USA Mega

Lottery Places

The time is now 6:29 am

You last visited
July 12, 2026, 7:13 pm

All times shown are
Eastern Time (GMT-5:00)

Home › Blogs › truesee's Blog

truesee's Blog

Page 2126 of 2427

Unemployment, gas, food prices still chief concern

The Boston Globe

Victory could be dimmed by economy

 

Unemployment, gas, food prices still chief concern

President Obama listened during a White House meeting on the bin Laden mission on Sunday.
 
President Obama listened during a White House meeting on the bin Laden mission on Sunday. (Pete Souza/White House/Handout/Reuters)
 
 
 
Matt Viser
Globe Staff / May 3, 2011
 
 
WASHINGTON — A week that began with continued questions of his American citizenship ended late Sunday night with his announcement that he had overseen the capture of the world’s most-wanted terrorist.

For President Obama — whom Republicans have called weak on defense and indecisive on foreign policy — the killing of Osama bin Laden represents a key moment in his presidency.

“When you think of what’s a single event to have big impact on public perception of a president, I can’t think of anything bigger than this,’’ said Alan Abramowitz, a professor of public opinion and the presidency at Emory University. “It helps in his image as a leader. It was his mission.’’

Had the mission gone awry, some analysts said, it could have deeply damaged his presidency. But the raid’s daring success, including confirmation of bin Laden’s death, won Obama plaudits from across the political spectrum. Even former vice president Dick Cheney, who has been a chief critic of Obama on national security matters, praised him.

The startling news is expected to divert attention, at least temporarily, away from an underperforming economy and high gas prices, topics that potential Republican presidential candidates have seized. It could also bolster Obama’s low approval ratings while exposing a Republican presidential field that so far lacks a candidate with substantial foreign policy experience.

“It really enhances Obama’s national security credentials,’’ said Jeremy Mayer, a professor at the School of Public Policy at George Mason University. “He can look in the camera and say, ‘I did in two years what President Bush and Republicans couldn’t do in seven.’ He won’t say it that bluntly, but that’s what the message will be.’’

Still, the contours of the 2012 campaign are unlikely to change — and by the time voters go to the polls, this could be a distant memory. The race is almost certain to hinge not on issues of foreign policy, but on the domestic issues that have dogged Obama.

“While this is absolutely a credential that the president can and will use from now through his reelection campaign, I tend to think that 2012 is going to be more about spending, deficits, jobs, and the economy,’’ said Stu Rothenberg, editor of a Washington-based nonpartisan political newsletter. “Not about the killing of Osama bin Laden.’’

“It answers some criticisms of him not being an effective commander in chief,’’ said Jon McHenry, an Alexandria, Va.-based GOP pollster and strategist. “But it’s not going to help him as much as if gasoline went down to $3 a gallon. He ultimately is going to be judged on the economy.’’

The Republican field of presidential hopefuls was largely complimentary.

“Welcome to hell, bin Laden,’’ former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee said, in one of the bluntest statements.

Several candidates gave Obama credit for the death of the man responsible for the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

“I want to congratulate America’s armed forces and President Obama for a job well done,’’ said former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty.

“Congratulations to our intelligence community, our military, and the president,’’ said former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

Even celebrity mogul Donald Trump, who spent much of the past few weeks ridiculing the president and questioning his credentials as well as his place of birth, offered a nod of appreciation: “I want to personally congratulate President Obama and the men and women of the armed forces for a job well done.’’

Now, though, discussion is expected to turn toward the expanded US role in Afghanistan. Obama will have to decide whether to make good on a promise to withdraw troops, yet the war will be harder to justify now that one of the stated goals has been accomplished.

It’s unclear whether the American electorate much cares. During the midterm elections in 2010, only 7 percent of voters said the war in Afghanistan was the most important issue, according to exit polls. By contrast, 63 percent of those surveyed said it was the economy, while 18 percent said health care.

“We’ve got to give him the day,’’ said Scott Reed, a Washington-based Republican consultant who was campaign manager for Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign. “But by the end of the week we’re back to business. And jobs and gas prices are going to be at the top of what’s on everybody’s minds.’’

Military victories have not always translated into election wins. President George H.W. Bush lost the 1992 election, even though just a year earlier he orchestrated a worldwide military campaign that ousted Saddam Hussein’s forces in Kuwait and humiliated the Iraqi leader.

The GOP candidates have focused largely on domestic issues — and at a forum in Manchester, N.H., on Friday night, five likely presidential hopefuls spent 90 minutes talking almost exclusively about domestic issues, criticizing Obama on the economy and his health care plan. Still, the death of bin Laden was welcome news for the White House.

In the last week, the president has had to confront floods in the Midwest and tornadoes in the South, and he facilitated the release of his long-form birth certificate. Even the shuttle launch he was supposed to attend was scrapped due to weather.

“You could say this is the first upbeat event of his presidency,’’ said presidential historian Joan Hoff, a professor at Montana State University. “If you look at what’s happened since he took office, it’s all been a real downer: two wars and a collapsed economy.’’

Entry #4,528

The oil company gusher

The Christian Science Monitor
 
The oil company gusher

Exxon-Mobil earned 69 percent more during the first quarter than a year ago, and the industry is trying to keep a $4 billion annual tax subsidy


April 29, 2011 at 9:19 am EDT

Exxon-Mobil’s first quarter earnings of $10.7 billion are up 69 percent from last year. That’s the most profit the company has earned since the third quarter of 2008 — perhaps not coincidentally, around the time when gas prices last reached the lofty $4 a gallon.

This gusher is an embarrassment for an industry seeking to keep its $4 billion annual tax subsidy from the U.S. government, at a time when we’re cutting social programs to reduce the budget deficit.

It’s specially embarrassing when Americans are paying through their noses at the pump.

Exxon-Mobil’s Vice President asks that we look past the “inevitable headlines” and remember the company’s investments in renewable energy.

What investments, exactly? Last time I looked Exxon-Mobil was devoting a smaller percentage of its earnings to renewables than most other oil companies, including the errant BP.

In point of fact, no oil company is investing much in renewables — precisely because they’ve got such money gusher going from oil. Those other oil companies also had a banner first quarter, compounding the industry’s embarrassment about its $4 billion a year welfare check.

American Petroleum Industry CEO Jack Gerard claims the gusher is due to the “growing strength in our economy.”

Baloney. If you hadn’t noticed already, this is one of the most anemic recoveries on record. $4-a-gallon gas is itself slowing the economy’s growth, since most consumers are left with less money to spend on everything else.

Gerard then claims the giant earnings “reflect the size necessary for [American] companies to be globally competitive with national oil companies” around the world.

Let’s get real. The crude oil market is global. Oil companies sell all over the world. The price of crude is established by global supply and demand. In this context, American “competitiveness” is meaningless.

Republicans who have been defending oil’s tax subsidy are also finding themselves in an awkward position. John Boehner temporarily sounded as if he was backing off – until the right-wing-nuts in the GOP began fulminating that the elimination of any special tax windfall is to their minds a tax increase (which means, in effect ,the GOP must now support all tax-subsidized corporate welfare).

Boehner is now trying to pivot off the flip-flop by reverting to the trusty old “drill, drill, drill” for opening more of country to oil drilling and exploration. “If we began to allow more permits for oil and gas production, it would send a signal to the market that America’s serious about moving toward energy independence,” he says.

This argument is as nonsensical now as it was when we last faced $4-a-gallon gas. To repeat: It’s a global oil market. Even if 3 million additional barrels a day could be extruded from lands and seabeds of the United States (the most optimistic figure, after all exploration is done), that sum is tiny compared to 86 million barrels now produced around the world. In other words, even under the best circumstances, the price to American consumers would hardly budge.

Whatever impact such drilling might have would occur far in the future anyway. Oil isn’t just waiting there to be pumped out of the earth. Exploration takes time. Erecting drilling equipment takes time. Getting the oil out takes time. Turning crude into various oil products takes time. According the federal energy agency, if we opening drilling where drilling is now banned, there’d be no significant impact on domestic crude and natural gas production for a decade or more.
Oil companies already hold a significant number of leases on federal lands and offshore seabeds where they are now allowed to drill, and which they have not yet fully explored. Why would they seek more drilling rights? Because ownership of these parcels will pump up their balance sheets even if no oil is actually pumped.
Last but by no means least, as we’ve painfully learned, the environmental risks from such drilling are significant.

Let’s not fool ourselves – or be fooled. There’s no reason to continue to give giant oil companies a $4 billion a year tax windfall. Nor any reason to expand drilling on federal lands or on our seashores.

But there are strong reasons to invest in renewable energy – even in a time of budget austerity. Use the $4 billion this way. And why stop there? Why not a windfall profits tax to the oil companies, to be used for renewable energy?

Entry #4,527

Sarcasm? Rush Limbaugh Heaps Praise on President Obama for the Killing of Osama

Sarcasm? Rush Limbaugh Heaps Praise on President Obama for the Killing of Osama bin Laden

May 02, 2011 3:25 PM

 
ABC's Z. Byron Wolf reports:

Even Rush Limbaugh heaped praise on President Obama for giving the go-ahead to kill Osama bin Laden, although the kudos became so effusive on Limbaugh's radio program today that they seemed more like sarcasm.

“Ladies and Gentleman we need to open the program today by congratulating President Obama,” said Limbaugh, one of the President’s most notable antagonists, at the open of his radio program Monday. “President Obama has done something extremely effective and when he does, this needs to be pointed out.”

He said President Obama succeeded by continuing the policies of President Bush and maintaining the U.S. presence in the Middle East. “He did not scrub the mission to get bin Laden,” said Limbaugh.

Then the praise turned into high gear. “In fact,” said Limbaugh, “it may be that President Obama single-handedly came up with the technique in order to pull this off.”

More Limbaugh: “You see, the military wanted to go in there and bomb as they always do. They wanted to drop missiles and drop bombs and a number of totally destructive techniques here. But President Obama, perhaps the only qualified member in the room to deal with this, insisted on the Special Forces. No one else thought of that. President Obama. Not a single intelligence adviser, not a single national security adviser, not a single military adviser came up with the idea of using SEAL Team 6 or any Special Forces.”

Limbaugh did not specifically say he was being sarcastic, but it would be a problem indeed if President Obama were the only member of the U.S. government who could think of using the SEALs for such an operation.

“According to news reports, not one member of the military – not Gen. Petraeus, nobody in the Intel community, nobody had the slightest idea of going in there and using special forces,” Limbaugh said, suggesting he was frustrated with the media’s coverage of the killing of bin Laden. Limbaugh also had to correct himself multiple times for referring to Osama bin Laden as Obama.

Limbaugh sounded more sincere when he said he was “as proud of the U.S. military as I have been in a long time.”

LINK TO VIDEO:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/05/sarcasm-rush-limbaugh-heaps-praise-on-president-obama-for-the-killing-of-osama-bin-laden.html

Entry #4,526

5.5 Million Set to Lose Unemployment Benefits

Need a Real Sponsor here

April 30, 2011, 6:00 AM ET

 

Number of the Week: Millions Set to Lose Unemployment Benefits

 

5.5 million: Americans unemployed and not receiving benefits

The job market may be on the mend, but that’s not much consolation to millions of Americans facing a frightening deadline: the end of their unemployment benefits.

The country’s unemployment rolls are shrinking fast, after expanding sharply last year as the government extended benefits to ease the pain of a deep economic slump. As of mid-March, about 8.5 million people were receiving some kind of unemployment payments, down from 11.5 million a year earlier, according to the Labor Department.

To some extent, the shrinkage reflects a desirable reality: Some people are leaving the unemployment rolls because they’re finding jobs.  The number of employed in March was up nearly 1 million from a year earlier, according to the Labor Department’s household survey. That’s the biggest year-over-year rise since late 2007.

Many Americans, though, are simply running out of time. As of March, about 14 million people were unemployed and looking for work, according to the household survey. At the time the survey was done, about 8.5 million were receiving some kind of unemployment payments, according to the Labor Department’s Employment and Training Administration. That leaves about 5.5 million people unemployed without benefits, up 1.4 million from a year earlier.

There’s always a certain number of unemployed who don’t receive benefits. They may have just entered the labor force, quit their jobs or not been eligible for some other reason. But workers didn’t quit their jobs at a higher rate over the past year, and more exited the labor force than entered. That suggests the 1.4-million-person change largely reflects people losing their benefits.

For the more than 4 million Americans still receiving extended benefits, the picture isn’t encouraging. The longer they’ve been out of work, the harder it is to find a job. They’ve typically been unemployed for at least 26 weeks, and may have been out of work for as long as 99 weeks, which for many people is the limit.

In the coming months, hundreds of thousands more will drop off the unemployment rolls. The number of people using up their regular 26 weeks of unemployment payments peaked in August 2009 at nearly 800,000 a month. That means a lot of people should be hitting their 99-week limit right about now. And unless Congress does something unexpected, more people with shorter bouts of unemployment will start joining them as the government phases out extended benefits next year.

Entry #4,525

Donald Trump trumped by Obama/Osama

Radio & TV Talk

‘Celebrity Apprentice’ recap: Trump trumped by Obama/Osama

11:32 pm May 1, 2011

Rodney Ho

AJC

Star_Jones_NeNe_Leakes

 

This is a night when reality trumped reality TV and Donald Trump got trumped by Pres. Obama and news that Osama Bin Laden is dead.

NBC chose to pre-empt the EST feed of “Celebrity Apprentice” at about 10:50 p.m. as the President was about to announce the news. So right now, I have no idea who got “fired” by Trump. We were in the middle of watching NeNe Leakes try to fend off Star Jones in the boardroom on the popular reality show. I will update this in the morning if we do end up finding out who gets fired Monday morning. (NeNe has not tweeted since the show got preempted, at least as of 11:31 pm. EST. Obama finally came on at 11:35 p.m. EST, though he had told media he would be on at around 10:30 p.m.)

Leakes earlier in the episode verbally threatening she was going to “take down” Star Jones for backstabbing and manipulation. Naturally, the team lost to the much more integrated trio of men: John Rich, Meat Loaf and fellow Atlantan Lil Jon, who won his second challenge against NeNe. (So another $40,000 goes to the United Methodist Children’s Home in Decatur for foster children.Go Lil Jon!)

My favorite line from NeNe about Star: “You evil fat lady. You may have lost weight on the outside but your brain is still very fat.”

NeNe felt played by Star Jones in helping get rid of LaToya Jackson, who was ousted last week.

Then in a play that was possibly LaToya’s idea (but more likely, the ingenious producers), she confronted Trump afterwards, saying she should not have been fired. She wants back in with the men to wreak revenge upon Star.

Trump can’t help it so he brings her back to the men’s team in a surprise move.

The men won tonight despite the fact it was a hair show competition. On the surface, this should have been a slam dunk for the women. But the men have three great presenters. This time, Lil Jon was a far better stage person than NeNe. The men also had a more coherent theme and even brought back Nikki Taylor from the women’s team to be a model just to tweak the ladies.

Entry #4,522

Man arrested for stealing from cancer patients

Man accused of stealing from cancer patients

Christopher Charland, Relay for Life robbery, Rayzor's Edge, Saint Cloud
Christian De La Rosa
Reporter
Last Updated: Saturday, April 30, 2011 9:02 PM
 
 
OSCEOLA COUNTY -- 

A group of Relay for Life volunteers is infuriated after part of the money they raised for cancer patients was stolen.

It happened during a vigil to remember those who had lost the battle against the disease when one of their bank bags disappeared.

Lois Peter from Saint Cloud said she and others became suspicious of one of the team members, Christopher Charland.

Rayzor's Edge team leader, Traudi Rayzor said a friend confronted Charland when she saw something that looked like a bag between his waist and pants. Rayzor said the woman then pulled out the bank bag from inside Charlands' pants.

Witness said the crowd pinned Charland down until the police arrived. The police arrested him and took him to jail. Charland now faces grand theft charges.

The Relay for Life group did get the lost money back and despite the incident, members reached their goal, raising more than $3,000.

Many however are still in disbelief that someone would be capable of stealing from cancer patients.

The team's leader is now considering running background checks before selecting team members next year.

 

 

Christopher Charland, Relay for Life robbery, Rayzor's Edge, Saint Cloud

Entry #4,518

Woman saves man's life then finishes triathlon

April 30, 2011

Tampa woman saves man's life, then finishes triathlon

 

Kameel Stanley, Times Staff Writer

 

ST. PETERSBURG - A Tampa woman saved the life of a man who had a heart attack during a triathlon Saturday morning, race officials said.

Teresa McCoy, 37, was just about to finish the bike portion of the Meek and Mighty Triathlon, part of the annual St. Anthony's Triathlon events, when she saw two police officers huddled over a fellow rider along Bayshore Drive.

McCoy recognized the middle-aged man as runner No. 100. The two had chatted briefly before the start of the race. McCoy, a nurse at Tampa General Hospital's cardiac lab, was No. 96.

With other riders speeding by, McCoy steered her bike to where the man was down.

The officers thought the man might be having a seizure, but McCoy checked for a pulse.

"I didn't feel one at all," she said. "He wasn't looking good."

McCoy began CPR, then yelled for someone to find a defibrillator. One of the officers had one in his trunk.

"As soon as we shocked him, he came to," McCoy said.

As paramedics arrived and loaded the man into an ambulance, McCoy got back on her bike and finished the race.

She learned later that the man survived. Officials declined to release the man's name at his family's request, but said he is expected to recover.

"I'm so glad he's alive," McCoy said Saturday night. "I know that God put me where I was supposed to be today. It's like I was his angel today."

Entry #4,516
Page 2126 of 2427
Guest