safety inspectors. They are worrying about how to retain said future safety inspectors once they train them in the complexities necessary. What have you got sitting around these tables? A bunch of PhD's with no tangible hands-on practical work experience? This is ludicrous.
You should have been pulling from all angles of the oil and gas industry and personnel from your own federal government, assessing your resources and putting them into the field. Worry about job retention later unless you get them to sign a legal document declaring they will work for you for the next ten years. Is there anything about common sense you do not understand?
The Oil Moratorium
What's worse about this oil drilling moratorium is that while the feds try to figure it out, they have thrown 300,000 people out of work in an instant. The monies from BP are a sad joke in slow motion as desperate people get more desperate. Families are breaking up, divorces, people are committing suicide all over this environmental disaster. If the feds are looking for someone to bring lawsuits against bring them against BP not other American citizens. When the economy is so miserable, shaky and uncertain the last thing a real leader does is go around suing their own citizens.
Obama is suing Arizona over immigration law. Obama is suing Louisiana over stopping this moratorium that has frozen our economy into a dead stop to the point it is affecting the rest of the state and neighboring states, the entire Gulf Coast region. It's unrealistic to expect BP to pay for it all. You have to turn the economy loose to operate. Your job, should you decide to accept it, is for the feds to slam those oil fields and overrun them with safety inspectors done yesterday.
America's Economy Fragile
Right now America's economy is teetering. It's teetering for a variety of reasons, most notably debt. Most of this debt did not come about from people being irresponsible and overspending. It came from the now over age 50 Baby Boomer generation thrown out of work by the millions by Big Business that sent jobs overseas by the millions.
The Baby Boomers have always affected every decade in America and are doing so now. Debts were run up onto credit cards after people depleted their savings and retirement plans. Credit cards are a last ditch effort to stay afloat for a small business or the out of work corporate executive whose company fired him because they didn't want to pay the bigger salary or give health benefits to an aging worker. "Can you hear me now?"
So, what does the Obama economic commission come out and say? Yeah, you guessed it. Let's tax the hell out of the middle class by refusing to keep taxes low. Those Bush tax cuts expire soon. Hold onto your hats, folks, come 1 January 2011 your federal taxes will skyrocket and capital gains taxes will jump to a whopping 20 percent. We have a Congress that is more concerned about the possible, OK, it's impending, mid-term election losses than in keeping our taxes in line with our incomes in this severely depressed economy.
Democrats not energized
Poll after poll expresses discontent and anger toward this President. People are angry that nothing positive has reached down into their everyday lives. No one gives a rat's ass about whether the Democrats will lose the House or not. Why? Because the Democrats have never delivered on any of their promises when they took office. We are still footing the hugely expensive bill for not just one, but two wars. We, the taxpayers, are footing the bill for idiot nation building as well. When will politicians finally fall out of love with nation building and quit bleeding us dry for money we no longer have to give?
This White House thinks they can continue to deliver pablum in the form of hollow speeches and the people will be content. How can you be so naive? No one is content when their lives are falling apart from job loss, being out of work for up to two years. The only way for everything to calm down is to get people back to work.
How this White House needs to change: fundamentally
Frankly, at this point, I don't hold out much hope for this Presidency to survive. I sometimes wonder if I'm the last person left standing who actually wants the Obama Presidency to do well but they sure aren't giving me anything to promote. They are too slow to react, too slow to accept what is in front of their faces and too little too late to deliver anything of substance.
Fundamentally, a government is supposed to govern. How do you govern? First, you assess what the people need not what Big Business demands. Corporate Republicans or corporate Democrats look the same to the middle class who are suffering greatly. The middle class has suffered for the past ten years. When the middle class suffers, then the poor suffer even more than they already do because it is the middle class that gives to food banks and charities, not the wealthy.
When I looked at the President's schedule today (link below) it really hit home as to why he is ineffective. He spends all his time talking to his political people about possible legislation and then an afternoon of fluff feel good small stuff. Legislation and idealistic talks are not what America needs right now. What we need is hands-on practical common sense projects aimed at putting people back to work.
Quit running the White House like a country club. What you should be doing, Mr. President, is turning the Oval Office into a War Room, an economic emergency war room. You need to establish emergency teams all over the country. Turn your office into a nerve center to field calls from all over the country. You need economic teams fanning out across America to gather information, assess priorities, establish what can be done quickly to hire and then the authority to turn it loose. Instead of political meetings in the morning you should be meeting with your emergency teams twice a day until it comes together and starts functioning as one team.
You need to assess parts of the budget where you can immediately strip monies - plenty of pork barrel projects to salvage - to fund public work projects to put people back to work. This economy - and its perception - is a war. You can't keep running from confrontation. That's just no longer an option. It's time to stand up and step up for your American people.
The federal government should be in the business of creating new businesses. The federal government should be in the business of creating new energy sources like solar farms all across America. There are plenty of bridges in dire need of repair and other large projects to supply jobs. Start with the temporary and we can worry about the permanent later as we transition. Doing little or nothing is worse. You just can't stand by and do so little.
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On Economy, White House Message Not Sticking
Is Obama's Re-Election a Sure Bet?
President Obama's Schedule (7/13/10)
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'Abducted' Iranian Scientist Surfaces In Washington
*** Obama Hope photo by teamstickergiant @ flickr
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