Jack & Jill Politics

Me too.

“A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe.”
– President Obama, Feb. 4.

“Catastrophe, mind you. So much for the president who in his inaugural address two weeks earlier declared “we have chosen hope over fear.” Until, that is, you need fear to pass a bill.”

Ouch.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/…

this is a real fear that we see everyday, we see people getting laid off and homes forecloses, we see people standing in lines waiting for unemployment benefits we see or read about people killing their entire families in fear of the job market, those things we see and experience, the threat of an impending doom that will kill us all and wipe away the world as we know it based of the presumption of a blind evil is completely different. you know why its hard for americans to truly understand african poverty? we dont see it, or rockets and car bombs we dont see it. but we see this economy getting worse.

Anyone who doubts that Obama has the temperament to lead is clearly deluding themselves. I only say this because I read a comment on here earlier today where a poster called Obama a wuss. I refrained from responding directly to him because I have a no profanity rule when I post (but I was thinking it) and I was in danger of breaking my rule. Obama tried the gentlemanly/respectful way and he offered a carrot, now it's time to give them the stick. The Republicans are using this as an opportunity to grandstand at a time when our unemployment rate is at 7.5% and threatening to go higher. But who cares? They need to position themselves for 2010. We can only hope that some of the cable news shows that Obama mentioned in his speech begin giving airtime to other voices who are able to clearly and strongly explain the necessity for the stimulus. I have given up hope that the media will cease being filters for the GOP talking points and I can only say thank God for the internet. And I'm glad that Obama has decided to bypass the gatekeepers and obstructionists and go directly to the people.

Manufactured fear, eh? I'll pass your sentiments to my 8 former co-workers who had their department eliminated last September and lost their jobs, some of them with the company 20+ years.

You're hilarious.

What freaking plane do you live on? Folks are loosing their jobs every moment of every day. Do you know of any one on the planet you inhabit who has lost their job?

My daughtr had surgery last Monday, and was discharged on Wednesday. She wasn't home one hot hour before she received a call from her boss informing her she was layed off. That compounds the stress.

She works, saved, and planned for her time off, and she got laid off. I'm sure folksrent standingin WELFARE lines with their palms up, they want to work.

My other daughter is seeing the writing o the wall too; she saw it months ago and has back up plans in place. They're college educated, responsible human beings.

When it comes to job loss and layoffs, who do you think the boss decides who gets the ax? I'm sure it's a tough one.

Will the boss make his/her assessment using the criteria of seniority, last hired, first fired, work quality, productivity, race, gender, nepotism, cronyism? One can never tell. I've had 10 fries of mine who have lost their jobs some of the stories are not pretty!

This kind fear is very real for people. It's close to home not in Iraq where those WMD are supposed to have been.

So get the fuck out of here with your cut and paste bullshit, while we and President clean up the mess of the Bush Administration

You said “If this bill isn't passed, you and your idiot republicans friends will see an economic catastrophe as we have never known. I really believe republicans want to see the country fail.”

We need some sort of package surely. But the economic catastrophe can happen even if this bill is passed. Lets all be clear that all the econmists have no freakin clue what will happen or what will work.

I personally think the 900B package is too big and should be cut up into chunks (100B chunks) to see what is working and when. Otherwise it could be that the whole big shebang didnt work super effectively while there might have been pieces that were super effective in certain regions/sectors. This country doesnt have endless supplies of credit to finance the national debt ( at a point people WILL stop lending the US money). I dont see anything wrong with some of the funding priorities in the bill rather I question ( as do many reasoned people NOT just Repubs by the way) if these will really jumpstart the economy.

Further, I also think we need to be clear that moments of shock and fear are precisely the moments when those in politics come up with BIG often poorly thought out plans. The nature of politics is reactionary and is a response the populace calling “Do Something Now!!!”. It happened after 9/11 and it can happen now. ( And please, no one suggest that I am saying Bush and Obama are in anyway equivalent –because they are not.) . Rather I am saying the following: People clearly called out and asked what the government was doing to keep them safe then. People are clearly calling out and asking the government to help them keep their houses, jobs and lifesavings. I wonder if we will look back at this moment and see that we were clamoring for a solution, any solution. Will we see that we grabbed what was offered only to put us in an even more tenous economic position with nowhere left to go when the credit runs dry…

This isnt Chicken Little-ism as Giordano point sout but super grave concerns about the economy and the fact that no one really has a clue about what will work.

Conserv1 is right, its fear manufactured by 8 years of disastrous GOP policies.

It's called a rope a dope and he did it all through the campaign. How many times did you second guess Obama during the campaign only to see that he was right and you were wrong? For me pesonally I lost count. The Rethugs acted like obstructionist jackasses in front of the whole country. Obama played nice and they acted like spoiled brats so now Obama gets to open up the can of whoop ass. You said the speech was “right on time”, I think President Obama would say “Exactly”. He was a senator and he knows everyone of these rightwing fools and how they would behave. He was ready.