The gangrene of the Obama Administration

So this entry is a compilation of resources that everyone needs to be exposed to so you can understand just how not better things are getting for our economy because of the folks who are in control of the American economy.

Let's start with these Frontline episodes.

The Warning



Breaking the Bank



Inside the Meltdown



10 Trillion and Counting



You should also check out these Frontline Episodes about the effects of our economic crisis on regular joes:

Depressions affect on Middle Class America:

Close to home located at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/closetohome/view/

Credit Card Shinanigans:

The Card Game located at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/creditcards/?utm_campaign=homepage&utm_medium=proglist&utm_source=proglist

The Secret History of the Credit Card located at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/view/

The 401k Scam:

Can you afford to Retire? located at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/retirement/view/?utm_campaign=viewpage&utm_medium=grid&utm_source=grid

Ok, so now you need to check out Matt Taibbi's investigative reports:

First, some background stories. The Big Takeover discusses the Dirty Dozen.

Now to our current landscape...Obama's Big Sellout. Watch Taibbi explain it.

Beck, O'Reily, Goldberg, Oh My!

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My Message to President Obama

Dear Mr. President:

I am adding my voice to the thousands. Please don't send more troops. Please end this war. We need that money, those men and women, to come home and help rebuild our shattered infrastructure, protect our people from natural disasters, and engage in other productive tasks so they can build their lives again and be with their heart broken families. Thus far you appear to be more slick PR campaign than a leader. I have fought for years to motivate my students, who are poor and disenfranchised, to vote and have faith that they can make a difference. If you do this, you will be killing that faith I've worked so hard to build.

Respectfully,

Jacqueline Chauser, MPA, MSIT

Please read Micheal's open letter to the president and contact the White House.

SNAP!

Another brilliant expose from Olbermann. I wish more journalists would make use of this format. It's compelling to see all of the events, media clips, comments from the white house, etc. just laid out in a row. Fragmented events get lost in the menagerie of happenings.

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My fair state

I just received an email today from the owner of Wine Shop at Home. I consult for the company, mainly as a hobby and to make a little extra money. He explained that he and other companies that engage in direct sales (where folks hold parties in people's home and sell their wares) lobbied the Govenator to veto a 3% tax on the commission checks of the independent consultants who hold said Tupperware parties.

I fired off a response to him asking where, exactly we should get the money to pay for vital programs if NO ONE WILL PAY TAXES. I have already watched my sales tax go up like 3% in the last two months because the cities are so desperate for cash. It pisses me off! These taxes are extremely regressive and fall hardest on the poor. We need to accept that if we are ever to fix our poor state we need to diversify our tax streams so that we all share the burden and that the wealthy, who use more public services, can't avoid paying their taxes. We are in a fine mess and it breaks my heart. California is the 7th or 8th largest economy in the world. Where has all our wealth gone? Fiore had a good point to make about Californian's predicament.

'nuff said

The Financial Nightmare Explained

With a very complicated tangle putting millions of Americans out of work and creating tent cities that hearken back to the great depression, I've found a wealth of very good information explaining who the major players are in this mess and just how greedy they truly were. This post is just a space for me to gather all of these excellent resources for your comprehensive review of the situation.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meltdown/view/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tentrillion/view/

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Jim Cramer Pt. 1
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Jim Cramer Pt. 2
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Jim Cramer Pt. 3
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

Fantastic articles from Rolling Stone Magazine:

Read about the grand coup, otherwise known as the Troubled Assets Recovery Plan (TARP). Here's more on the Dirty Dozen. And now that you're up to speed on how we got here, read about Obama's recovery plan.

The First Cat is dead! Long Live the Cat!

Ok, so maybe it's silly...but I loved me some socks. He'll be missed, at least by this cat lover.

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Tribute to Lincoln: Gettysburg Address-Thursday, November 19, 1863

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government : of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

A Tribute to Lincoln on His Birthday: A House Divided

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention:

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since apolicy was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South.

Have we no tendency to the latter condition?

Let any one who doubts, carefully contemplate that now almost complete legal combination -- pieces of machinery, so to speak -- compounded of the Nebraska doctrine and the Dred Scott decision. Let him consider, not only what work the machinery is adapted to do, and how well adapted, but also let him study the history of its construction, and trace, if he can, or rather fail, if he can, to trace the evidence of design, and concert of action, among its chief architects, from the beginning.

The new year of 1854 found slavery excluded from more that half the States by State Constitutions, and from most of the National territory by Congressional prohibition. Four days later, commenced the struggle which ended in repealing that Congressional prohibition. This opened all the National territory to slavery, and was the first point gained...

While the Nebraska Bill was passing through Congress, a law case, involving the question of a negro's freedom by reason of his owner having voluntarily taken him first into a free State, and then into a territory covered by the Congressional prohibition, and held him as a slave for a long time in each, was passing through the United States Circuit Court for the District of Missouri; and both Nebraska Bill and lawsuit were brought to a decision in the same month of May, 1854. The negro's name was "Dred Scott," which name now designates the decision finally made in the case. Before the then next Presidential election, the law case came to, and was argued in, the Supreme Court of the United States; but the decision of it was deferred until after the election. Still, before the election, Senator Trumbull, on the floor of the Senate, requested the leading advocate of the Nebraska Bill to state his opinion whether the people of a Territory can constitutionally exclude slavery from their limits; and the latter answers: "That is a question for the Supreme Court."

The election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, and the indorsement, such as it was, secured. That was the second point gained...The Presidential inauguration came, and still no decision of the court; but the incoming President, in his inaugural address, fervently exhorted the people to abide by the forthcoming decision, whatever it might be. Then, in a few days, came the decision.

The reputed author of the Nebraska Bill finds an early occasion to make a speech at this capital indorsing the Dred Scott decision, and vehemently denouncing all opposition to it. The new President, too, seizes the early occasion of the Silliman letter to indorse and strongly construe that decision, and to express his astonishment that any different view had ever been entertained!

At length a squabble springs up between the President and the author of the Nebraska Bill, on the mere question of fact, whether the Lecompton Constitution was or was not in any just sense made by the people of Kansas; and in that quarrel the latter declares that all he wants is a fair vote for the people, and that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted up. I do not understand his declaration, that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted up, to be intended by him other than as an apt definition of the policy he would impress upon the public mind... That principle is the only shred left of his original Nebraska doctrine. Under the Dred Scott decision "squatter sovereignty" squatted out of existence, tumbled down like temporary scaffolding; like the mould at the foundry, served through one blast, and fell back into loose sand; helped to carry an election, and then was kicked to the winds. His late joint struggle with the Republicans, against the Lecompton Constitution, involves nothing of the original Nebraska doctrine. That struggle was made on a point -- the right of a people to make their own constitution -- upon which he and the Republicans have never differed.

The several points of the Dred Scott decision, in connection with Senator Douglas's "care not" policy, constitute the piece of machinery, in its present state of advancement. This was the third point gained. The working points of that machinery are:

Firstly, That no negro slave imported as such from Africa, and descendant of such slave, can ever be a citizen of any State, in the sense of that term as used in the Constitution of the United States. This point is made in order to deprive the negro, in every possible event, of the benefit of the provision of the United States Constitution which declares that "The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States."

Secondly, That, "subject to the Constitution of the United States," neither Congress nor a Territorial Legislature can exclude slavery from any United States Territory. This point is made in order that individual men fill up the Territories with slaves, without danger of losing them as property, and thus to enhance the chances of permanency to the institution through all the future.

Thirdly, That whether the holding a negro in actual slavery in a free State makes him free, as against the holder, the United States courts will not decide, but will leave to be decided by the courts of any slave state the negro may be forced into by the master. This point is made, not to be pressed immediately; but, if acquiesced in for a while, and apparently indorsed by the people at an election, then to sustain the logical conclusion that what Dred Scott's master might lawfully do with Dred Scott, in the free State of Illinois, every other master may lawfully do with any other one, or one thousand slaves, in Illinois, or in any other free State.

Auxiliary to all this, and working hand in hand with it, the Nebraska doctrine, or what is left of it, is to educate and mould public opinion, at least Northern public opinion, not to care whether slavery is voted down or voted up. This shows exactly where we now are; and partially, also, whither we are tending...

Why was the amendment, expressly declaring the right of the people, voted down? Plainly enough now, -- the speaking out then would have damaged the "perfectly free" argument upon which the election was to be carried. Why the outgoing President's felicitation on the indorsement? Why the delay of a reargument? Why the incoming President's advance exhortation in favor of the decision? These things look like the cautious patting and petting of a spirited horse preparatory to mounting him, when it is dreaded that he may give the rider a fall. And why the hasty after-indorsement of the decision by the President and others?

We cannot absolutely know that all these exact adaptations are the result of preconcert. But when we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of which we know have been gotten out at different times and places and by different workmen, -- Stephen, Franklin, Roger, and James, for instance, -- and when we see these timbers joined together, and see they exactly make the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mortises exactly fitting, and all the lengths and proportions of the different pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, and not a piece too many or too few, -- not omitting even scaffolding, -- or, if a single piece be lacking, we see the place in the frame exactly fitted and prepared yet to bring such piece in, -- in such a case, we find it impossible not to believe that Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James all understood one another from the beginning, and all worked upon a common plan or draft drawn up before the first blow was struck... ~ Abraham Lincoln, June 17, 1858

Source: Roy P. Basler, ed., Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 2 (1953), 461-68.

The Chairman of the DNC answers questions about the stimulus plan

This weekend President Obama's team asked the community to hold house parties all across the country to listen to this video that was put together by the DNC, with the hopes of selling the stimulus plan to the American people.



Incredibly, while news of the economy crumbling around us, the Republican's in the House and Senate are hell bent on obstructing the passage of a stimulus plan, complaining that there is not enough of the policies that they championed for the last 8 years that provided the sleigh ride that got us into this mess. They want more tax cuts for corporations and wealthy individuals and less spending in general, especially on healthcare, unemployment benefits, and tax cuts to the poor and middle classes.

But are we getting the real story? It's hard to know. According to Media Matters for America, a non-profit media watchdog group, the coverage of the stimulus plan has been widely skewed. For the last week I have been watching this bill, at first watered down in the House, flounder in the Senate while Senators such as John McCain whine about the fact that they have better ideas to fix the economy and not enough of them are getting into the bill. It's frustrating to say the least. I have found segments on Rachel Maddow and Kieth Olberman's nightly shows to be far more helpful in understanding what is happening with the stimulus plan.

Here are a few segments I found particularly helpful:

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The latest news I have heard tonight is that the Senate finally reached a compromise.

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Will Bi-Partisanship ruin Obama's attempt to save the economy?

As the week drags on we see more issues plaguing the new administration's attempt to pass an economic recovery bill. My personal concern is that Obama is wasting time reaching out to Republicans to make everyone happy. Republicans are responding....well...like Republicans. After complaining and playing politics to get rid of crucial social spending and include more tax cuts for the rich (because that's worked so well) the recovery bill was watered down and modified only to get not a single vote from the Republican house members who pushed to ruin the bill in the first place. Now the plan is to the Senate, where it looks likely to not pass at all because of Republicans putting politics before the health of the nation.

So what do we have currently? What will the bill do for us now that the Republicans have taken a hatchet to it and wiggled in some of their failed policies from the past 8 years? President Obama attempts to explain that in his weekly address to the nation:

1/31/09: Your Weekly Address from White House on Vimeo.

You can visit the House's website to read about sections if the bill here.

The reality is, the depression was allowed to rage on under Hoover for 3 years before Roosevelt was elected and took some of the same drastic steps we see President Obama trying to take today. The Republicans and conservative talking heads Limbaugh, O'Rielly, and Hanity have done a good job of mobilizing their troops on the ground to flood the Senate with phone calls against the bill. Get educated and informed and start calling your Senators to support economic stimulus. You can also attend a house party this weekend to brainstorm with your neighbors about what action you can take to make sure our economy does not languish while the politicians (who still have their jobs and their fat salaries) haggle over what to do.

In case you forgot...8 years of Bush

I have spent the last few weeks reading the many reflective essays written about Bush and the Republican party. So far two of my favorites have been in the Rolling Stone, and my buddy Darrell spoke highly of the oral history of the administration just published in Vanity Fair. But I have to hand it to Olbermann, again who I heart, for breaking it down as only he could do. Listen and remember, because Bush and the crazy thugs that came up with these policies perpetrated so many, many falsehoods, law breaking, and farces on the American people that I actually forgot half of them. It's simply to much and too dizzying to keep up.

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A commitment to Liberalism

Of all the reflections I could be making right now, on this Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, a mere 24 hours before our first black president is sworn in to office, I think discussing my commitment to liberalism is appropriate.

Let me start by saying, I was not raised to be liberal; I have spent hours of my life listening to my family's preachings and rants on the conservative point of view for my entire formative life. My father and step-mother are pretty devoted conservative Republicans. My dad still thinks Sarah Palin is just wonderful, even after the copious public displays of snideness, blind ambition, ignorance, and mind-numbingly incoherent ramblings. To him, she effectively packaged herself as "just a regular gal, you betcha!", a core pillar of the collective conservative fantasy.

Second, I am not and never have been poor. Oh sure, I did the broke, starving college student thing for a few years. I know what it feels like to scrape change out of my couch so I could eat and the constant pressure and worry of paying my bills when I didn't make enough money. But I won't lie. If I really needed it, I could have begged a few bucks off my family. I was just to proud to do it usually. But the safety net that was there is why I will never claim true poverty.

Finally, I did not have a liberal education. I have gone to school for both my undergraduate and two graduate degrees in Orange County, CA. In case you don't know, OC is one of the most die hard, wealthy, conseravtive strong holds in the United States. We are the home of Richard Nixon, for Pete's sake!

My father was at first just annoyed by my moderate leanings in early adolescence. I remember how his face fell as I announced that I registered Independent when I was 18. But the longer I went through school and the more I learned about the history of the United State's domestic and foreign policy, the more liberal I became, and the farther apart my father and I grew. Now we are at the point where we have no ideological common ground, save for a pride in taking care of our own selves, that we can't even talk politics if we hope to make it through dinner. He has stated more than once that he eagerly looked forward to the day that I started earning good money so that I would pay extremely high taxes, experience his point of view, and finally come over to his side of the isle.

Well, fellow tax payers, that day has arrived. I now earn so much and have so few write offs (that would be 0, in case you were wondering exactly how few) that I pay approximately 45% of my earning in income taxes. I also usually owe the state when I file. And let me tell you, there are days when it really irks me, that I work half the year for free.

The reason I am even writing this reflection is I had a truly Republican moment last night. My boyfriend was calculating the taxes for his friend. She makes very little money and has one child. She pays approximately 18% in taxes, although she has her child as a write off so it's probably lower then that, and she was mad because she is only receiving $2100 back instead of the usual $3000, and part of the reason is because she has to pay back the $600 stimulus she already received. And I thought "bloody hell! I pay almost half my income in taxes and am shaking in my sneakers right now because I am positive that I will owe more. The best I can hope for is to break even."

And after a few minutes of silently fuming I remembered something. She lives in a single bedroom in a house that someone else owns. She lives in that room with her boyfriend and their 5 year old daughter. They have one car between the two of them, for which she is making payments. She works two jobs, one of them which has her on call at all hours of the night so she can drive over to a hotel in Manhattan Beach and give some rich guy a massage. The other job is a 9-5 deal. She couldn't even stay for desert on Sunday night because she got called in for an appointment at 9:30 PM! They have to count every penny. They go out and have fun maybe once a month and that's a struggle. Every time they come over to visit, she is asleep as soon as her ass hits the chair. They have very few possessions.

Despite the heavy tax burden, I share a two bedroom apartment with my boyfriend in a very upscale part of Long Beach. We each have our own laptops, cars, clothes, and money to go out and treat ourselves. Oh sure, I can't spend anytime I want. I have a lot of student debt which takes a hefty chunk out of my budget, but I can't say my style is all that cramped. I think I eat out 4 or 5 times a week, and I usually throw food out because it goes bad. I take home more money a month than my friend will get for her refund. What was I so pissed about?

And this brings me back to my point. Because of my lengthy discussions with my family, I understand the path to conservative ideology. It's very simple. Just think, over and over again; "me, me, me, me, me!!" I find myself feeling that way occasionally. Liberalism, the idea that we live together in a collective commonwealth to which we all must contribute to and maintain, requires a frame of mind that does not chant "Me, me!" but "Us, us!" I don't begrudge a single person who needs my tax dollars to have a free school for their child, or receive welfare so they don't have to go out and steal when times are hard, to pay their heating bill while on disability because they got hurt or just had a baby. I don't begrudge the tax breaks for people like my friend who is just trying to make ends meet.

I am blessed with wealth, good fortune, and a family who was committed to my education. It's only right that I give back. I went to public schools and got cheaper tuition from a Cal State for my undergrad. If I get laid off I may need unemployment some day. If I have kids, I'll need a public school system to send them too. Eventually, I'll be old and slurping soup for dinner at 3 in the afternoon and need money to pay my heating bill and buy medicine to prolong my soup slurping days. And my friend's kid is going to partially pay for that with her earnings.

As a philosophy, liberalism may sometimes fail to translate into reality. Good intentions are often lost in the political arena of personal favors, compromises, and quid pro quos, but I think we need to keep trying. As a society, we are not all politicians, and as Dr. King showed us by giving us his life so that the people in this country can have a better days, we all need to be commited to an idea to change the world.

So give back my fellow tax payers, it will be returned to you many times over. And remember, maintaining a commitment to liberalism takes work. Nothing makes me sadder than when my father proudly tells me the story of how he used to be a liberal because it suited his needs at the time, but as soon as he started making good money and paying lots of taxes he switched horses because he wanted to keep it all. He's still waiting for me to wise up I think. And every time I feel myself on the verge of chanting "me, me, me!" I'll do my best to remember, that I already have everything I need, now its time to make sure everyone else does too.

Blessed Be.