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The Economist’s R.A. points out one of the stimulus bill’s many inadequacies: Lack of aid to the states.
NOT long ago I noted that early in 2009, Christina Romer estimated, based on data overestimating American employment by 1 million workers, that a federal stimulus of $1.2 trillion was called for. Ultimately, Congress passed a stimulus bill worth about $800 billion. But that is not where the impact of government policy on growth ends; one has to think about state and local governments, too.
State budgets have been a persistent drag on output, offsetting much of the discretionary boost from stimulus.
Employment is another casualty of Bathtub America: Not just the public sector workers who lose their jobs when state and local governments contract, but the private sector ones whose employers fold or cut back when government contracts dry up, or move their operations overseas to escape our increasingly decrepit and antiquated infrastructure.
And how does the Senate respond to this crisis? Guess:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Thursday unveiled a jobs bill that does not contain state aid. A Senate Democratic aide said Reid hopes to back a state aid measure in the future. Republican support, however, remains questionable.
(…)
States are looking at a total budget gap of $180 billion for fiscal 2011, which for most of them begins July 1. These cuts could lead to a loss of 900,000 jobs, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Economy.com.
A million more jobs down the drain, and no one in the Senate wants to do anything. It’s too bad none of them actually have to represent any states, otherwise they might have to pay some kind of political price for it.
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It’s also too bad that none of them have to deal with people who actually work for a living, outside of their housekeepers and gardeners.
The United States Senate: Building America’s Crack-House economy, one tub of cash at a time.
What’s going to be even more amazing is that these people are going to ask for you to vote for them in the Nov mid-terms.
I wonder if they could write a law that would allow states to borrow from the feds at the rate the big banks have enjoyed if the state legislatures agree to it?
According to Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, some ARRA funds will still be on the books for FY 2011 (beginning July 2010). Those will be entirely gone by FY 2012, beginning in 17 months.
While Rendell proposes raising the state income tax (fixed rate and among the lowest of states that have personal income tax) 0.5% to compensate, state lawmakers have thus far been unwilling to seriously entertain the proposal.
State jobs impacted by the budget shortfall will be in the thousands, and since state funding also supports counties and municipalities, the overall total of jobs lost could exceed 20K.
good article–i would disagree that they are leaving for inferior infrastructure. it is the $.50 a day labor, no safety standards ect ect-compliments of the democracts and republicans–they bring you the race to the bottom, what they call globalism-free-trade
Time to promote jobs jobs jobs here in America. The economy has bottomed and turned up a little and incentives to businesses to hire just now could be extremely effective. As has been said, the tax breaks don’t seem to be so effective. Next time we need a big stimulus bill we can point to the effect tax breaks had this time ’round.
I should add that, in the category of UI benefits, is aid to states to get through the storm until tax revenues shore up.
Instead we need to push some cash into the system via UI benefits (for the short-term effect) and improve the foundation of our system (as Obama wants to do on so many fronts) by eliminating the incentive for businesses to ship jobs overseas.
Check out my links – we’re falling behind on infrastructure too.
Big report online today that the national homeless in the US is now 1.6 million. How they count the homeless is beyond me, but 1.6 million? Good grief that’s alot of people!
As someone else said the other day – they’ve spent years telling us that cutting taxes is good for the economy. It’s time we point out that the economy has not improved during that time, and we want all that saved money spent on jobs and infrastructure,, so we’ll have an economy for the next generation.
If you hadn’t noticed, states are not too big to fail. Well, maybe CA.
Might have been me, actually. That’s the concept I want to get across with this Bathtub America meme. Cutting taxes and government leads to Epic Fail, not prosperity.
Our elites can only loot. They can not fix or set right. 2010 is an election year. If it were not, Reid wouldn’t even have this incredibly lame jobs bill on the table. How we got here is so typical of all we have seen in the Obama Administration. Obama dodged a second stimulus because he was afraid of what the Republicans would say. Then he announced $200 billion from the TARP for jobs. This then quietly disappeared from view. Then Baucus and Grassley came up with an $80 billion wet kiss to business, supposedly under the guise of a jobs bill. Finally, Reid pared it down to about $50 billion. When you consider that we need something like $1.3-$1.5 trillion dollars in stimulus a year (the $1.2 trillion mentioned in the post was over 2 years) for I’m guessing 3-5 years, you can see how paltry Reid’s bill is. It’s important to keep in mind too that to cycle that much money into the economy, prime conduits for it would be state and local government. So when we see these huge shortfalls in state government, we can see how little stimulus is actually occurring.
All of this is in keeping with my prediction of an economic smashup in 2011. We need real action to stem what is going on in the economy. Instead we are seeing stupid, ineffective measures proposed and then whittled down to beyond the point of joke and caricature.
Heard an economist from Northeastern University saying the actual unemployment rates for some sectors of the population is 30%. Said that the “jobs bill” is woefully inadequate and untargeted. The economists name is Andrew Sum. The gap in unemployment between some socio-economic groups and others is 10 to 1. Doing a hell of a job Barak.
Lessee now … increase despair, reduce Policing, increase arms sales, build more Prisons … is this how Rome crumbled ?
I’m sure the Roman elites warned that taxes would kill Rome’s economy too.
Stimulating the private sector when there is no demand by the general public to BUY the products and goods and services the private sector generates is useless and a foolish waste of tax payer dollars.
It’s time for the GOVERNMENT to become the employer of choice, by the millions, get people paid, so they can BUY stuff and make rent and mortgage and bills and such. And pay TAXES on the government’s infusion.
If we can print a few trillion for bankers/investors we sure as hell can print a trillion for government created jobs NOW!
The debit is a joke, it’s kabuki used by the 1% to convince the people they have to have their services and entitlements reduced if not eliminated in order to balance our budget due to liberal government spending!
Never mind the military expenditures that Congress legislates that benefits the 1% contractors and themselves being mostly responsible for our present deficits.
Never mind that deregulation across many sectors eliminated companies, jobs and tax revenues.
Never mind that Bushian tax cuts eliminated HUGE tax revenues and helped to increase the deficit.
Nope, forget that the LAST time we had a depression that government created jobs created cash flow for we the people, rebuilt our nation, moved it forward in many ways and created tax revenues for any deficit investment on the part of the governmenbt.
Make government jobs NOW and full employment will pay back the debit in half a decade or so.
Life is simple, deficits and private sector stimulus are of little value to 20 million and more un and under employed americans.
Yep.
It’s time for government created jobs, now, across the board. Millions and millions of them.
The large corporate private sector has no interest in helping we the people become employed.
Not in the least.
If you’re a senator, congressman or staffer,
you probably don’t know very many unemployed people.
Except maybe Billy Tauzin.
Oh, we’re failing, hugely too.
Private and public sector un and under employment is likely twice what any MSM reports, and higher than all but the most BLIGHTED areas such as Detroit . . . .
The Odious City of Dope …
*with apologies to punaise*
We have folks where I work who would like to quit, but can’t because there aren’t any other jobs for them. (One of our docs can be a bit of a butthead…) We have patients whom we’ve been treating for 10+ years who are now all of a sudden “self-pay” because they were laid off. (And who can’t afford the sky-high COBRA insurance or any private plan.) I haven’t seen folks selling apples on the street yet, but the sense here in Savannah is that there are no jobs, and it’s beginning to feel like there never will be any more jobs. People are scared.
Didn’t CA get loan guarantees from the feds? Something not available to other states.
Fortunately, there is already a border fence to prevent Americans from crossing illegally into Mexico in search of jobs.
I wonder what would happen if the Federal Government spent too much on job creation/stimulus? Is that a dangerous act? Would its effect if negative, be reversible?
Would that overstimulate job growth, and cause massive deflation? Or could we just refund the excess, if any, and apply it to the Deficit.
I think you forgot to close your snark tag.
Actually, the government has already passed a job stimulus package in the guise of supplemental defense spending. All people need to do is enlist to begin receiving their portion.
Dept Labor Stats/Graph
Shows a drop line from ’94 to ’02 and yep, that was my most productive earnings years in my life.
A rise in ’02 to about ’04, when I was getting laid off a few times, and I was watching first hand in the hydroseeding business (admin asst>) from Sept ’03 forward as the housing industry crashed, building stopped, and projects with dirt moved to the horizon all OVER the 5 county region stopped dead in their tracks.
Some down tick ’04 to ’06 but not much here in my five county region, and then, up the graph goes, doubling unemployment from ’06 thru ’09.
So, const. labor, admin, management all crashed, suppliers retail and wholesale crashed in THEIR fields, TRUCKING crashed (I switched in ’05 to trucking recruiting and watched THAT crash for a year and a half), all the services the trucking industry provided or required (repairs, sales, leases, gasoline, etc.) crashed.
And let’s consider these stats don’t include chronic unemployed no longer looking cuz they gave up hope since ’03 or so, they don’t include off and on chronic un and under employed since ’03, and they don’t take into account loss of wages from say, $40K+ annual to $7 an hour part time . . . un and under employed in CA?
Huh, 25% would be my guess, 30% if you factored in all of the above I posit.
Right you are. It’s the only thriving part of the economy, and the outlook for 2010 and the future looks even WARier.
Interesting. Georgia, compared with California, has an almost identical graph, just a bit lower.
?
Did any one watch Rachel take down Glenn Beck??? Sizzling!!
That’s a polite way of saying “You’ve GOT to be kidding.” Spend TOO MUCH? Riiiight….
Don’t know what you mean, I DO know that Gov Schwanz argued for Fed Bailout for the LARGE amount CA contributes to Fed Coffers, but didn’t get it.
It’s the ONE thing he ever did that I supported.
We’ve carried the nation for decades, and now, we get nothing back for our greater shares of contribution to fed coffers tax revenues wise.
A More Clear Picture Of The Story
That’s A Game Material right there that is, hoss . . *G*
I’ve been flipping between the Olympics and Westminster Kennel Club. But I’m drooling now! Here’s hoping it pops up on tomorrow’s morning swim.
Yer pretty sharp, there, Marion . . ;-)
I agree for the short term. We can’t put people on the fed payroll forever. We have to rebuild our manufacturing base so we can put people to work actually producing commodities here, not overseas. If they can loan trillions to the banks they can loan employee-owned companies the money to build small industries. We have to start from scratch. The corporations are not going to reopen their factories. We have to open our own.
I’ve been known to sharpen my claws, but only when I feel it’s necessary!
I know I know… hard to watch it all at once… sigh.. & LOST is on later…
It’s not nice to fight with a toddler.
Wrong, ratfood. There are lots of Americans in Mexico and Panama (and probably other countries I don’t know about) working in construction related industries.
No work here, they go to developing countries. Not that this is a bad thing, the Americans bring expertise to other parts of the world.
I’m too old, too ugly and not deferential enough to authority.
Where I Borrowed The Phrase, She’s A CA Gal, And Was GREAT On Air Radio Locally In Her Time
Yup! Beautiful!
But the Serious People worry about the deficit, not jobs.
That IS interesting, nice touch . . . CA of course, in terms of individual numbers of people, dealing with millions and Georgia with much less . . . but the patterns are eerie similar aren’t they . . . hmmm. Thanks for sharing!
Obama spent trillions to save the banks and now wants to spend $80 billion on a jobs bill? And oh by the way, he wants a secret commission to reduce people’s ssi and medicare benefits. Is this what they teach you at Harvard? Fifty two percent of the public does not think he deserves reelection, I am surprised that it is not higher. Obama is not a leader, he shldve stayed in the senate where his type of do nothing achieve nothing politics flourishes. I predict he is going to make history by winning and losing the presidency by the highest margins ever. I dont care how well he gives a speech the American people are becoming more aware of how totally incompetent the man is. The only thing he does pretty well is order drone strikes to kill muslim women and children. What a joke.
President Obama is coming to Savannah, but nobody seems to know why… Inquiring minds and all that. I’ve heard speculation about all sorts of stuff, up to and including 2 new nuclear (sorry, new-kew-lar) plants… Inquiring minds are inquiring.
I’m reading 30% in a number of articles. I don’t doubt it for a minute.
It would be fascinating to do a comparison of all the states to California… Maybe someone who does a diary and has the time could figure out a way to show that to us.
I’m too old to be a smuggler again.
“Back OFF!!”
Just loved the way she put it… I bet it gets a rise outta the Beckster idiot!
Agreed on Phase Two, that’s got to come about 3 -5 years after 3-5 years of Phase 1 stim.
Of course, from Day 1, Phase 2 will be developed, and promoted, and marketed and sold for rachet up when and where ever possible . . . good stuff.
How come we can save the world and they won’t? Never mind, that rhetorical thang, ya know . . . *fistbump*
No I am not kidding. There is so much deficit hawking. I am seriously asking what are the negative consequences of too muchspending to stimulate job growth now. We know the truth about not spending enough. No job for you! No house too. Would investing too much in job creation be as devastating as not spending enough? If so, I am listening.
And if ya take into account in THOSE areas of 30% the numbers reported don’t include chronic un and under employed back thru ’03 or so, it’s higher than the 30%!!!!
Staggering.
Obama needs to restart the WPA. I realize that the times are different now but it had a startup of $4.8 billion. He could spend that 80 billion in lots of better ways.
And just who do you think will vote for too much spending to stimulate job growth?
It was a good line earlier today, it’s still a great line.
*G*
And I’m too old to be a cook/chef or work the line or do 16 hour days 7 days a week for ANY money.
*G*
Dood, was Beck actually ON RM’s show? I can’t believe he’d ever accept an invite . . .
LOL ha, me deferential to authority? Man, I wouldn’t get past the door.
“Awright, muthafuckers, do I stay E-6 or do I get promoted to E-7? Whadda you lookin’ at, Bootcamp?”
1) Why would ever think to ASK that question?
2) The meme behind the question (and asking it) is a typical GOP/Rovian Talking Point, hence MY disbelief you DID ask the question.
Cuz EVERYONE knows it’s a talking point.
That gentle and up front enough?
Heck, we funded the Union Army in the Civil War. (Why do you think they wanted us so much? Gold and mercury ….)
Learned some shit in Marseilles.
*G*
I couldn’t pass the purity test in ’71 had I been drafted, and I can’t pass it now.
And I’m NOT talking about drugs or sexual preference.
Think IT in 2001! Never has recovered…
France???? On the coast? That’s French Connection turf, wasn’t it?
How much would be too much?
I know people who have been looking for full-time (or even reasonable part-time) work for years. Literally. They’ve run out of benefits, they refinanced their house to get money to live on – just before real estate crashed – and they’re slowly circling the drain now. (They aren’t the only ones.)
I’d like to see some stats of how MANY were employed in IT versus trades, trucking, and such that tanked out begining in ’03 . . . I’d BET that IT was much, much less CA wide than other arena’s, who lost MANY more jobs.
I’m just guessing, perhaps as you are from that industry, you know?
Always interesting to flesh out who and how many of different flavors have been creamed since ’01 and such.
My friends, when looking for work, get told, ‘retrain for high-tech work.’
To which they answer, ‘I was in high-tech, and my job went to India. Got any more ideas?’
Yeppurs.
That might be a question to pose to eCAHNomics, who usually is around for morning swim. If she doesn’t have the answer she would probably know how to get it.
go ask Blue Texan why they don’t have to pay any political price for it, and he will tell you the One True Path is:
1) but the progressive lost with 11% of the vote, and trashed their career as a Party apparatchik in the process.
2) No Matter What! (goes without saying)
3) within the confines of More and Better Democrats, the path that has failed since Jesse Jackson’s primary campaigns in the 1980′s.
Persistent Ponyism, voting (D) no matter what, proudly announcing one’s permanent doormat status is “not going to get you where you want to go” either, obviously.
and, if you don’t waste your vote on a scumbag you can walk around with pride. priceless!
So I guess that move to Bangalore is out of the question? /snark
It’s not nice to fight with a
toddlerdrooling mongoloid.Fixed it.
Oh, it’s at least as bad, because there were so many jobs that never made it to the radar level: a lot of small programming companies (entertainment and websites), a lot of aerospace support companies, then there were the construction support companies (architecture and design and engineering and surveying).
I figure I’m lucky to have a job that pays me well enough – but there was one year I was in a job that paid a little less than it cost to live in my area. (And I was in a cheap place at the time.)
She may stroll by tonight, yet . . . often does . . . she loves here stats, for sure!
Got a job programming with a dot com start up in 2000. Bad timing. Jobs being outsourced to Russia first then India shortly thereafter. The venture capitalists weren’t gonna pay us when they could pay pennies on the dollar.
As I pointed out above, we need in the neighborhood of $1.3 trillion to $1.5 trillion a year in stimulus (spending not tax cuts) for several years to deal with our unemployment situation. We are not seeing anything like this. So your question doesn’t make much sense. Also you can modify both the monetary (money supply/credit) and fiscal (spending)sides as needed.
But if we were to accept your hypothetical, what we would see is increased inflation, not deflation.
jeebus…
scroll…
The U.S. needed an FDR who was fearless and it ends up with a Democratic version of Herbert Hoover. I predict he will be remembered as Mr. Bipartisan and not in a good way.
Who would vote on spending more, as necessary, to stimulate job creation NOW?
If too little spending does not work well enough, how can you propose that spending less, not more, is the logical choice? I wonder what there is to fearfearfear about spending more? I would not ask for more than is absolutely necessary. Go ahead, vote NO. I am sorry you think that way. I hope we can RECONCILE our differences soon.
Outside of Silicon Valley similar IT for IT’s sake, the number of IT support folks for any given other type of business was a handful per 100, one or two for 50 or less in a business . . . so, I’m not so sure about the comparisons, yet . . *G*
Your point WAS one I had overlooked, IT staff in other businesses. Thanks.
I’m here but too late for me to find links for data. If Larue reminds me, I’ll do it tomorrow.
The economy will begin to recover when demand goes up and demand will go up when people have jobs. It’s really rather simple but then Obama has to overthink it. Reminds me of a quote from Zorba the Greek, “clever people and grocers weigh everything.”
NO! Don’t! I’LL read your comments Newt!!!!!
*G* ;-)
According to conservatives/libertarians there should be countless opportunities in Somalia, a weak central government, no unions and totally unregulated markets. It should be a veritable Xanadu.
Thanks E, I’m out and about but back in late afternoon . . . thanks.
Um, any gut instincts?
Obama is the most tentative person I have ever seen. Bet he has difficulty choosing a tie in the morning.
I’m not saying spend less. I’m asking YOU who YOU think will vote for spending “too much.” Our current Senate? I laugh.
Bipartisanship is a pretty lousy idea when the other side is insane and determined to see you fail.
Saw you earlier, but thought maybe you had left. I’ll try to charge my mind to remember the thread and the question!
8th (previously) largest economy in the world…
Prop 13 did us in.
Maybe Rahm takes care of it for him…
Anybody had a chance to read the book, “Europes Promise”? Waiting for the release of “America’s Broken Promise.”
Interesting chart from ProPublica of state unemployment funds going down the drain.
Right. Any industry data would identify only those employed in IT industries, including the non-IT people in those industries. You might try just goggling hi-tech employment in U.S. and see if you can find studies. There’s some contact emails at BLS here. It’s the establishment data person you want. Just ask if there are data at BLS that measures whatever it is you want, or, if not, whether they know of any studies that do that. When I was working, I always found the contacts very helpful. I call them, somewhat unfairly but descriptively, data drones. When people show an interest in their data, they like it. There are also industry analysts whose contact info isn’t given. So if the person you contact doesn’t know, ask if you can get the contact infor for the industry analyst. A phone call might be better than an email, as you get other helpful clues, like tone of voice.
Yep, it sure laid to waste what Reagan hadn’t, state wise, as Governor. But then, Reagan got to clean up anything Prop 13 hadn’t done to us, when he took the Presidency.
Reagan ’67-75.
Prop 13, enacted ’78.
Reagan Pres. 89-88.
Hate him more than I ever hated Nixon. Took me a few years after ’88 to get there, but it was a steady climb of hate as Regean’s damage became more and more apparent over the years after he left office.
I worked for a publishing company doing pre-press art back then. They now keep a skeleton staff for customer relations and all the work (editing, page-layout, art, etc.) is done in India.
$1.3 – 1.5 trillion per year for a number of years is necessary but not possible because it would kill jobs and impoverish everyone with massive inflation? So, If not spending enough works a little, and overspending causes inflation and kills jobs. how much does the Federal Government spend?
hey eli & Pups.
as i mentioned earlier, I’m giving up cussin’ for Lent. seriously. So i have another hour and a half (EST). Between stuffin’ my face with paczki, I have to curse my ass off while I still can.
My Dem senator is a fucking douche. People don’t think he’s so bad because at least he’s not Ben Nelson. And the Repub guy is a scumbag. was supposed to be a place holder for Charlie “I’m Not Gay I Got Married Ya Know” Crist. But Crist might lose to teabagging piece of shit Marco “Polo” Rubio.
But more to the point of Eli’s post. With thee cold weather and the economy the tourists didn’t come. With The Great Frost, the citrus is dead. That’s it. That’s the economy, pretty much. This state doesn’t have a pot to piss in. The only thing that kept schools from closing last year was stimulus $$. The only thing that kept unemployment “down” to 12% was stimulus $$$. But the fucking shit-for-brains people who live here (present company excluded, of course) think the money fell out of the sky. Gonna be a rude awaking, folks.
Oh yeah, and Rahm is a dickless sack of shit.
So who are you rooting for Best of Show?
Now. Off to get some paczki.
I worked my tail off against Prop 13. One memorable moment back then was when I saw a brand new Jaguar- top of the line car- with a bumper sticker that said NO ON PROP 13.
I still want a Jaguar.
Work can be invisible if you’re not involved in it: I’m at a utility company, but I do GIS – computer stuff. We’re not what people would expect to find, but there’s a lot of IT/technical stuff in back rooms.
That’s some great sourcing for data, thanks for sharing, it’s bookmarked!!
We’re bankrupt!!! For UI, that is.
Wow, staggering, 20 million signed up and collected UI in ’09!
How many more exceeded bennies or stopped looking for work since ’03!!!
Could we be talking about 50-80 MILLION with chronic and long term un and under employed? Since ’03!???
Wow, what was the total of all employed in early ’03 nation wide compared to now?
Really hits it home, 26 states broke in UI. Allan, great stat source, thanks so much.
These numbers aren’t overspending. They are what’s needed and very doable. The inflation pressure, if this stimulus was structured sensibly, would not be that great. And much better than the deflation we are currently facing.
My old company just went under in 2002. IT died.. The Valley is still down iirc 100k+ jobs and the only IT jobs are SW engineering… Not running the whole IT house… all left for overseas..
As always, you know your stuff thru and thru . . .
I am only mildly curious, not enough to chase much . . . I might google a bit tomorrow afternoon just for a looksie.
Thanks for all the info, though!! Fodder for later research needs!!!
I’d Never Heard The Term, Or Known The Product
LOOKS GREAT!!!
*G*
I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for the doberman. Pretty, pretty little bitch. The whippet ain’t bad either. (Please, please, please don’t let it be the poodle…)
I am not asking anyone to vote for too much. I am failing at showing that to spend too little on job stimulus is very dangerous. We are living the real consequences of the Conservative throttle(choke-hold). Do we really know the results of a little overspending? How bad could it be? Fill it up with high-test!
Doesn’t it cut off automatically anyway? Or we can do it, I wouldn’t want to waste a drop.
Sure, in any industry that’s BASED or RUN on IT, like utilities.
But in comparison to the total of all jobs?
Still not sure what % any IT type job is amongst all jobs.
And I’m sorry, I’m not sure it really matters, I apologize for obsessing on it.
We’re all hurting, in all industries, in all states.
No need for me to nitpick if it serves no purpose to improve anything . . .
My bad.
The proverbial shit is going to hit the fan soon. Me, well I’m trying to hold on to my job like all the rest of capitalism’s wage slaves. Obuumer is diddling while everything is going down the shitter. You can feel it. The people in DC are clueless. Out here in the real world everyone knows it’s going to happen.
Our elites are the most incompetent clods on the face of the earth. I know some of you White House lackeys are lurking–so let me tell you something–you are doing a shitty, shitty job helping real people. You all should be fired if there was justice in this world!
The poodle is grotesque imo.
we’re bankrupt, too. and the assholes in our legislature can’t decide whether they should take stimulus money for extended bennies.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-unemployment-modernization-florida-20100212,0,3916185.story
and
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-florida-stimulus-spending,0,3672822.story
XKE. *sigh* They are so wonderful to drive.
I can only imagaine that any aid to states in the coming months will be tiny or nonexistent, unfortunately. I predict a lot of vague offerings of support to a state-aid package ‘sometime in the future’ in the manner of Harry’s recent comments.Everyone is supposed to have faith in the ‘free markets’ to create job growth instead of the states and their awful communist government jobs. And the impact of all those newly unemployed coming off state payrolls can drive wages down even further.
i don’t know anything about this. any beagles? or dachshunds? are they show dogs
Poodles are actually bright, personable dogs but that haircut… It’s a wonder they don’t bite their groomers! (I’m just sick unto death of ALWAYS seeing one poodle or another in the Best in Show ring…)
BoS: Scottish terrier.
A beagle won either last year or the year before. No doxie this year, but the Scottie won!
Yeah, I feel for folks with state leaders who claim they won’t take the money cuz government is evil and the deficit’s growing!!! They’d rather cut social safety nets, and murder the have nots AND the working class.
Poodle? Did somebody say poodle?
Is it just me, or are there other people who want to drown that stupid blonde bitch? What the hell is she doing at Westminster? I think she was the one yesterday who said (I’m not making this up, you know…) “I’ve never seen a bloodhound in person.”
You make me larf!
oooo, I like Scotties.
I’ve been watching it during commercials, so I’ve only caught part. I saw 3 different kinds of dachshunds: miniature, regular & 3 different kinds of fur. I didn’t see any beagles, but I’m sure there are. BoS are the winners from the different categories judged against each other. This is the first time I’ve watched, so I have no idea what the characteristics are. But when the dogs are being shown, the announcer gives some history of the breed which is interesting.
oh, yeah. the state found enough money to execute someone tonight.
pricks.
Gotta wear oven mitts for that one.
Phoenix Woman has Late Night, upstairs!
Late Night: Liars and Bad Romances
Ditzy. I haven’t seen her (only heard her), but if she’s blond, she gives new life to dumb blond jokes.
Them suckers are made out of rough leather. Little lion cub’d eat yer ass UP.
well, I could have done better but I’m done cussin’ for 40 days. Off to watch Rachel/TDS and eat my last paczki. Night everybody.
Rahm is a shiteating dickhead.
there. done.
To make it even more perfect, her name is Tiffany…
That’s a good article about infrastructure problems, Eli. There are plenty of things it didn’t even touch on, but there are many good examples. Things were neglected for so long in the name of making taxes lower that it’s going to take a long time just to repair or replace what’s already there. We also have many places in America that need new roads, or high-speed rail, or light rail, or buses, or, well all sorts of things. We could easily spend $100 billion a year for the next ten years and not get it all done.
Instead, we’re wasting that money on a military that’s too expensive fighting wars that aren’t necessary.
The Jobs Stimulus and Creation Act budget request for 2010 is $5.2 trillion beginning now and lasting through 1/30/2016. We will implement $900 Billion immediately. With $600 Billion to follow in July.
Not too good with breeds, but I don’t think that’s a poodle. ;-)
Late Night. Means it’s past my bedtime.
Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.
Namaste
Only sat in a couple in my time, both were the 6 cylinder models, one ’67, one ’69. This was in ’74 or so.
I Would Die To Drive THIS Puppy, Although I’m Partial To The ’67 Looks
“Het, Rahm, I saved yer life the other day.”
“Oh, yeah, how?”
“I ran off a shit eatin’ dog.”
I wouldn’t want to waste a drop.
Save some for tomorrow.
*tongue hanging out* *drooling* Oh for the vision and reflexes I had in those days. vrooom vrooom
Yeah . . . me too.
Be good to yer tree, it’s a new dawn to play with in the morn.
;-)
Some of the money could come from $1,000,000 fines per torture offense for each of those who desired to implement it and ordered it. Those that carried it out should have Suspended Sentences. All should have no pensions or benefits.
Yeah, I thought the wakeup call was the CEO talking about how he moved his operations to China because they had better infrastructure. What do the “America, fuck yeah!” people have to say about that, I wonder.
Where I came from, we just called them “jelly donuts”, unless they were filled with creme, of course.
Don’t know if SD’s still lurkin . . .
Always Wanted One Of THESE, With Full Carrera Outfitting!!!
*G*
Gotta dream large ya know . . . now, upstairs to grace and honor PW . . .
Probably bitching about the people who are leaving. Seems to be the common MO of people who are uninterested in actually trying to fix things.
There’s a tomorrow?
America is turning into the Black Knight from Holy Grail…
Never been a big Porsche fan. Don’t know what it is. Nice cars, though.
You’re right, think big.
Colour me gone. *poof*
I’ve never had the chance to drive one…
Please, guys.
Some things 1967 American will never be matched.
And I think we’ve gotten past the hopping on one foot stage …
When you wrote “1967 American”, I thought you meant this.
Jeebus, my folks had the wagon version of that car.
As a bonus, at the tender age of $%^&*, I drove it through their closed garage door.
They responded with a Renault.
“I’ll manufacture your kneecaps off!”
If only.
Another problem is that we need to get back into manufacturing before all the people who know how stop working. There aren’t nearly as many young manufacturing engineers as there ought to be, I’m pretty sure. I spent a career in engineering, and never did a bit of genuine manufacturing. It wasn’t a field with a future even when I graduated.
Be nice if the ‘free markets’ actually worked the way the politicians think they do.
13 trillion to Wall Street and ZERO to bail out the States.
Get out the butter, – Obama is Toast, and the American future lies in ashes.
The number of American Jobless is larger than the population of Sweden.
That is, if you will, a loss of Sweden’s GDP of 333 + Billion.
Tariffs. Raise Tariffs. They were virtually eliminated with Reagan. The bathtub plug was pulled back then. Japan and China protect their jobs with high tariffs and it worked pretty well in the U.S. until Reagan. In fact, tariffs funded the government for virtually the first 100 yrs of this country. If these gutless wonders in Congress would wake up and see what worked (not perfectly) in our past then maybe many of those jobs can return. I recommend Thom Hartmann books, for one, and his radio show (via internet if he is not on local station) or you can find him on free speech tv one hr. daily (easily recorded). He’s been educating me and motivating me to become involved i.e. start putting my congressmans feet to the fire (which is going to take time since he is unopposed).
There are no simplistic solutions but a combination if many good ideas would likely do wonders.
Regionalize, Localize, – Flatlanders go fuck yourselves.
Judging by their steadfast refusal to use it, you’d think being in power was the last thing Democrats ever wanted.
Yes, WPA and CCC style programs would be a great step in the correct direction.
There’s absolute horror stories in a bunch of states.
Listen to how one Utah Republican politician wants to close the state budget gap:
In Utah, a plan to cut 12th grade
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/15/nation/la-na-utah-school15-2010feb15
And oh, btw, tear up our globalized free trade system. We don’t need fortress America but I think every nation should have a 25% import tarrif to foster local development.
Yes we are toast. And it’s going to be mighty grim if employment isn’t returned to full well before the next Presidential election in 2012.
Our current level of unemployment is gonna push masses of people onto the street and kill them. Maybe that’s Larry Summers idea of solving the unemployment problem.
You obviously didn’t hear the nurse at a town hall meeting who responded to the statement that more than 30 million people are without health insurance, “That’s not so many.” She’ll worry when something affects her. Then we’ll all hear about it.