More Bodies Fell And More Guns Sell

Twenty 6 and 7 year old children are killed by a madman wielding an assault style semiautomatic rifle and one of the results is an increase in gun sales, gun makers’ stock prices and membership in the NRA. It seems that longer funeral procession lines from mass shootings generate even longer lines to buy more guns. We may have a problem.

Many say that the spike in guns sale and National Rifle Membership was spurred by the prospect of a looming potential ban on certain guns and a weakening of the second amendment, but that is a smokescreen. The real driving forces behind the perverse relationship between the almost cause effect relationship between mass shooting events and gun sales increase are greed, selfishness and opportunism. The 2nd Amendment of the United States Constitution has become nothing more than a marketing slogan for those wanting to continue buying their favorite hobby guns and the gun lobby working to keep the sales of guns at a bubble level. The truth is that the current gun sales environment is like the real estate bubble that took the economy down when it burst.




It seems that the gun lobby may have won as more school districts are deciding to arm some teachers and even janitors. A huge new market is opening for gun manufacturers based upon the utterances from the executive vice president of the NRA, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” Those words and atmosphere of fear even have senior citizens that have never owned a gun before going to their local gun dealer to purchase a gun for the first time.

Think about the responses that the gun industry have when a mass shooting takes place anywhere in the country. Oh wait, what response have you heard from the manufacturers directly? What if products from other manufacturers were used to kill 20 children, would there not be a response directly from the manufacturers? Consider the NRA response to be the manufacturers’ response, buy more of our product to protect yourself from someone using our product. Isn’t that like someone arming both sides in a war that they are helping to prolong?

I have a gun that I have owned for over 30 years and it still works fine. Sanity is the real fear of the gun industry. We have well over 270 million guns in the United States and there are just fewer than 114 million households in the country. That means there are over 2.3 guns for every household in the country and not every household has a gun. If every household had one gun for protection and kept their gun as long as I have then there would be a far smaller firearms industry. Guns have undergone a transformation from useful tool to hobby item and now a campaign fueled by fear has created a new market of schools and senior citizens wanting to strap themselves with firearms because they fear a gun wielding madman may knock down their doors. The truth may be closer to what happened in New Mexico on January 20, 2013 when the teenage son in a family used two of the guns in the family home and killed the rest of his family. So are we protecting ourselves against the bad guy from without or arming the bad guy within our own midst.      

Second Amendment Misused By Gun Rights Advocates



Gun rights advocates have long distorted the meaning of the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution to justify their version of guns rights. The 2nd Amendment is clear, “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” There is no mention of the type of gun that could be owned.

The 2nd Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted in 1791 when a skilled user could manage to shoot and reload a musket 2 to 3 times per minute. Now the 2nd Amendment is being used to justify the need for civilians to own semiautomatic guns that can hold 100 rounds of ammunition and fire 45 to 60 times per minute or as fast as the shooter can pull the trigger. The 2nd Amendment says nothing about the of gun anyone can own, it just says you have the right to own guns. As for the word “infringed” that some gun advocates become unhinged over anytime gun regulation is brought up, it simply means “act so as to limit or undermine.”

The second Amendment deals with the right to own guns and no one has acted to limit our undermine the right of law abiding citizens eligible to own guns from obtaining them or limit how many they can own. When the word infringed is extended to mean that it also includes no regulations on the types of guns available for people to own, that’s where the misuse of the 2nd Amendment occurs. Guns are commercial products produced by companies that design, manufacture and sell them to the public. Guns are designed to launch a projectile into an object and cause damage, if that object happens to be a living being like a deer or person it causes injury or death. If government authorities tasked with maintaining public safety determine that a certain type of gun or ammunition feeding device is involved in excessive human injury or death, they have the duty to address the issue with legislation to protect the public. None of the current gun legislation or proposed changes “infringes” upon anyone’s right to go to their local Walmart, Gander Mountain or Cabellas and buy the available gun of their choice. Please don’t bring up how many people die in automobile accidents compared to firearm deaths because it’s a false comparison, cars are designed for transportation and those deaths result from accidents and bad decision making, not from intention. These shooting spree killers did so with a gun, not a car.




The 2nd amendment is a clear statement in what it means in regards to gun ownership, you have the right to keep and bear arms, period. The 2nd Amendment does not outline the type of guns you have the right to own. Guns are a product just like automobiles, food and drugs. Automobiles, food and drugs are all regulated to ensure that safe products are available on the market. Occasionally regulating agencies will require products that have proved to be a danger to the public to be removed from the marketplace by their manufacturers or move from off the shelf access to prescription required in the case of drugs. Guns are no different than any other product when it comes to public safety. There is nothing magical, mystical or sacred about any one gun type or ammunition magazine that makes it essential for a gun owner to possess.

Jared Lee Loughner was taken down during his shooting rampage in Tucson, Arizona when he was trying to reload his semiautomic handgun after his 33 round magazine was empty, but he dropped the second magazine and others on the scene took him down. What if Loughner had a 10 round magazine instead of a 33 round unit, that’s 23 fewer shots before he had to reload, could someone that is gone still be alive? Colin Ferguson methodically shot passengers on a Long Island, New York commuter train with a semiautomatic pistol in December 1993, he emptied and reloaded two 15 round magazines, when Ferguson tried to load a third magazine other passengers took the opportunity to tackle him. If Ferguson was limited to 10 rounds per magazine, would someone that was killed be alive because of 10 fewer shots fired? The 10 round magazine limit proposed is just common sense. Why does any recreational gun owner need a 100 round drum magazine on a civilian semiautomatic rifle like what was used by the Aurora, Colorado theater shooter. If 10 shots can’t handle what is coming at you in a defensive mode then it is likely that more rounds won’t be of much help either.

All of the noise against gun legislation is a smoke screen for the makers and takers. The manufacturers and gun lobby make money and politicians take money. Some gun owners just want to keep getting their favorite grown up toys that resembles the guns used by our brave troops on the battlefield. The sad truth is that we kill over twice as many of each other in the United States than the number of brave troops we have lost to enemy combatants during 12 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Something has to change.

Wasting Your Vote Is Wasting Their Blood

How many have died in wars, protests and random acts of suppressive violence in order to protect or enable your right to vote as you see fit. You may have blood from someone that paid the ultimate price for your right to choose elected representatives of your free will flowing through your veins, that’s why wasting you vote is wasting their blood.

The right to vote is exercised today like one is cheering on their favorite sports team against their long term rival. Rooting interests and emotions tend to override real introspection and projection about what certain policies actually mean over time. When it comes to national elections the atmosphere has morphed into a bizarre group think and the thoughts of the day are canned, approved and rolled out via electronic messaging technology. News figures, politicians and like-minded citizens all repeat the same talking points on cue when certain issues present themselves.



The American Revolution, Civil War, World Wars and Civil Rights movement did not take place to enable a kind of fantasy political league environment that we live in today. Many Americans of a certain generation view war through the prism of video games where the combatants rise from the field of battle with the push of a reset button, but fallen soldiers on the battlefield do not rise again because there is no reset button.

Those that have fought and died over the years to protect and enable our right to live in a democracy deserve for the current benefactors of their sacrifice to take their voting privilege seriously, because for them it was worth dying for and we just have to stand in a line.

Are Whites Voting For Mitt Romney Because He’s White

Does it sound like a crazy question to ask if whites are voting for Mitt Romney because he is white? Why does that question sound more outlandish than the often spouted supposition that blacks are voting for President Obama because he is black? John Sununu, one of Mitt Romney’s top surrogates, recently said that Colin Powell was endorsing President Obama because they are of the same race.

Until 2008 the issue of why any voter was voting for any candidate for President due to a racial preference never came up because al of the candidates had all been of the same race.  Now in 2012 it appears that the same question from 2008 is back again. In 2008 96 percent of black voters voted for Barack Obama. In 2000 Al Gore got 91% of the black vote. It’s is not like African Americans just began to vote overwhelmingly for Democrats for President.



Could the problem lie in the signals towards the black community emanating from the Republican Party that drives up the voting percentages for their opponents? The list is long concerning various acts and statements over the last 4 years that would cause one to ponder if certain groups were viewed as equally deserving to have their hands on the reigns of government power as others. The first sitting President in history that felt compelled to release his birth certificate to quell a circus of distraction just happened to be the first President from a minority group in the United States.

It never crossed anyone’s mind to ask if whites voted for Presidents Reagan, Clinton or G. W. Bush because of their race because the Republicans still only pulled a small percentage African American support. It does not seem to be race, but policies that are driving certain voting blocks away from the Republican Party. If blacks were not voting in large numbers for Republicans before Obama ran for President, then why is the fact that they still are not voting for Republicans suddenly due to the race of the Democratic candidate for President. Not only have the Republicans alienated the black voting community, they seem to be working hard to do the same thing with the Latino community.

The charge that many that support President Barack Obama are doing so because he is black is an easy way for supporters of Mitt Romney to pave over the lack of substance, position changes and other issues with their candidates campaign. By placing the opposition to their candidate on something as basic as race gives many an easy out to avoid any real scrutiny of the effect that the policies endorsed by Romney would have if they actually went into effect.

Obama’s Rope A Dope On Romney

President Obama must have taken his debate strategy from Muhammad Ali’s 1974 fight against George Foreman in Africa. Ali leaned against the ropes in the early rounds and allowed Fore to used his entire arsenal before coming back to knock Foreman out. Obama laid against the ropes during the first debate and Romney unloaded the kitchen sink. The second debate feature a different President Obama and he pummeled Romney.

I would have been almost impossible for President Obama to be as bad as he was during the first debate without trying. With Vice President Joe Biden taking the undercard fight against Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan the week before, Obama took on Romney and connected with shot after shot. Romney exposed his entire flip-flop and deny debate fight plan during the first debate. Every time Romney tried to slip away from a previous position President Obama would nail him with the facts of his prior position compared to his stated current position.

 

Romney was staggered several times during the debate. Romney may have coined a new phrase during this debate with his description of a “binder of women” when referring to his efforts to find women to work in his administration when he was Governor of Massachusetts. Romney took a George Foreman like haymaker swing at President Obama with his comments that the President did not call the attack on the American Consulate in Libya a terrorist attack when he made his statement the next day in the rose garden. Romney thought he had connected, but the referee told him he only hit a glove as the transcript showed that the President did label it a terrorist attack the first time.

The final punch may have been the best as the debate ended. As the final round was coming to a close President Obama hit Romney with a reminder to the nation about Mitt Romney’s comments about 47% of the country see themselves as victims. Romney bounced back against the ropes and was dazed. Romney wanted to take an swing, but bell rang and this round was over. The only thing President Obama didn’t do was drop the microphone on the floor and walk away in triumph.

Mitt Romney – The Sham Wow Candidate!

There are several definitions of the word sham. Two definitions are:

· A trick that deludes

· An imitation or counterfeit claiming to be real

During the first Presidential debate Mitt Romney Romney instantly changed and denied so many prior positions that he became the first sham wow Presidential candidate. The sham was perpetrated on the American public and he thinks he got away with it.

Is it enough to be willing to change your positions to suit every particular audience if that seems to play the best for that moment in time? Has the concept of voting for someone because of their core beliefs lost it meaning? If Mitt Romney becomes President while constantly shifting positions in full view of the public it will mark the beginning of a brave new frontier in election politics.

A Romney win will usher in the age of situational position policies that most will consider unlikely to be the way the candidate would govern if elected to office. Consider Romney’s tactics during the primary season when he considered himself a severe conservative in order to defeat his opponents. Romney saw an opportunity to use the leverage of a 60 million plus viewing audience to break the hold the conservative elements of Republican voters had on him. After the debate Romney went back and forth on issues like abortion from saying he would not seek legislation to restrict abortion to stating he is proudly pro-life within a 24-hour time span.

If Romney becomes President by using a shifting sands strategy he will throw the world of American politics into an era of say anything, do anything to win where substance and facts matter much less than presentation. A world where facts don’t matter would be a frightening place to live.

Don’t Make President Obama The Republican’s Garbage Man

The Presidential election is coming up in November. In October the jobless rate, the lowest in 44 months,  is back where it was when President Obama took the oath office. That means President Obama has cleaned up much of the prior damage done by Republicans, now they want to move back into the White House and tear things up again with the same behavior that destroyed everything the last time around. Don’t allow President Obama to be the Republican’s garbage man.

It is a tried and tested practice in business and politics for one group to destroy something and then get out of the way and hire someone else to clean it up while they point fingers from the sidelines. Once the turnaround artist has finished getting things back in order the old guard wants to take over again and claim credit for the good results that were created by the just disposed of fixit man.



What is taking place with Mitt Romney is not a new game, but event timing is not always in the control of those trying to replay this old scam. In 2008 the economy collapsed so quickly that it was not able to be pushed until Obama won the election and took office. It is a matter of record that the financial meltdown occurred under the Republican administration of President George W. Bush. Now it is also a matter of record that the unemployment rate is now back where it was when Bush left office under President Barack Obama.

Romney’s big claim is that things should be improving faster and that is a bold assertion from someone that wanted to allow the American automobile industry to go bankrupt. The Republicans knew that their brand was bankrupt and that is why we don’t see Chris Christie, Jeb Bush and the like at the top of the ticket. Romney was a functional selection and his primary opposition was near laughable. The one shot Republicans had was to embark on a four year campaign of obstruction, demonization and rooting for American economic failure to have a chance to win the Presidency in 2012.

It’s time for the shell game to end. One of the statements Romney made during his secretly recorded fundraiser speech was that the economy would improve when he became President without him having to do anything. Romney knows that President Obama has already set the United States economy on the right track and he just wants to be able to convince the voting public to put him in office so the looting of America can happen all over again.

This should be a new day when the person that did all of the heavy lifting to clean up years of damage to America is rewarded for his hard work instead of once again watching someone else accepting accolades for something he didn’t do. Unless we vote for substance we will allow President Obama to become the Republican’s garbage man.

Obama’s Debate Uppercut To Romney’s Glass Jaw



On October 3, 2012 the first debate between President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney took place and most pundits declared Mitt Romney the winner due to his animated retreat from prior policy positions. There was little talk of President Obama’s punch to Romney’s glass jaw when he got Romney to own changing Medicare. If the election is decided by Ohio and Florida then President Obama landed a devastating blow.



There was much made of the difference in styles between President Obama and Mitt Romney during the first debate. Many saw President Obama explaining issues with backup information from various sources and Mitt Romney making assertions without any credible or specific facts to support them. On the issue of Medicare the President got Romney to admit he supported Paul Ryan’s premium support/voucher plan. Romney then said that anyone currently on Medicare would not be affected, then President Obama looked directly into the camera and addressed the American people and said, “If you are 54 or 55 you might want to listen.” That was the segment of the debate where President Obama did damage to Mitt Romney with senior citizens and those within 10 to 11 years of Medicare eligibility. Romney now owns Paul Ryan’s Medicare voucher plan and took possession of it in front of millions of American voters.

America has become a reality obsessed television drama culture, but this debate was about swaying a small percentage of voters that are not already in one camp or another. Romney has to count on those on Medicare having an attitude that they would throw their children under the bus as it relates to voting someone into office that would change the program to a voucher system for their offspring that are in 50’s. That older and reliable voting block in Ohio, Florida and Arizona was paying attention to the substance and not theater. If you noticed, it was during the Medicare discussion that showed the President at his most attentive state during the entire night and he got the uppercut to Romney’s glass jaw that he was looking for all night.

Michele Bachmann Said She Lost Her Faith In America

 Michele Bachmann

After her Iowa straw poll victory Michele Bachmann told her audience, “You have restored in me my faith in America.” When did Bachmann lose her faith in America? Why was Bachmann’s statement not seized upon by the media like Michelle Obama’s, “…for the first time in my adult life, I’m proud of my country…” statement?

Michele Obama was the wife of a candidate for President while Michele Bachmann is an actual candidate for President which is much more troubling. Exactly when did Michele Bachmann lose her faith in America and was winning a straw poll the only thing that would restore it. That seems to be a huge alarm bell for someone wanting to be President of the United States. If Bachmann losses her faith whenever things are going bad and it is restored only when she wins, that seems to be a poor quality for someone wanting to be President during hard times.

The real issue is why was Michele Bachmann given a free pass by the press on her statement while Michelle Obama was demonized for hers? Is Michele Obama not allowed to say out loud that there have been times when circumstances had tested her pride in the United States from the lens she views the world through? Michele Bachmann must have had something terrible happen to her that caused her to lose faith in America. Please enlighten us Michele as to what caused you to lose faith in America and what caused you to rediscover it in Iowa.

Tea Party Congress – Time To Take The Keys

 Rep. Michele Bachmann - Leader of Tea Party Caucus

The Tea Party members of Congress have shown that they are not fit to lead and govern. These folks don’t understand the consequences of their actions and behavior. The very people that put them in office will suffer from the effects of the United States credit downgrade through possibly higher interest rates for everything.

Clearly the political dysfunction that Standard and Poors cited in their downgrade decision referenced how the once routine increase of the debt ceiling was held hostage for other purposes. Now that process may be par for every debt ceiling increase. Okay guys, learn to yield when the road gets to a suitable exit or hand over the keys before you drive all of us over a cliff.

Just like when families need to have conversations with a elderly relatives about giving up their car keys because they are no longer safe drivers, someone needs to have that discussion with the Tea Party Congress members. The Tea Party members flunked their governing test and drove the country into a tree and dented it badly. The United States is still functional, but we can’t risk having these guys continually grabbing the steering wheel when we are trying to drive through dangerous terrain.

Who can talk to this group? Speaker of the House John Boehner has shown that they don’t listen to him as he was rebuffed at every turn. Boehner finally had to enlist the help of Democrats in order to prevent the United States from defaulting on its debt obligations as the Teas Party members still voted no. Don’t count on Michele Bachmann to speak reasonably because scoring political points is more important than the country’s future. Mitt Romney will only speak after the dust settles so that he knows what plays best. It’s really like parents laughing at the bad behavior of children a calling it cute as they vandalize the neighbor’s property.

The reasonable Republicans are staying out of it and will allow the extreme element to implode from their own intransigence. Hopefully the United States can survive this experiment in roadblock and hostage taking politics ushered in during the 2010 elections.

S&P U S Credit Downgrade – Warning On Investigation?

Should the world trust a downgrade of the credit rating of the United States from a credit rating agency that helped put America into its current financial condition by giving prime credit ratings to bundles of subprime debt trading instruments? The implosion of the mortgage backed security trading business wrecked the economy.

Now one of the credit rating agencies downgrades the AAA rating of the United States citing the political climate as one of the reasons. Excuse me, aren’t you the same guys that stamped your seal of approval on what turned out to be a near pyramid level debt instrument called Collateralized Debt Obligations consisting of bundled home loans both prime and sub-prime? When the dominoes fell, credit froze and jobs along with retirement accounts values melted away like butter. Some asked how these risky instruments earned the highest rating from agencies like Standard & Poors.

The United States Department of Justice is curious as well and so is the SEC. Now this credit rating agency seems to be acting out by not only downgrading the credit raring of the United States but also telegraphing other dire things that may come. Is this the big showdown? I will not just hold your credit rating hostage, but I will hurt you badly if you mess with me.

An article titled SEC investigates role of ratings agencies Moody's and Standard & Poor's aheadof the financial crisis  August 7 by Richard Blackden details how the SEC is looking into the role of credit rating agencies in the mortgage backed security collapse.

Maybe the real question is, given the mortgage backed security credit rating debacle, when will the credibility and power given to the credit rating agencies be downgraded?  

Land Of The Free And Home Of The Deadbeat?

Land Of The Free And Home Of The Deadbeat? Is this the new world wide label that the Tea Party wants Americans to be known by if a default takes place. "Mama, look it's one of those deadbeat Americans" the child told his mother as he pointed to an American tourist after the United States defaulted on it debts. Wake up, get the debt ceiling raised and argue about everything else later.

This is what takes place when a group of people are elected to Congress who don't know the difference between talking points, campaign slogans and doing what is in the best interest of the United States. When a group of politicians that represent a small percentage hold the hard won sterling credit standing of the United States hostage over ideology and pledges, we have truly entered the twilight zone of political insanity.


 Some of those that would be hurt the most are the very citizens encouraging their Tea Party Representatives in the House to not vote to raise the debt ceiling. If a default occurs, interest rates on loans and credit cards will increase and a tax increase on everyone will take place in the worst way.

Wake up! We don't have to be known as "deadbeat Americans" so why would we choose to be so.   

New Demand, Old Workforce, Not Enough Jobs Ever Again

There is an ugly truth about the job market that economists and politicians will not speak. The United States and the world will never need as many workers as it has in the past to supply more than we could ever buy or consume and with almost everyone in the modern workforce, this is a huge problem. The solution is a global lower standard of living.

Automation has enabled a far smaller workforce to produce huge quantities of goods and services that called for multiples more workers in the past. Everything from automatic teller machines, automatic car washes to personal computers remove job positions from the workforce. One example is a sales division of a company that 15 years ago had an administrative assistant for each sales team that would prepare proposals, presentation materials and take messages. Now sales people use software tools like Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word and connect their laptop to a projector to do a presentation. An automated voice response answering system takes messages and the need for the administrative assistant is gone.

Many offices now have an empty desk in their lobby where a receptionist once sat. Often a sign with a list of extensions to call if you need assistance sits alongside a telephone. The combination of personal computer software and automated answering technology has eliminated a huge number of jobs forever. The same thing can be said of factory automation where robots do almost everything with humans often connecting subassemblies built by machines and performing final quality inspections. Millions of jobs have been permanently eliminated by industrial automation.

The other issue is the size of our workforce. Almost everyone is seeking employment. Most suburban neighborhoods are ghost towns during the day because everyone leaves to go to work. There was a time when a married couple would have a stay at home parent if one of them earned enough to support the family and provide a comfortable lifestyle. There have always been situations where both the husband and wife worked out of economic necessity and that was the norm. Something changed and the workforce ballooned when the norm became that the earning capability of a husband or wife was not the determinate of whether both worked. The expectation was for both members of a marriage to get jobs and work.

Social factors like a low rate of marriage and huge divorce rates create social insecurities that drives everyone to work because the thought of being suddenly alone without marketable job skills is too big of a risk.

The expectations of career goals, earning’s growth and enhanced lifestyle changed the definition of what a comfortable lifestyle entailed. Increased consumption from dual high income households combined with the use of credit by everyone fueled an outsized demand for everything from electronics to homes. This inflated demand masked the fact that normal demand could not support our work force.

The financial crisis ripped the scab off the real issue of the workforce and demand imbalance. Many consumers retreated back to an earlier model regarding buying goods and services. We had been on a “just get it if you want it” economic model and suddenly switched to a get it if you absolutely need it mentality. The days of replace it if it’s broken have replaced getting the hot new feature such as a 3D television when your current television will still last for years.

At the same time demand crashed, people ready to exit the workforce through retirement came back in because many had their retirement savings gutted by the stock market crash during the last part of 2008. The combination of low demand and swollen workforce creates a nightmare scenario that unfortunately may be solved by a painful descent into a generally lower standard of living for millions of Americans. We are now dealing with something closer to the real economy, but it happened so suddenly that there was no adjustment period, just pain for many.

Republicans Will Crash America Before Raising Taxes On Rich

Republican John Boehner - Speaker of the House

Let me get this right, the Republican leadership seems ready to see the United States default on its debt obligations before they would raise taxes on the rich to help bring the deficit down. If you listen to the Republican leadership carefully, they are saying that they can't get a tax increase on the rich passed because they don't have the votes.

This means that the pledge signers and tea party faction has the ability to ruin the economy even more because of their loyalty to a position over what seems to be logical, increasing revenues. I think their stance is starting to really sound odd to the public at large. The response that come from Republican House of Representatives and Senate leaders to any suggestion of raising taxes on the wealthiest among us makes it seem like the suggestion of such a thing is a mortal sin.

Has there been an explosion in the number of millionaires and billionaires in the middle of this economic downturn? That must be the situation. If the wealthy are suddenly the majority voting block then maybe the way Republicans are throwing their bodies in front any effort to increase taxes on the rich could be rationalized, but that is not the case. The bold and brazen calls by elected Republicans to make cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and increase the Social Security eligibility age while refusing to even consider tax increased on the wealthy are shameless. What is really going on here?

It seems that even many of the people that voted the Republicans into office are starting to question a group that came up with a plan to end Medicare as we know it while also saying that higher taxes on the wealthy is unthinkable.

As the clock ticks it seems that special interests have won a crucial victory. The new GOP battle cry is not keep you government hands off of my Medicare, but keep your government tax increases away from my rich friends.

Unemployed But Not Destroyed & 911 Country Down

I went to work today for the first time in over one year. That statement illustrates the depth of the nation’s problems. Educated, experienced and willing workers can’t get jobs in the United States and some can’t even get a face-to-face interview.

In light of going through this journey across the desert, I have written my 13^th and 14^th written works. Unemployed But Not Destroyed is for everyone out there who is absolutely confused, disgusted and perplexed at the state of the economy and job market. Companies seem to be sitting on mounds of cash and are hiring more workers abroad than in the United States.

How do you maintain your dignity during long periods of unemployment? How do you react to those accusing the jobless of being lazy, unmotivated or even needing drug testing? How should the unemployed feel about those who accuse them of riding on the public dole by accepting unemployment benefits? There are ways to respond to all of those attempts to pile guilt onto those unexpectedly thrown into this extremely harsh job market. Ironically many of those hurling insults helped cause the problem in the first place.

911 Country Down is a quick examination of the current state of the United States of America. We have companies with massive cash reserves that won’t hire. We have politicians that are more concerned about the needs of special interests than of citizens that voted them into office. Elected officials and special interests that fund their campaigns have turned politics into a two party reality show complete with point scoring. Many of us participate in our own misery by continually falling for the pick pocket and distraction games. Distractions such as hot button social issues, crazy Presidential birth certificate theories and double-secret hidden religious agenda nonsense allow the collective American pocket to be picked and send upward to the richest among us.

Government is being demonized all across the country as being something undesirable and many are buying into the narrative. Stop. This is just a preparation to transform everything from our public schools, roads and Social Security system from service based to profit making concerns. In other words the carving knife is out to slice up the spoils and pass them out to business interests as rewards for filling campaign coffers with cushy positions waiting for them in the newly privatized former government run systems.

911 Country Down – How to Fix America is value priced at $.99.

Some are fixated on assigning blame. I only have one thought for you to consider. If your car is in the ditch do you blame the tow truck driver trying to pull you out or the person that ran you off of the road?

9.1% Unemployment, Disposable Workers And Where Are Job Creators

One Year Unemployed Anniversary Let Them Eat Cake

Well the jobless numbers are in for May 2011 and the rate increased to 9.1% . When will the job creators use their continued tax breaks to hire permanent employees because there is a growing trend afoot in the United States and it is the age of disposable workers. Disposable contract workers do little to get the economy back on a solid footing.

There is a constant refrain of it is not good to raise taxes on those that would be creating jobs. We are waiting for the trickle down; the Bush tax cuts for the top income levels have been in place for years and should have trickled down in the form of permanent jobs by now. There is a new and not often talked about trend out there in the job market, disposable workers. This group of disposable workers is not the gathered on the roadside ready to do a short term construction job, but are computer programmers, project managers and recruiters. Just about every career disciple you can think of from engineers to architects is often hired on a contract basis.

Some contract workers find themselves working on 3, 6, 12 or 18 month contracts and often without medical benefits. Some job seeking network groups will see the same people cycle through 3 or 4 times after their contracts end or even before the terms are up. The reason companies are doing this is because they don’t have to count these people as part of their workforce, provide medical benefits or contribute to retirement plans. Often contract workers actually work for another firm and their paycheck comes from someone other than their work location company.  

The catch 22 for a contract worker is they answer to the powers that be of the contracting firm and the feedback from that company can get them dismissed for almost any reason. Since the company that pays the contracted employee is basically just supplying labor there is very little push back when someone is said not to be suitable for a particular task.

Can someone with a 3, 6, 12 or 18 month job outlook purchase a new car or home that has a 5   to 30-year loan commitment? It is not likely that a contract worker will be able to or want to enter into a long term financial commitment. The continued uncertainty caused by high unemployment, temporary employment and underemployment will continue until job creators start hiring permanent workers.

People with permanent jobs think, act and spent on a long term basis. An article by Gallup places the combined underemployment and unemployed rate at 19.2%. That means that almost 20% of the workforce is not participating in the economy on a normal basis. A video produced by CNN titled Barely Getting By On ‘underemployment’ shows the effects of the issue.  

So exactly what is going on here? The recession allow companies to clear the decks and now many bring in professionals to work on a project basis just like a fast food joints brings in extra help for the lunch rush and then sends them home. The extra profit from this type of labor management goes to bonuses, acquisitions or international expansion. From a long term standpoint this is a worst case scenario because it creates an environment of zero loyalty and is a race to the bottom because the employer and employed are engaged in short term behavior. The employer is planning for profit and the employee is planning for survival.

The January 2010 Day That Osama bin Laden Watched Television

 Video of President Obama That Was On bin Laden's TV

Enlarged Image

Osama bin Laden watched television during one day in January 2010 and decided to record himself watching old footage of his prior adventures. There was one quick image that flashed across his television screen that gave away the exact date the video was made.

As Osama bin Laden went from one recording of himself to another there was a slight glimpse of an image that flashed across the screen. That image was of United States president Barack Obama stepping up to a podium to make an announcement. If that brief image is frozen it becomes fairly clear.

By freezing that image and searching through video images of events at the White House on the White House website, the date that Osama bin Laden made that video became clear. The lineup of people to the right side of President Obama matches that of when he announced the Volker Rule for financial institutions which was on January 21, 2010. The link to the whithouse.gov video that shows the image and date is located here

So Osama bin Laden, the most wanted man in the world, casually channel surfed by President Obama who would issue an order less than one year and a half later to remove him from his hideout in Pakistan.

Misplaced Anger Over President Obama Getting Osama bin Laden

President Barack Obama

There are posts all over internet forums bordering on defending Osama bin Laden in zeal to make what President Obama ordered to be seen in the least favorable light. Some are asking if bin Laden's killing was legal, was a defenseless man shot etc, stop it.

The goal was to get this man that killed thousands of Americans and it was done. Just because some don't like the President that ordered it should not matter. It seems that the prospect of Osama bin Laden being alive and free is preferable for some of the Obama detractors, if that is the case, it is pathetic.

The latest talking point is the say that President Obama was just following the lead and used information from President Bush. It is obvious that this was a blow to the gut to some of those opposing President Obama that bin Laden was taken out in such a bold way and our Special Forces did it without any loss of American lives.

Osama bin Laden was an enigma sitting out there that seemed to be untouchable. He was behind the death of thousands of all faiths, races and political affiliations. Our way of life was affected due to the actions of bin Laden. The terror alert system and the way we travel were touched by his actions. Even our current financial situation was in part caused by bin Laden. The expensive ten-year war in Afghanistan was a direct result of the attack on the twin towers on 9/11.

Osama bin Laden is gone and we should all be together as Americans as one that caused so much pain is no more.

Blackout – Black Unemployment Rate Rises As Overall Rate Falls

 Empty - Ghosts of The Middle Class

Sometimes statistics speak louder than shouts from rooftops. Cheers went up as the March 2011 jobless rate fell from 8.9% to 8.8%. Hold the celebrations unemployment rate for black increased from 15.3% to 15.5%, almost twice the 7.9% of whites.

What is going on in the face of celebrations surrounding the number of jobs being created and an unemployment rate that has dropped to 8.8% from 8.9% the month before, blacks seemed to be left off the party invitation list. Hispanics have little cause to be raising their glasses for a toast as well. The unemployment rate for Hispanics fell from 11.3% to 11.1%, but it is the unemployment rate among blacks that is totally disconnected and going against the tide.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics report lists the rates for blacks, whites, Hispanics and all other groups in the United States. Even inside the black community the pain is unevenly spread. Black women had a drop in their unemployment rate from 13% to 12.5% while black men went from 16.2% to 16.8%.  Let’s not gloss over the gap between black men and black women with a 4.3% more of an unemployment percentage among black men.

Let’s get away from percentages and get into how many people this represents. The tables state that 7,923,000 black women are employed compared to 6,758,000 black men. That means that 1,165,000 more black women have jobs than black men. On the flip side the number of unemployed black women is listed at 1,127,000 versus 1,361,000 black men. There is a quirk in the numbers that show fewer black women have jobs than before. The number of black women that were employed in February was 7,993,000 compared to 7,923,000 which are 70,000 fewer jobs and the jobless rate went down for black women. You may ask how fewer working black women mean a decreased in the unemployment rate, it is because so many gave up looking for work and were not counted in the numbers.

The participation rate for black women went from 63.1% to 62.1% and that caused the rate to decrease even though 70,000 fewer black women had jobs. Black men actually had an increase in the number holding jobs from 6,745,000 to 6,758,000 which is 13,000 more jobs and the jobless rate among black men went up because the participation rate went up from 68.2% to 68.7%. Simply speaking, more black men looked for jobs and the jobless rate went up due to math.

So, what is going on? Blacks don’t seem to be included in this slow recovery and what does it mean for the long term future of the black community. The unemployment rates reported are always lower than reality. What is the rate if part-time and underemployment are factored in. Where are the crisis level emergency outcries, because as we speak, decades of economic gains in the black community are being destroyed?

Breitbart Says Presidency ‘beneath’ Sarah Palin, She Should Be Like Oprah

Sarah Palin

Andrew Breitbart, of the Shirley Sherrod saga, stated that the White House is ‘beneath’ Sarah Palin and she should become like Oprah and become a king maker for 20 years.

Before you grab your reading glasses, an article titled “Andrew Breitbart says White House 'beneath' Sarah Palin” by Jed Rosche March 23, 2011 and published in the Politico detail Breitbart’s complete statement. Let’s really examine the thought process behind the thought. Being Preisdent of the United States has always been thought of as one of the ultimate achievements available on the planet. There is only one President as a time, the maximum term is 8 years and awesome responsibility rest on this person’s shoulders.

Being a powerful media figure like Oprah Winfrey is also a lofty achievement and Oprah is the one and only of her kind. The real question is whether Sarah Palin could be either President of the United States or achieve the media status of Oprah Winfrey. To become President requires an appeal to and support from an electorate beyond a small core of fervent supporters. To become Oprah Winfrey requires and appeal to and support from the public beyond a small core of fervent supporters. Wow those things seem to be astonishingly similar.

According to the Politico article, Breitbart’s dream Republican Presidential ticket for the 2012 election is Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and Florida Congressman Alan West.