The Labor Department released its monthly employment survey today, and though the U.S. lost 11,000 jobs in November, that number was nearly 115,000 fewer than was forecast. The overall unemployment rate decreased, and the report found that nearly 160,000 fewer jobs had been lost over the last two months than had been previously thought. The New York Times called this "the strongest employment report since the recession began nearly two years ago."
Speaking at an event in Allentown, Pennsylvania today, President Obama explained:
This is good news, just in time for the season of hope. But I want to keep this in perspective. We still have a long way to go. I still consider one job lost one job too many. And as I said yesterday at a jobs conference in Washington, good trends don't pay the rent. We need to grow jobs and get America back to work as quickly as we can.The journey from here will not be without setbacks or struggle. There will be more bumps in the road. But the direction is clear. When you think about how this year began, today’s report is a welcome sign that there are better days ahead.
This is good news, just in time for the season of hope. But I want to keep this in perspective. We still have a long way to go. I still consider one job lost one job too many. And as I said yesterday at a jobs conference in Washington, good trends don't pay the rent. We need to grow jobs and get America back to work as quickly as we can.
The journey from here will not be without setbacks or struggle. There will be more bumps in the road. But the direction is clear. When you think about how this year began, today’s report is a welcome sign that there are better days ahead.
From OFA Director Mitch Stewart:
Last week, Republican Senator Jim DeMint tried to rally our opposition by declaring that stopping reform would "break" President Obama. Instead, hundreds of thousands of you rushed forward to stand up for enacting health insurance reform this year. Then last night, the President delivered a powerful prime-time address about why further delay is simply not an option, and even more support came pouring in. (Watch the highlights here). Now, we're on the brink of a major milestone in building this campaign: One million Americans publicly declaring their support for the President's three core principles for health insurance reform this year. Our goal is to reach the one million mark before Congress casts the first crucial votes as early as next week. This is just a first step of many we'll take together. But it will send a clear message that the American people will not stand for playing partisan politics with our lives and livelihoods -- and that we won't settle for anything less than the real health insurance reform America so desperately needs this year. Add your name to stand up for the President's three principles for real health insurance reform in 2009.
Adding your name right now will have real impact. Not only will you help us hit this key milestone, but we'll run the signatures we collect in local and national newspaper ads and present them in powerful displays at high-profile local events across the country in the crucial days and weeks to come. We're so close to a million because volunteers all over the country are reaching out online, door-to-door, on the phone and at public events in their community. And every time a new supporter stands up with the President, they in turn reach out to others and the movement grows. Less than three months ago, OFA launched our campaign for health insurance reform. In that short time, hundreds of thousands of Americans have joined in by:
This afternoon, President Obama will lay out a comprehensive regulatory reform plan to modernize and protect the integrity of our financial system. While the current financial crisis has had many causes, it is clear that the government could have done more to prevent these problems from growing out of control and threatening our overall economy.The President is scheduled to deliver remarks at 12:50 PM Eastern, and will be joined by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, representatives from the regulatory community, consumer groups, the financial industry and members of Congress. We'll have more coverage of the announcement later in the day.
Wherever you are today is a product of your old way of thinking and acting. Whatever result you have around you is a reflection, not just of your environment but also of your inner thoughts.
It goes without saying therefore that if you must move to a higher level and enter your wealthy place, your old way fo thinking has to be dropped for a new one. The quality of your thoughts and vision must be raised to the level where it can produce and handle the wealth...
When people meet you or interact with you there are conclusions they draw based on the wealth of what comes out of your mind. The strength to handle losses, the capacity to think broadly will be dependent on how your mind has been trained.
When (some) wealthy people with the right mindset lose wealth for example, they tend to gain it back because of the kind of habits and thought patterns they have formed. During a slow economic period in Asia, a gentlemen who had lost about 4 billion dollars as a result of having all of his stocks and shares wiped out, was seen a couple of days later playing golf. When asked why didn't he lose his mind and why was he playing golf, his remark/response was that he knew what he did to gain the wealth and he KNOWS what to do gain it back again.
-Matthew Ashimolowo
As A Man Thinks In HIS Heart... SO IS HE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cable news and right wing blogs are swarming with the revisionist history on the New Deal. Arm yourself against lies, spin and propaganda by reading info from a number of sources.
Here down a article about this topic. [Media Matters is a progressive media watchdog and fact checking organization which has received accolades from numerous sources (except the right wing media which often gets debunked by Media Matters).]
The link to digg it and for article: Conservatives Cherry-Pick 1930s Unemployment Figures
Summary: Columnists Mona Charen and George Will continued a trend among conservative media of responding to comparisons between the current economic situation and that of the 1930s and between Barack Obama and FDR by attacking the New Deal. In separate columns, both Charen and Will cherry-picked unemployment figures to assert that the New Deal did not reduce unemployment. But historians and progressive economists have noted that unemployment fell every year of the New Deal except during the 1937-38 recession; further, Nobel-laureate Paul Krugman has said it was a reversal of New Deal policies, not a continuance of them, that contributed to rising unemployment in 1937 and 1938.
Yes we can! Best wishes, Steffen
http://changeforbetterworld.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-way-to-say-goodbye-to-neocons-bush.html
Formal Petition to Attorney General-Designate Eric Holder to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in War Crimes.
It's amazing that Google, which offers easy to use programs such as Picasa, can make imbedding an image from a web album into a forum post so difficult.
Many who participate in photography forums embed images from their online photo galleries into posts. Typically it's a relatively simple process: right-click an image, copy the url and pastes it into a thread. That's it!
Not so easy with photos displayed in Picasa web albums, at least not at the time of the writing (Sept 2007). So, if you use web albums, here's what to do:
Note: In some forums you'll need to place IMG tags around the cleaned up url:
[img]URL[/img]
http://www.digicamhelp.com/blogs/random-thoughts/embed.php
You can Digg it: My_way to say GOODBYE to neocons, Bush and Cheney!
A picture from me to say goodbye from most bad president of US and all neocons.We can only hope many people will long enough remember. Bush had a lot bad gifts for the change! Let's take care the poor and normal people will not have to pay now too much after the rich made profit in good time!And what's with impeachment now?! What's with hidden knowledge of Sept. 11 2001?[ Maybe an explanation of picture: it's made like an "egg laying wool milk sow" a metaphorical-idiomatic term in Germany]
Yeah, and here you can see something new about neocons were bringing to us - for me to say: don't forgive Bush and neocons and there is still a lot to work of. We will and can do this too - Yes we can!I got now message too like "If anybody can clean up the mess bush left, it's President Obama." - Yes and Obama likes people helping still to do the work - help him! We were a big and strong movement and so people got knowledge back how strong people can be together! Whistleblower: Bush's NSA spied on EVERYONE (already 4255 Diggs) The NSA had access to ALL YOUR COMMUNICATIONS, regardless of who you were or whether or not you were communicating internationally.
next post in my main blog about "Change for better world" - here i collected some movies from this day and shortly before.
(And i saved it to hard disc too. If some original will not be longer responsible in YouTube i will bring it new.)
Please, ckick this link to see the movies:
The change - Obama Acceptance Speech - Change is come to America
[But of course - it's just beginning with the change, there is a lot to do. Please stay in touch, however we do that, through these groups or some other way. ]
I VOTED 22 Oct 2008 at the Main Supervisor of Elections Office!
I havd to wait
Dr. Duane Elihu Xavier
John McCain just made a speech in Miami Florida misrepresenting the Obama Campaigne! McCain also raised up the rhetoric of FEAR! McCain also stated Obama will be raising taxes on the middle class and specifying SPREADING the Wealth! McCain also said there was NO DANGER with Nulear WASTE!
Palin also spoke about ENERGY at a ENErGY group! The same old drill to lower oil prices!
To My Fellow American,
We environmentalist have been fighting long and hard the last eight years to make sure that our environment, the environment we will pass down to our children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren is still a good and healthy environment with nature given a chance to flourish and man right with nature because we are a part of nature.We environmentalist and conservationists are not anti business or industry. We need to work, and we also like to have our cars and other things that businesses and industries make and sell just like anyone else, but we have to sometime just slow down and stop and think, do we need to pollute that river or kill those animals or worsen global warming to help business. There are ways that we can help business and not harm our environment.
John McCain, it seemed like the last few years has seemed to change his attitue concerning the environment. Before 2000, McCain was a very traditional Conservative Republican Senator from Arizona. After losing in two thousand to Bush, he seemed to pull a different attitude especially towards the environment. He and Sen. Lieberman wrote a bill to help combat global warming. Although it was a weak bill it still was a bill to get things started. Lateley he seems to be going back to his old ways. The League of Conservation Voters lifetime score for John McCain is a low 24%. The best score he has recieved from that organiations was from the early 2000"s of 53%, which is not a great score either. McCain's stance on off shore drilling certainly doesn't say that he is a strong environmental advocate. McCain'sstance on nuclear energy is a little worrismoe too. Nuclear does not add any pollution to global warming there is always the concerns of a meltdown is always justified. If you asked anyone at the Department of Energy what are the chances of a meltdown, they might answer not as high as it was in the seventies with three mile island but it certainly isn't zero either. Plus the question of what we do with the spent fuel afterwards id a question that the answer is still being sought out. McCains is against the spent fuel rods from going through Arizona on its way to Yucca Mountain in Nevada. What does that tell you? I have my doubts about Nuclear. I am not against it, I just have my reservation about it.
Several months ago, John McCain, after recieving a big endorsement check from the oil companies, is when John McCain seemed to change his stance on the subject of drilling off shore 180 degrees.Therefore, I am taking everything that McCain says, especially on the subject of the environment, with a grain of salt.
Deregulation - wars - bank crisis - movie Bush without words
To look the movie you must go to my blog. Unfortunately the situation can still change to be more terrible and so movie is not fun like could be.
(If you have a chance give a Digg please.)
This is an incredibly powerful video. The person who created it would like it to go viral. I would love to see it on TV from MoveOn.org or such. Check it out.http://www.vimeo.com/1742831Also viewable on YouTube -- just search "True Leader" or click:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxx8VkM9Bck
PLEASE HELP THIS GO VIRAL!!! GOBAMA '08
The two defining musical influences of my life are Prince and Public Enemy; that perhaps gives you a framework - a lens - through which to view my thoughts. The more hopeful side - the side that sees the issues we face today but believes we can surpass them on the way to a brighter future, just sent the below series of thoughts - on themes I have posted about before - to the Obama/Biden campaign as part of that survey they distributed earlier this week. Herewith, my attempt to define the future:
I believe Energy & Transportation must be the core focus area for this upcoming Obama/Biden Administration. A focus here would yield benefits in to many other areas, that it announcing plans on a scale even greater than Eisenhower with his interstate highway program, should form the tent pole of your first 100 Days.
A sad day for Democrats. In the majority and do we win any new votes? NO!! Standing your ground would have won you volunteers. Backing down wins you nothing! The Republicans have solidified their base. We are chipping ours away.
The energy bill, passed with the support of most Democrats, would let states decide whether to drill between 50 and 100 miles off their coasts while allowing the federal government to open areas beyond 100 miles. Republicans opposed the bill, calling it a sham because it would not give the states any financial rewards for drilling and would ban exploration within 50 miles of shore.
The bill "is nothing more than hoax on the American people and they will not buy it," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.
The vote marked a tactical retreat by Democrats, who have fought each year since 1982 to renew the ban. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, fearing a backlash for her party in November with polls showing growing support for new drilling, agreed to lift the moratorium as part of a broader energy bill.
Pelosi hailed the 236-189 vote as a victory because the bill also included Democratic priorities such as stripping oil companies of $18 billion in tax breaks, renewing expiring tax credits for wind and solar, and requiring electric utilities to get 15 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020.
The measure "will put us on the path toward energy independence" and make "Big Oil pay for its fair share of our transition to a clean, renewable energy future," Pelosi said.
The bill faces a very uncertain future. The Senate is set to take up three separate energy bills, which differ sharply from the House measure. The White House issued a veto threat Tuesday, saying the House bill "purports to open access to American energy sources while in reality taking actions to stifle development."
Senate Republicans may choose to block action on any energy bill and allow the moratorium to expire on Sept. 30. If the drilling ban lapses, the Bush administration could begin the process of preparing oil and gas lease sales in new areas as close as 3 miles offshore.
Even if it became law, the House bill probably would have little immediate impact in California. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state Legislature adamantly oppose drilling. The Interior Department estimates that of California's estimated 9.75 billion barrels of recoverable oil offshore, 95 percent is located within 50 miles of the coast, which would be off-limits under the bill.
But Richard Charter, a longtime coastal advocate who works with Defenders of Wildlife, warned that a future governor or state Legislature could view drilling differently - especially if offered a share of oil royalties. "Governors change periodically. Florida elected a governor in (Republican) Charlie Crist who opposed offshore drilling and he changed his mind," he said.
The bill provoked a fierce debate on the House floor Tuesday, underscoring the huge political stakes for both parties. Republicans, who have seen their political fortunes improve by focusing on their support of drilling, said the bill was designed mostly to give election-year cover to Democrats, who fear being seen as anti-drilling.
GOP lawmakers noted that the bill would not offer states a share of the multibillion-dollar oil royalties, even though current oil-producing states such as Louisiana benefit from revenue-sharing. Governors and state legislatures are seen as unlikely to take the risk of opening up their coasts without an enticement.
"It's the equivalent of the government opening a Starbucks or a McDonald's franchise in the garage of your family home, but paying you nothing," said Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash.
Democrats countered that they could not offer states revenue-sharing without adding $40 billion to the deficit over the next decade. They also pointed out that by opening all areas beyond 100 miles to development, the bill would add more than 300 million acres that could potentially be leased to oil companies.
Democrats argued that Republicans were opposing the bill because it would revoke billions of dollars in subsidies to oil companies and devote the money instead to renewable energy.
"America needs an oil change, said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who chairs the House Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming. "They keep saying on the Republican side, 'Drill, baby, drill!' What we're saying is 'Change, baby, change!' and they can't change."
The bill includes other elements opposed by the White House, including a requirement that the administration release 10 percent of the oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and replace it with heavier, cheaper oil. It also would lift the federal ban on oil shale development, which expires Sept. 30, but allow the states of Utah, Colorado and Wyoming to decide whether to extract the energy in oil shale.
The House bill disappointed many environmentalists and some Democrats, who said it bolstered the GOP's claim that drilling could help bring down gas prices. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has concluded that lifting the moratorium would have no short-term impact on gas prices and an "insignificant" effect by 2030.
Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, one of only 13 Democrats to vote against the bill, said, "By advocating coastal drilling as part of the solution to our nation's energy woes, this proposal continues the myth championed by President Bush and Sen. McCain for months now - the belief that we can drill our way out of our nation's energy crisis."
In Bay Area: Half of voters in California, Oregon and Washington would agree to more offshore oil drilling but only accompanied by plans to protect the environment and develop renewable energy sources.
