Read more »

Read more »

Read more »

A myriad of questions has arisen regarding jobs and joblessness since the passage of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009. Questions regarding the alleged failure or success of the legislative leviathan. Some neutral individuals regard the causes for the need of a "stimulus" bill to be just a matter of circumstance, not necessarily anyone's "fault". Unforeseen, unpredictable, and once upon on us, very complex derivatives and securities, difficult to extricate oneself from, once they've been mishandled. Toxic. Assets that are toxic. That's a very catchy term that is used. Since I'm not a hedge fund manager, a day trader, a power broker, a senator, a banker, or a president, the winding labyrinth leading to the truth of the entire catastrophic collapse is very mysterious, and I'm left to decipher it using immense amounts of information at my disposal. That courtesy of the World Wide Web, and my personal perspective.   

Since this debacle originated with financial institutions whose monetary bearings began to point southward as of 2004, it seems pertinent to follow the money trail. Apparently, jobs, among other salvaging efforts were necessary to plug this fissure in the hull of the ship, and bring buoyancy. The money trail? I mean money river flowing from the dock of the 111th Congress, and the Obama White House, out into the sea of America.

So, the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. My patience and my brain would fail me, and your patience (i'm not familiar with your mental capacity) would fail you, if I was to actually dissect this entire bill in this article. We'll have to settle for a slice to be separated so we can get a glimpse of conventional "job" creation wisdom. Since you're online, and able to read this article, my assumption is you're able to perform a search for the bill and read it for yourself, so i'll just provide enough information for a comparison. Let's see here… pork, I mean page number two and we're already up to 46.5 million, and we're not even into the heavier rpm's. Let's peel some layers from the onion, cause it'll make you want to cry. Millions upon millions of dollars for the Office of the Inspector General, Food and Nutrition Service Child Nutrition Programs. Millions for a national broadband infrastructure, a Digital to Analog converter box program, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a Violence Against Women Prevention and Prosecution Program, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Millions allotted to all branches of our military along with all of their reserve branches. The list also specifies millions upon millions to be allotted for infrastructure spending for government agency facilities, state agency facilities, and otherwise. To be succinct, according to this flaming wreck of wasted ink, and by all appearances, there should no longer be any need for infrastructure spending of any kind, whatsoever. Shovel ready jobs? I mean they're all in here aren't they? Infrastructure just screams shovel ready. Construction, reconstruction, refurbishment? That's when the shovels come out. You're like me, we're ready to sit down and write a musical where exuberant actors will sing and dance the praises of this Act, only we can't because we found this particular section in the bill, and I quote;

"Each amount in this Act is designated as an emergency requirement and necessary to meet emergency needs pursuant to section 204(a) of S. Con. Res. 21 (110th Congress) and section 301(b)(2) of S. Con. Res. 70 (110th Congress), the concurrent resolutions on the budget for fiscal years 2008 and 2009."

Emergency. That's a mouthful. And when it says Act I take it to mean every expenditure in the entire Act because Act was capitalized. Ok let's see… The Aeronautics and Space Administration; definitely an emergency of epic proportions to see to it that they are funded using this piece of legislation. Are they already overfunded or underfunded? I do not know, but is it relevant to job creation? Not the type of job creation everyone was clamoring for.

One's untrained eye could begin to draw conclusions. That this is multiple bills, let alone simple earmarks, in one. That this bill is filled with unnecessary expenses. That perhaps some of the monies weren't actually for the purposes the bill states they were for. But of any conclusions arrived at, three of the most important should be this. A. This bill was unsuccessful in revamping the U.S. economy. B. Americans should know why A. is the case. And C., What was the cause for the ARRA initially? Well we needed jobs. No, what was the root cause, exactly? It gets very dicey attempting to satisfy a query like that. Some say overbearing, burdensome government regulations and taxation caused the U.S. economy to hemorrhage jobs, because the companies sought cheaper labor elsewhere. Like overseas and south of the border elsewhere. Couple that with rising health care costs, and business owners and corporations may have been looking for a more industrially relaxed environment to loosen their ties, and their pollution control standards. Environmental regulations may not be as stringent as in say, the region of South America. It's become obvious a great deal of telecommunications customer and technical support positions have been outsourced to India, or the Phillipines, where employees can be paid less than Americans, yet have the same availability. Others say state unions were a contributing factor to the economic cataclysm in that the pay and benefits of public employees is nearly double that of their counterparts in the private sector on average. Their reasoning is that it's a system that depletes wealth. Public sector jobs don't produce, they only consume. Stir this all lovingly in with a subprime mortgage crisis and we have the most delectable and irresistible recipe, and finished layer cake of socio-economic destruction. Very mouthwatering and unbelievably succulent! Here, wipe your mouth, you've got a delicious morsel of infrastructure spending hanging off your lip.

In 2009, Obama and his Democrats assumed surrogate accountability for the economy; it belonged to them they said, they owned it. That's no secret. You don't need to borrow a shovel from a shovel ready job to dig that up. He had a successful campaign, while fortified and propelled by imaginative, inspiring, yet sometimes very ambiguous remedies to a multitude of issues plaguing society as a whole, and in general. But fixing the economy was a cornerstone of his campaign. It was really the spearhead in my opinion. If it wasn't then it was one of two points of a double-headed spear, and the other point was one of ending the wars created and sustained by President George W. Bush. Long story short, or short story long, the ARRA has not worked. Not since they claimed the recession was over in the summer of 2009. Not since they claim we may be going back into a "double-dip recession" even though the recession has not ended since roughly the end of 2007, beginning of 2008 when it officially began. In my opinion, whoever voted to pass this bill should be given their walking papers. Being neither a Republican, nor Democratic, I wasn't feeling too hopey changey. The thrill wasn't running up my leg. I'm sure you're devastated to learn the thrill still hasn't started yet, I assure you that I am. Wait! Light bulb! What if we conduct an investigation into the latter part of the Clinton Administration? We could see what wasn't broke that was "fixed", and what was broke that WAS fixed, and who did it. So maybe individuals with the same principles to make those same decisions that brought the economy back around can replace those that should be fired by the American people this next election cycle. Replace some critical machinery in the Washington "infrastructure".

By:  Dave H

Read more »

Service men and women have risked and sacrificed their lives to secure freedom—today and yesterday. They all willingly accepted death as a possible price.

Duty drove some military members to grudgingly accept silence and deception. Once staying in the camouflage closet was the only option. Now, silence is no longer necessary.

The 1993 “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy replaced that reality—until midnight Tuesday. Now, all American warriors are free to be themselves, including Randy Phillips, 21, of Alabama.

On the eve of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”’s demise, Phillips finally came out to his father,phoning home from Germany. Like most recent history, personal or otherwise, the moment was captured and shared on YouTube.

It was one was among many moments, which Phillips—known only as AreYouSurprised—chronicled on the journey toward DADT repeal.

Seeing him fumble with the phone and look on his face reminded me of preparing to emerge from the closet. Lucille Harrington, the great-grandmother who raised me, was all I thought about. Would she still love me tomorrow?

Apparently, Phillips and I have two things in common. Being shunned by loved ones was a fate worse than death. Actually, all members of the GLBT community share that trait. Refusing to admit that doesn’t the reality.

“Hey, can I tell you something?” Phillips said. “Will you love me, period? You'll always love me?”

After assurances from his father, he charges forward: “Dad, I'm gay.”

“Like always have been. I've known since forever. And I haven't seen you in like a year and I don’t know when’s the next time I would be able to see you. I didn’t want to do it over the phone. I wanted to tell you in person, but uh... I didn't want you to find out in any other way,” he says.

“OK,” Dad responds. “I still love you son... It doesn't change our relationship, you hear me?”

“I am very proud of you,” Dad said.

However, he expresses one concern; given that Phillips’ is in Deutschland—home of Oktoberfest.

“Watch the drinkin’!” he said.

Witnessing the touching moment was powerful on more than one level. Phillips got a happy ending. (Get your mind out of the gutter.) So, many gay people aren’t as lucky as he and I were.

I had to come out to my then 85-year-old great-grandma twice. She didn’t quite get the concept initially. That probably had something do with how I explained it. The second time, Grandma launched into a “Was it something I did?” speech.

But everything changed on Mother’s Day 2004. For whatever reason, her children (my grandfather and aunt) didn’t have time for her.

So, my partner and I invited Grandma to dinner. The ride from her apartment in my 1994 Ford Ranger pickup was quiet. She enjoyed the dinner and, particularly, watching my partner and me playfully do dishes. I caught her staring—with a smile.

Our relationship blossomed, in spite of her eventual Alzheimer’s Disease diagnosis. We would always be her boys. I’m so thankful for that. I’m also thankful Randy Phillips will always be his Daddy’s boy.

Contributor: Jason Carson Wilson  
http://www.justcommenting.typepad.com/

Read more »

Read more »