Obama won no concessions from China on points at issue

Link

Good luck with that plan. You've got as good a chance of that happening as asking the opposing team not to play their star players. Why would China do that when it is clearly NOT in their best interest?

Wasn't that just about what Bush did? Did you expect different results? Did he get different results?

AKA Cover Your Ass...


http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/...strict.errors/

First they kill some poor sod now they hit someone else....

http://www.abqjournal.com/abqnews/ab...-in-wreck.html

Watch out for Biden's Motorcade. It is deadly.

Or you could go hunting with Cheney, your choice.

WTF is up with these incompetent VP's?

I didn't realize Joe was driving... oh wait he wasn't. Maybe someone else was shooting for Cheney as well... that is how he handled Vietnam.

If he cared TW might insert some witty new statements about problems being traceable to the top and how the 70HP engine... oh nevermind.

You tell me. Did he act as though China was our new buddy and kiss their ass? I'm not sure I remember that part.

Yes. And got no results re dollar vs yuan valuation.

Bzzzzzz. Wrong.

Maybe Obama could ty vomiting on Hu. Worked for Bush I.


Griff ... bwahahahaha ... zing!!

Its their party and they can cry if they want to....but it makes me smile :)

hmmmm....require a national leader or group or structure? What a surprise.

IMO, the tea bags are turning into http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:W...m/fizzie09.jpg

Sweet and providing instant gratification....but artificial to the core and no staying power.

Dissonance amongst the Tea Punks! :lol:

California Was Among States With Record Unemployment

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=aQsHAD0w1egE

The danger of prolonged low interest rates is that many people/firms will take loans, then when interest rates eventually rise, some will be unable to repay those loans, triggering a new wave of bankruptcies, which was how we got into this mess in the first place. It is a very tricky balancing act. Wearing a blindfold.

I am really beginning to think that all this talk of recovery is false and when the money runs out and the Congress stops throwing cash at all these programs we may be worse off than before. Jobless rate sure reflects it.

I remember a graph of post war crashes from a US History class years ago. I'll search the net... of course we are not even close to ending our present engagements. Go us.

I'm trying to figure out how much of the money spent on the war is creating jobs here. Mercenaries like Blackwater (Xe) don't really represent the US workforce, and a lot of the work by Cheney's old firm (KBR-Haliburton) involves subcontracters overseas which they overcharge for. This is one reason why there are a number of electrocution cases in Iraq.

In previous wars, at least most of the money was spent in the US. Now services, components, and equipment are as likely as not to be from sources outside the US.

Take a look at Griff's graph.
Firstly, note that it gives job losses as an absolute value. Since there are more people in jobs now compared to 1950, losing a million jobs is a smaller percentage now than previously. I'd like to see an adjusted graph of that (but not enough to go and look for one).


I also notice that if you trace the recessions in their chronological order, after the first cluster of five recessions which lasted 18-23 months, they get progressively longer: 28, 32 and 47 months. The present one is shaping up to be a doozie. Is the trend strong enough to support a general hypothesis? Are US recessions getting longer? If so, why would that be?

An interesting relationship here:

Obama, Soros, oil.

http://sweetness-light.com/archive/o...-oil-in-brazil

Sign this petition.

This Krauthammer article probably belongs here.

Why would anyone sign a petition for the president to release his birth certificate when he already did during the campaign and it was a legitimate, authentic, certified, signed, sealed, and verified copy of his actual birth certificate?

Only a nutjob or an insane person is stupid enough to believe he was born in another country. Only jackasses like Orly Taitz or Phil Berg are that dumb.

Then do it again - its the department of redundancy dept - one of the largest in our Gov't. Shouldn't take a petition anyway. Personally I would hope it would shut up a bunch of them once and for all.

That doesn't work on idealogues with the memory of a goldfish and the attention span of a toddler.

Though it does work well enough on everybody else, leaving the cranks to be encysted in their isolation. Works for me [shrug].

Link

Good gracious, please tell me that we aren't going there again.

Don't hold your breath.

There are T-shirts that say "Welcome Back, Carter" advertised on The Drudge Report.

Barack Obama’s Top Ten Foreign Policy Follies
Link
Some of the comments at the end of this are amazing. I don't agree with all of what is said, but I was more than a little surprised at this mans perspective nonetheless.

That list is tiresome carping. There has been no actual foreign policy test as yet. If one of the worst ten things O could do is mess up gift-giving he will be in the same boat as most families tomorrow.

:lol:

I specifically voted for a lot of stuff on that list.

Link
I like the ideas, but it would be nice to know how we are gonna pay for stuff before we pend money we don't have. Doncha think?

"more than $100 million to help people care for their elderly parents"

Let's see... divide that by 300 million Americans, and it works out to 33 cents per person. Even though not every American will be caring for an elderly parent, I don't see this money going very far. What are they gonna do, print some informational pamphlets?

.33 cents each? That much? Hell, that should cover it.

It goes further if you only give it to people that need it.

Discretionary income, wtf? :eyebrow:

Way more than that. It will be 33 cents each, not a third of a cent each. :p

None of those things will help me.

W/O knowing the details, I would guess it is for matching grants for programs like Meals on Wheels, etc.

Or even better, programs to support congregate living for seniors. Think of having the Golden Girls live in your neighborhood, but they cant because of local housing/zoning codes. Time to start addressing those needs in anticipation of the soon to be senior baby boomers.

OH hell, I couldn't resist.

http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xc/101...E385F9BE8FAE5E

Ole Teddy is rolling in his fucking grave. Good on him. I wonder if he is dizzy yet?

Ok. So the latest gimmick is for Obama to offer breaks on Capital Gains Taxes to small businesses. A capital gains tax is a tax charged on the profit made on the sale of a non-inventory asset that was purchased at a lower price. The most common capital gains are realized from the sale of stocks, bonds, precious metals and property. How many Small businesses do you know of that have income from the sales of stocks, bonds, precious metals and properties. The majority of small businesses are S-corps, LLC's, PC's. Most of this income is taxed as personal income with some benefits from being incorporated. This is not going to do squat to help the majority of small businesses. Once again he is blowing smoke up our collective skirts in the guise of reconciliation.

In fact, the bigger pieces of the proposal are a $5,000 tax credit for each new hire along with reimbursement of Social Security payroll taxes for businesses that increase wages or hours for existing workers (both capped to ensure that funds go to small businesses) ...and using $30 billion from money repaid to the TARP fund to help community banks offer small-business loans through incentives to those banks to borrow money from the Treasury at a reduced dividend rate.

If you don't like these ideas, got a better one?

Put the over spent money from TARP back into deficit reduction where it belongs and stop coming up with plans to tax income. It is a backhanded benefit. Small business will be hurt by any plans to raise taxes on personal income over $200k. A $5000 tax credit for one year will not offset the costs for insurance and payroll over the course of one year. But the point here Obama is trying to sell this Capital Gains reduction as some grand handout to small business and it is total bullshit.

So your only plan is to let the tax cuts to the top bracket extend beyond the original expiration date in the law (the end of 2010)...How did those 01 and 03 tax cuts (at a cost of over $1 trillion) help the economy?

And to put the TARP funds to deficit reduction rather than job creation....how does that create jobs?

I guess I could rehire my wife and kids. Take the $5000 tax break for each of them and fire them at the end of the year when the break goes away.

It keeps the money where it belongs, in the hands of those who earned it and out of the hands of Big Government who will waste it on things that will not work to create jobs or attempt to do them inefficiently as the last Stimulus Package did. Your guys tried to tempt us with that smoke screen once already telling us that you are going to make jobs. You failed. You don't deserve more of my money to fail again.

So you really dont have a plan or anything constructive to offer....other than dont tax the rich even though the law under which those tax cuts were enacted mandate that they expire in 2010....and dont attempt to create jobs, since your economic expertise says that wont work.

More of the same... if is counter to your opinion......it fails.
Its OK...didnt expect anything different.

Oh. Maybe you need to re-read my post. Leave the tax breaks in place where money earned stays with those who know best what to do with them. Stop lying to the American public about what you are doing with our money and how your Kabuki Theater plans are going to do something they will not.

To date you and your party have not offered anything constructive to fix the situation we are in. Ok, wait. You did significantly increase the Debt Ceiling so you could spend more and drive the economy down more. You told us that you were going to make more jobs and you didn't. The electorate is on to you.

And how well did that work out?

How did those 01 and 03 tax cuts weighted heavily to the top bracket, at a cost of over $1 trillion, contribute to middle class economic security, as promised?

BTW, numerous economists, including the lead economist at Heritage and other conservative economists have acknowledged that the stimulus plan has contributed to the GDP growth in 09...the first real growth in nearly three years. The consensus among economists across the political spectrum have agreed.

Better yet, how did it fail?

Unemployment rate 2001 =4.7

Unemployment rate 2003 =6.0

Unemployment rate 2006 =4.6

Unemployment rate 2010 =10

And numerous economists have also said that the blip at the end of the year was not sustainable and artificially reflected tax dollars that were poured into the failed Stimulus Package of Feb 2009. No one has said that the growth in GDP noted in one or two months of this year is refective of long term economic outlook. But they all have said it is artificial.

Hey..,Economists across the spectrum understand that employment is the last to recovery from a severe recession.

You start with growing the economy...and that has occurred for the first time in 2 years, as a result, in part, of the stimulus program.

And you still have offered nothing better and still cant explain how those 01 and 03 tax cuts at a cost of $1 trillion helped the middle class?

And this is your plan? You don't see a difference????

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/art...lt_100150.html

You fail to recognize that most of the economists say it is an artifical recovery boistered by unsustainable spending.

And you can't show where they hurt. We had more than half of the rate of unemployment at that time and people were doing fine. Anything to keep hard earned money out of the government coffers and in the pockets of those who earn it, who can make jobs with it, and put it directly back into the economy is a better plan than giving it to your party to spend whorishly on plans that have not to date and will not work. Well other than to raise our national debt.

In fact, only the most conservative, supply side economists say that.

Many economists across the spectrum see the value of the stimulus plan, but disagree on the finer points.

So, in the end, your plan is more tax cuts and deficit reduction...and that, somehow, will create jobs.

Those 01 and 03 tax cuts failed to stimulate any economic growth and contributed $1 trillion to the debt.

You want more of the same and I want a different approach and I am willing to give it time to work, given that it was envisioned as a two year plan and that it has already contributed to economic growth.

*shrug* We'll just agree to disagree.

Trillion dollar deficits are not a solution to our financial well being as a nation. The debt has nearly doubled since Jan of 09.

But yet you still fail to note that the economists say the economic growth is artificial and only reflects the billions that we have poured into debt spending? Why do you ignore this fact and pretend like everything is ok? Your plan is not working.

Looking at that, Clinton apparently had the best plan.

2009 9.3%
2008 08BM 5.8%
2007 08BM 4.6%
2006 08BM 4.6%
2005 08BM 5.1%
2004 5.5%
2003 6.0%
2002 5.8%
2001 4.7%
2000 4.0%
1999 4.2%
1998 4.5%
1997 4.9%
1996 5.4%
1995 5.6%
1994 6.1%
1993 6.9%
1992 7.5%
1991 6.8%
1990 5.6%
1989 5.3%
1988 5.5%
1987 6.2%
1986 7.0%
1985 7.2%
1984 7.5%
1983 9.6%
1982 9.7%
1981 7.6%
1980 7.1%

http://www.nidataplus.com/lfeus1.htm#annl

Although, the 2008 data is skewed because of the benchmark thing (08BM). If you look at the monthly data, in same link, the rise of unemployment under Obama was a pretty steady transition from Bush so logically its not valid to say that the rise in unemployment is Obama's fault, as it has steadied out in the past three months. You can't blame the parachute if you open it twenty feet from the ground.

I agree..but something had to be done or the economy would have tanked even more, leading to potentially the worst depression in 75 years....very few dispute that fact....and objective observers understand that correcting a failing economy cannot happen overnight..or even in one year.

And all the critics still havent offered a better plan.