Americans now compete/grovel for low wage and shitty jobs

One more sign of how much “better” things are getting while our government laughingly imagines that Americans can’t wait to get bank credit to buy another house and a new car:

LEWISTON, Pa. — The growing ranks of unemployed Americans are turning to the traditional fallbacks — retail, restaurants, customer service — to ride out a rough economy. The bad news is job openings there are growing scarce, too.

Widespread “trading down” is sparking a fight for low-wage jobs that employers once struggled to fill. Mark Hall, 24 years old, of Alexandria, Pa., lost his $12-an-hour gig as a videographer when his employer folded and is now looking for anything to make ends meet.

And as our elected officials prattle about how every American should be able to get a four-year degree, whether they have any brains or not:

“Finding a regular job, not even in my field, is very challenging,” said Mr. Hall. “Even working for Lowe’s, I’d settle for that, and I have a four-year degree.”

…….snip……

Despite what objectives they may have put atop their resumes, when asked to describe the work they really wanted, the job seekers largely had the same goal: “I’ll take anything right now.”

In many cases, that desperation means that even educated workers must trade down to jobs below their potential and with lower pay. That results in painful, long-term effects, from hurting their own career advancement to displacing those with less education or experience.

So basically, it won’t be long  before you need that freshly dumbed down four- year degree just to sell hardware at Lowe’s.

All of this while we anticipate yet another major hike in the cost of heat and light with the Bomb Shelter and Y2K scare of the 21st Century known as Global Warming. But not to worry. Homeless people don’t have to worry about utility bills.

But don’t worry, Comrades. Nancy, Harry,  Tim and Barack are going to fix everything. They are going to fix you  good.

On a “Lighter note”, it does look as though The Onion was right. Promises kept. Thanks for reminding me, DE.

Blue Dogs resist cap and trade, so Harry is looking for a sneaky way to do it anyhow

The smarm on Capitol Hill and  their disregard for the people of the USA is just never-ending. The People no longer have any say whatsoever. They are prisoners now.

At this very moment, Harry Reid is considering passing the budget with the cap and trade intact using “Reconciliation”.

Reconciliation is basically a sneaky way to get something passed when you don’t have enough votes, even if you are the majority.  Harry is looking to pass this mess using a simple majority instead of a two-thirds vote. In other words, The People be damned and Screw The Whole Lot of You. You can all just eat shit and die as far as Harry is concerned. And you probably will when these people get done with you.

Congress is rumored to be considering passing a cap-and-trade plan through budget reconciliation, which is a process that is only completed if there are special instructions passed in the budget resolution and requires a simple majority, rather than a 2/3rds vote to pass the Senate.

Unfortunately, this action sets a very low bar for a high-cost, big-government bill such as cap-and-trade, but fortunately the Blue Dogs, a group of fifty-one fiscally conservative House Democrats, have warned that the reconciliation strategy is a bad idea.

The budget reconciliation “is utilized when Congress issues directives to legislate policy changes in mandatory spending (entitlements) or revenue programs (tax laws) to achieve the goals in spending and revenue contemplated by the budget resolution.”

This is no longer “rumored” or a “consideration”.

It’s real.

Harry is manipulating the system in the Senate right now as you read this. It’s happening today.

Cap and Trade will be a financially devastating thing to every American who turns on a light switch. The taxes and fees attached to energy use and, in some cases, even the purchase of something that requires energy to make it, will be outrageous. This will not only affect whether or not you can afford to be warm or live with light. It will affect the cost of food and other necessities.

The Bald-faced Lie of No Taxes for the middle class will ring hollow when people see what this is going to cost them every single day. They aim to get it out of your hide another way. This is a financially crippling thing to do to people who are already struggling just to pay their energy bills. The Global Warming fanatics are going to make it so that people can no longer afford to stay alive if this kind of thought process keeps up and goes unchecked.

It all reminds me of the bomb shelter scare, the Y2K bullshit and Chicken Little all rolled into one. It’s very profitable for certain people though, including and especially Al Gore, who incidentally left a number of his own house lights on during Earth Hour, while expecting the rest of the world to go dark. Trust me, he can afford the cap and trade costs attached to his utility bill.

As you are reading this, the Reconciliation threat is unfolding in the Senate. You should tune into CSPAN and take a look at your senate leader trying to shove it up your nose while his hand is in your wallet.

In the meantime, the Blue Dogs are not pleased and are meeting right now.

One concern surrounds cap and trade, which the Blue Dogs contend pits regions of the country that have plentiful renewable resources against regions that produce traditional energy resources, such as coal. He said Blue Dogs oppose using reconciliation for cap-and-trade to ensure fairness. House and Senate Democratic leaders and the White House this week said it remains an option.

Moderates in both parties have voiced doubts about the cost of the program. Democrats from industrial and coal-producing states hit hard by the recession, such as Michigan and Ohio, fear that a cap-and-trade bill will fail to include provisions to keep new, green jobs at home.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) has gathered a group of 16 industrial and Rust Belt state Democrats to try to limit any potential economic damage the proposal could wreak on their states.

The Republicans actually stopped worrying about how everybody else lives long enough to join in as well.

Republicans, meanwhile, have questioned the revenue projections included in the budget for the proposal.

Sens. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who last year supported climate change legislation sponsored by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and former Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), voiced concerns about Obama’s proposal.

“President Obama promised a middle-class tax cut, but what he didn’t tell us was that he would pay for it with a climate tax,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said in a statement. “This is a major sleight of hand.”

Keep your eye on Harry, folks. He’s getting very creative about circumventing Democracy. This is going to cost you big time if he pulls the ultimate nose-thumbing trick of Reconciliation on the American people. If you think your heat and electric bills are high now, you haven’t seen anything yet until Harry finishes your off.

Out of control.

Out. Of. Control.

**Update**Shhhhh. Don’t wake them. While they are sleeping, the GIVE Act will be passed

***UPDATE: I just heard on FOX that the word “Mandatory” has been removed from this bill. At least For Now.

While everybody was bumping into walls screaming about AIG and Tim Geithner, your House of No Representatives passed the GIVE act, AKA You Vill Volunteer Und Like It Act.

At this very moment, your No-Senator is being told he or she has to vote on this realllllllly fast. This includes an interesting Amendmentby Ms. Mikulski.  While everybody is still asleep.

Soon, all of your children, ages 18-25 will be forced to “volunteer” and serve the state and their President. Do you hear that, Comrades? Ok back to sleep now. It’s not like it’s a draft or anything.

Is it?

What’s in this bill? Do you know? Do you understand that your children will be forced to volunteer? Did anybody ask you or your son or daughter what they think? Have you heard ANY debate on this anywhere? Are you being deliberately distracted? Nah. That can’t be so.

Look here. Don’t look there.

Whatever you do, don’t contact your Senator and tell him what you think of this Involuntary Servitude Act or anything. You might disturb him!  Are there any Republicans complaining loudly about this Indentured Servant Act? Funny, I don’t hear a thing.

It’s not like we are North Korea or anything.

Are we?

It’s not like the thing Stalin or Hitler or the Chairman did or anything.

Is it?

It doesn’t really smack of Orwell or anything.

Does it?

Is this okay with you?

Okay,  back to sleep now. Tomorrow you might wake up and find your son humming Tomorrow Belongs To Me.

UPDATE: I just heard on FOX that the word  “Mandatory” has been removed from this bill. At least For Now.

Nancy: No commitment to vote on automatic pay raises for Congress

Isn’t this about as In Your Face as it gets?

I would love to see this go to a floor vote and see the results from both parties. Let’s face it gang, when it comes to taking care of themselves, it doesn’t really matter which party is in charge any longer, does it now?

The economy is crumbling. Go eat your cake.

WASHINGTON – Congress’ automatic pay raises are in little immediate danger of being scrapped for good, even with the economy slumping and millions of Americans unemployed. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday would not commit to holding a vote on a bill to do away with the annual cost-of-living increases. She pointed out that Congress recognized the economic crisis by voting this week to skip next year’s raise.

In so doing, though, lawmakers defeated a Senate measure to abolish the automatic pay hikes and force them into the deep discomfort of casting actual votes to give themselves raises.

Harry Reid did his own little dance over this issue as well.

Competing proposals on the Senate floor earlier in the week effectively canceled each other out.

Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican with personal issues that could threaten his re-election, talked of adding a ban on automatic congressional raises to a $410 billion spending bill already passed by the House.

Great idea, alleged Majority Leader Harry Reid, who’s also facing a tough re-election fight next year. But adding the pay issue to the bill would mean sending it back to the House, and that could kill the whole thing, Reid said.

Reid’s problem, as he described it, was with the process and not scrapping automatic pay raises. In fact, Reid said, congressional raises shouldn’t be automatic. So he proposed an alternative: a bill all its own almost identical to Vitter’s.

Nope, Vitter said, because Pelosi was almost certain to ignore it.

Reid bristled.

Oh come on Harry. We both know Nancy rides herd over you. There’s no sense of pretending any longer. She’s far more powerful than you are.  She’s faster than you are when she’s sleeping, Harry.  And Barack likes her better. Just admit it will ya? You’ll feel so much better. Atta boy. Don’t sulk.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could determine your own raise? Just go into your boss’s office and tell him you want an automatic raise on January 1 from now on—and here’s how much.

Gee, you would never know that Congress is supposed to work for us, would you now? That’s because they don’t. They haven’t been Pubic Servants for so long, we never even noticed the point at which they became Publc Masters.

Obama: Change I’m not really getting around to making

Funny, how every bill of significance President Obama has signed was accompanied by a big press production.

Not this time.

This time, Barack Obama signed the latest Porkulus bill in the back, in a corner, in a booth, in the dark.

That’s because Barack Obama  is embarrassed, because he knows this bill is just riddled with  corrupt crap, both figuratively and literally (Pig shit smell and human waste study (I do hope the volunteers won’t be paid to do what they do anyways if left alone long enough)). 

This is the kind of crap in economic times like this that take-charge president would have removed.

The other reason he signed this bill without any fanfare is:  it appears more and more apparent every day that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are driving a bulldozer over Barack Obama. They are clearly in charge. If they weren’t, Barack Obama would have demanded the right to Line Item Veto. Or he would have sent them a message to clean up that bill or he will veto it.  Instead………….     :::Crickets:::.

Barack Obama is looking a lot like Nancy’s poodle these days.  Just saying.

WASHINGTON – Calling it an “imperfect” bill, President Barack Obama signed a $410 billion spending package Wednesday that includes billions in earmarks like those he promised to curb in last year’s campaign. He insisted the bill must signal an “end to the old way of doing business.” The massive measure supporting federal agencies through the fall contains nearly 8,000 pet projects, earmarked by sponsors though denounced by critics.

President Obama, Presidents have the ability to correct “imperfect” bills. That is,  if the President is actually the person in charge. I’m afraid it’s not looking that way these days. You had the power to clean up this bill but you didn’t. And it bothered you enough to hide out when you signed it.

First earmarks were very bad. Now earmarks are good.

Obama defended earmarks when they’re “done right,” allowing lawmakers to direct money to worthy projects in their districts. But he said they’ve been abused, and he promised to work with Congress to curb them.

You promised us you would be doing that with the last porkulus bill, Mr. President. This is twice that you basically said, “I really mean it this time”. The children in Congress don’t believe you. You can’t even say to the children in Congress, “What till your father gets home”.  That’s you and they are not well-behaved under your stewardship. In other words, they don’t care what you think.  You made the same earmark promise dozens of times on the campaign trail. And here you have been hoodwinked. Twice.

 But of course you can’t keep your promise because you are being run over by Nancy and Harry.   You can’t “work with congress” because they are in charge and they are using you as their conduit–and so is “never waste a crisis“  Rahm.   They are making you appear secondary and you know it– Which is why you signed that bill in a broom closet.

Come on,  admit it.  They are pushing you around.  Or don’t admit it and actually keep your promise by showing America that you are in charge. Unless of course, you never intended to do anything about pork to begin with and just said that to placate voters.

So which is it?

You are the President of the United States, Barack Obama. Not Nancy Pelosi. Now you need to inform Nancy of that fact. Take charge or be taken over.  Unless of course, you didn’t mean what you said about “fiscal responsibility”.

Sometimes, real leaders need pull away from the pack even if it’s uncomfortable. I guess you were absent during that management seminar. But this is especially important when the pack consists of ravenous, opportunistic, insatiable self-serving wolves, hungering for power, control and more and more and more money. They are pigs at a trough. This is the change THEY believe in.  And you?

Nancy has said that we need yet “another” spending bill, Mr. President. Will  a “No You Can’t!” pattern emerge and will you be signing that one in the broom closet as well–or will you take charge?