For Reprob8

[Textech]

Bush is my Shepherd,

The 23th Psalm

As long as George W.
Bush is my President, I shall be in want.
He maketh me lie down on park benches.
He leadeth me beside the still factories,
He restores my doubts about the Republican Party.
He leadeth me into the paths of unemployment for his cronies' sake.
Yea, though no weapons of mass destruction have been found, he maketh me continue to fear evil.
His tax cuts for the rich and his deficit spending discomfort me.
He anointeth me with never-ending debt.
Verily my days of savings and assets are kaput.
Surely poverty and hard living shall follow me all the days of his
administration,
And my jobless child shall dwell in my basement forever.

Amen

[Egyptian]

Bush is my Shepherd,

The 23th Psalm

As long as George W.
Bush is my President, I shall be in want.
He maketh me lie down on park benches.
He leadeth me beside the still factories,
He restores my doubts about the Republican Party.
He leadeth me into the paths of unemployment for his cronies' sake.
Yea, though no weapons of mass destruction have been found, he maketh me continue to fear evil.
His tax cuts for the rich and his deficit spending discomfort me.
He anointeth me with never-ending debt.
Verily my days of savings and assets are kaput.
Surely poverty and hard living shall follow me all the days of his
administration,
And my jobless child shall dwell in my basement forever.

Amen

Strange to note that the unemployment rate is as low as it ever was with Clinton. And right now, it is lower than it was pre 9-11. And as for me, I do not remember anymore terrorist attacks on American soil since 9-11. Hardly a fearful condition. I can agree with the deficit spending problem, but that is as much a problem with the congress as it is with the administration. No money gets spent that does not come out of the congress. And for myself personally, I have saved more money in the last 5 years than I did in the 30 prior to that. (of course, that might have been becuase of kids living at homebiggrin: ) But please look around and I think you will find it is not as bad as you depict it.

Egyptian

[reprob8]

Median household income in 2004 was $44,4000, in real terms unchanged from 2002 and 2003.

US poverty rate rose from 12.5% to 12.7% between 2003 and 2004.

Number of people without health insurance rose from 45 million to 45.8 million between 2003 to 2004.

Not unlike the job boom of the 80s and the Clinton era, the devil is in the details when it comes to a reduction in the jobless rate. What percentage of those jobs were well-paying professional positions as opposed low-paying service jobs (retail clerks, janitors, etc.). How many of those jobs in the manufacturing sector, which typically pay more than service jobs? How do you factor for those dropped from the unemployment rolls, and therefore no longer counted? How do you factor in those forced to take part-time employment, though they may be looking for full-time employment?

A recent news report said that Delphi, which recently filed for Chapter 11, may looking to slash the pay of its union work force by over 60% to roughly $25,000 a year. NWA IAM workers are now making almost 20% less than they were a month ago - probably less when you consider that a pay cut is not accompanied by a concommitant cut in the price you pay for gas, food, medicine, etc.

So I'm glad you're doing well, though I must wonder how much of it may have been due to the any tax break you may have received for all those years working overseas. Don't get too complacent though, because you're not all that far removed from the rest of the working stiffs. And it may not be too far into the future before your own CEO decides to put your economic balls in a vice and give it a few turns.

As for feeling more secure, try the following analogy: You, as the operator of an airline, continue to fly your passengers from Point A to Point B in airplanes that are not maintained or inspected regularly. Does the fact that you've yet to suffer a accident, mean that your passengers are safe and secure? Or does it mean that you're just continuing to roll the dice with other people's lives? What percentage of shipments coming into our ports are inspected? What percentage of cargo in aircraft is inspected? Same question appies to our power and chemical plants. How much better prepared are "first responders now than four years ago?

Textech:

If it wasn't so tragic, it would be funny. Thanks.

[Bill Bisbing]

Polictical satire was NEVER meant to be HUMOR not even humorous - but ya'll are killing me!!

[Egyptian]

Want your high paying manufacturing jobs back, quit buying the crap Walmart is bringing in from China, give up your japanese electronics and cars. Give up BMW and Mercedes and buy a Chevy. We have done it to ourselves. I have been just a guilty as most for a long time, but now, I make an all out effort to buy what I need "made in USA". It has been our pursuit of low prices that has done in the job market, not the administration. Ever notice how many sims are built in the UK now, Singer no longer exists, Secor is gone, when was the last time you saw a new Curits Wright machine. We need to all grow up and quit trying to blame someone else for our woes, look in the mirror and see if you can't come up with a solution. What was it John Kennedy said, "ask not what your country can do you for, ask what you can do for your country".

Egyptian

[reprob8]

It may be a little late to go looking for "Made in USA" on the products you buy, since so much manufacturing has shifted overseas already. Also, "Made in USA" may be something of a misnomer, since many of the major sub-assemblies may have been made outside the country and then the final product assembled here.

Nor do I think that most of the stuff made overseas is necessarily junk.

Chrysler in the 80's use to bitch about cheaper foreign pick-up trucks which were under cutting the US auto makers. Once the US slapped a tarriff on Japanese imports, Chrysler turned around and jacked up the price on their own vehicles. At the same time, it held a 25% stake in Mazda.

Can't blame US workers if the marketing side of a US business is too short-sighted and more focussed on the next quarter's P&L.

We need to start by having our trade reps demand that foreign manufacturers provide their workers a livng wage and benefits, and the right to unionize, or else we'll slap a ban on their imports. Hard to do, since this will probably be considered unfair trade under the WTO, which every administration since Bush I has been pushing. Also, since it's Japan and China which are buying our treasury notes in order to finance our budget defecit, we're in no position to dictate terms.

[Egyptian]

All I am saying is that if there is a choice, spend an extra buck or two and buy the MADE IN USA label. I have found kitchen items in Walmart that are made in this country. Nuff said


Egyptian

[reprob8]

Still, why shop there, unless absolutely necessary, given their labor practices in this country?

[the jackal]

The unemployment rate can go down for two reasons; either people become employed or those without jobs get frustrated and stop looking for work altogether. The first is good news for our economy; the second a sign of weakness. What we have seen over the past three years is that as job growth has faltered, many workers have gotten fed up and left the labor market, keeping the unemployment rate artificially low.

In August alone 150,000 workers left the labor force. They no longer tell surveyors that they are seeking work. They have given up the job hunt to help out at home, take classes or simply wait until a job hunt is more likely to produce results. When Bush took office, the labor force participation rate ? which measures the fraction of the civilian population over 16 that is either working or looking for work ? was 67.2 percent. Today that percentage has dropped to 66.0 percent. If the same share of the population had remained in the work force it would be 2.7 million workers larger than it is today. That would push the unemployment rate up to 7.1 percent.

In addition, the unemployment rate does not count all the people who are forced into part-time work because of the weakness in the labor market. In our increasingly agile labor market, many people are choosing to work part-time to balance their competing needs. But the number of people who, when surveyed, said they are working part-time only because they could not find full-time jobs has increased by 35 percent since Bush took office, the largest increase for any President on record. If we were to count these 4.5 million involuntary part-time workers as 'part-unemployed' the overall unemployment rate would increase further.

Comparing the static unemployment rate today to that in 1996 is a bit like arguing that two cars whizzing by each other on a highway are at the exact same point, even if they are headed in opposite directions. It fails to capture the fact that under President Clinton the unemployment rate had fallen by 30 percent to reach its 5.1 percent level in August of 1996, while it has increased 29 percent to reach its 5.4 percent level under Bush. It fails to account for the 2 million fewer unemployed people in August 1996 than in January 1993 and the 2 million more unemployed people today than in January 2001. This is not to mention the 10.4 million jobs that had been created under Clinton compared to the 1 million jobs lost under Bush.

from http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=186379


According to Reuters (U.S. Job Growth Tepid, Jobless Rate Drops), the job increases don't even keep-up with population growth, and "the unexpected decrease in the jobless rate was mostly due to a paltry 1,000 increase in the labor force -- suggesting many Americans have stopped looking for work."
It's nice that you can save money, though the majority of us who are back scraping out a living in on U.S. soil have seen our wages drop in comparison to the rising cost of living. And terrorist attacks have increased worldwide against Americans since 9-11. Just because they aren't all happening on American soil is no reason to ignore the fact that more of the world despises America than ever before.

[reprob8]

Jackal:

Thanks for fleshing out what I was referring to earlier vis-a-vis our unemployment rate.

Egyptian:

You may find this news item of interest as far as being safe from attack in the US.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051204/ap_on_go_co/sept11_commission;_ylt=Ansr_hU2LSMR83vCpESaxxms0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

You may also want to look up the term "cognitive dissonance".

[guest]

I looked into unemployment once in Colorado in the 80's, After they wanted me to take all these feel good classes to make me feel better about myself, Then wanting me to jump through all their hoops (BS classes)for $100.00 a week and then pay taxes on that, take home would have been approx $85.00 a week, While taking the time to do this and all their no - account classes, you can be not looking for an actual job, decided whom ever goes on unemployemnt is not looking for a job very hard. Can work at MIcky D's for more money, so It didn't help me out a whole lot,

If you want to work, there is work out there, it may just not be what you want to do at the time. Unemployment insurance with the government is a waste of time, effort, tax money, Just a whole lot of Buracratic grabage thats built into stealing money from people who are working.. Much like our IRS it can be simplier handled with just a little more thought put into it.

Ttiny

[Textech]

For Christ's sake..... It was a friggin JOKE!!!!!!!

This is the HUMOR section!!!!!!

Take this SH!T to the current events forum!mad: mad: mad: mad:

[reprob8]

For Christ's sake..... It was a friggin JOKE!!!!!!!

This is the HUMOR section!!!!!!

Take this SH!T to the current events forum!mad: mad: mad: mad:

And a very good one too! biggrin:

I agree, it should be switch to Current Events forum.

Switch to decaf, and remember it could be worse. You could be at a "Limit: one per customer" sale at either Target or Wal-Mart during the Christmas rush.biggrin:

[guest]

Sorry,, Did not mean to offend anyone

Ttiny

[Mas_o_menos]

You want offensive? Try standing next to Reprob8 on a hot Sunday afternoon at the offramp of the 605 freeway.........faintt: Aiii chihuahua!!!

[reprob8]

You want offensive? Try standing next to Reprob8 on a hot Sunday afternoon at the offramp of the 605 freeway.........faintt: Aiii chihuahua!!!

Try standing next to Mas-O-Menos an hour after he's eaten a three-bean and cheese burrito. barf:

[Textech]

I wasn't offended. I just think some of ya'll get a little too serious sometimes.

If I offended anyone with my other post, I apologize.

I LIKE caffein.biggrin:

[Enters Tense Rig]

Caffeine IS good.

TTiny - WTF? Forget your login? Well at your age, I guess thats not out of the question.

For the Record on buying made in USA goods.- I bought my Honda (back in 98) because it kept the largest percentage of the cost inside the states. (not just assembled but manufactured in KY). Sometimes it's not obvious what's American and whats not. If I was in the market for a Pickup truck it would have been one of the big 3.

Oh yeah, - enjoyed the humor.

Over and out.

[guest]

Well us old bald fat people sometimes forget the simply things in life, I guess our minds are occupied with the little things in life. Like keeping you young whipper snappers in shape, on the ball and (out of trouble? maybe?)

Ttiny

[guest]

Not wanting this thread to die...



"No money gets spent that does not come out of the congress."

And no budget that doesn't get rubber stamped by the white house doesn't become a deficit.

Congress is 100% to blame (or take credit) for any budget they send to the White House.

The White House is 100% to blame for signing any budget sent by congess.

Its not exactly a shared problem.

[Mas_o_menos]

A little addendum to that last comment. While Congress is 100 % responsible with what it sends to the White House for signature, they sometimes force the president to sign. This is due to the riders that are "padded" with any given bill, including the budget.
It is a given that the president can only sign what he is given. He doesn't have the line item veto that would fix that type of problem. He either accepts the whole thing or throws out the whole thing. You can't say, "Here, sign this but cross out the parts that you don't like".
The other side of the coin is that the president plays politics with what he will sign and "works" (use any word that you choose) with congress to get the bill to become law.
The president generally cannot make laws, unless you are the current president of course. He can only sign them and allow them to become laws, of which he may spin them to fit his agenda. Oh, it's good to be the king.

Oh, wasn't this supposed to be the "HUMOR" section of the site? I keep forgetting.

[reprob8]

Not wanting this thread to die...



"No money gets spent that does not come out of the congress."

And no budget that doesn't get rubber stamped by the white house doesn't become a deficit.

Congress is 100% to blame (or take credit) for any budget they send to the White House.

The White House is 100% to blame for signing any budget sent by congess.

Its not exactly a shared problem.


The congressional budget process normally begins with a proposed federal budget sent to Congress by the president.

Even if spending is approved by Congress, the president in effect can exercise a power of the purse by refusing to fund certain programs, using such tactics as eliminating staffing for a certain program, or delaying its implementation. In the 80's there were billions in the Airports Trust Fund, which the Reagan Administration refused to disburse.

[Textech]

If the opposite of pro is con: Then the opposite of progress has to be congress.

I tried to think of something equally witty to describe our executive office, but it is just too depressing.

I also used to consider myself a right wing conservative, until I found out that I had no idea how far right those wings go.

[reprob8]

I tried to think of something equally witty to describe our executive office, but it is just too depressing...


Any attempt at wit by this executive branch will be half done. :biggrin: