9.6 percent
Back in June, President Obama kicked off Democrats’ “recovery summer” with a crew of hard-hat workers in Ohio. With Friday’s announcement that unemployment edged up to 9.6 percent in August as the economy shed 54,000 more non-farm jobs, “recovery summer” might be the worst slogan since “Mission Accomplished.” Obama and his allies will continue claiming their stimulus package has things moving in the right direction, but the jobs figures say otherwise. Officials said although the private sector added 67,000 jobs last month, it was more than offset by 121,000 lost jobs on the government side. The White House and top congressional Democrats no doubt will see sunshine in the private-sector gains, but officials said the government losses were more than just Census jobs ending. State and local governments are trimming payrolls — and a lost job is a lost job. Overall, the U.S. economy has lost jobs three straight months now — and the November mid-term elections are less than two months away.
Political hate-tweet?
Fox News.com reports actor John Cusack went nuts on Twitter on Sunday, tweeting to more than 200,000 followers he wants a “Satanic death cult center” outside the offices of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey — as well as Fox News itself. No word from Cusack’s publicist (now there’s a nightmare assignment) or, for that matter, confirmation that Cusack actually authored the “hate-tweet.” If it was Cusack, it’ll be interesting to see whether there’s the kind of backlash that probably would follow if Jon Voight, Mel Gibson or another of Hollywood’s little gaggle of conservatives let fly like that.
Poll: Obamacare still in decline
A new poll showing Obamacare’s popularity sagging almost fails to qualify as news these days. That’s how steady the program’s decline has been. A new Kaiser Family Foundation survey shows 43 percent favor the health-care program enacted in March, while 45 percent oppose it. In the same poll last month, 50 percent were in favor. Other numbers: Just 39 percent think the program will make the country better, down from 43 percent in July. Of course, proof of the substance and accuracy of the Kaiser poll and others is seen in the number of Democratic candidates for office this fall who are making Obamacare a centerpiece in their campaigns: none that we know of. If they were, now that would be man-bites-dog news!
For tolerance
New York Times columnist Tom Friedman has taken some lumps here, but today, a little praise. Friedman weighed in on the ground zero Islamic center/mosque controversy on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” the other day. While stressing the right for the center to be built a couple of blocks from where the Twin Towers stood, he added the real place tolerance needs to grow is in the Middle East — pointing to strife between differing Muslim sects. Friedman didn’t call for greater tolerance of Christians and Jews in the Muslim world. But still, he rightly redirected attention to a part of the world that’s distinctly intolerant, as far as most Americans can tell. Bottom line: Americans who’re lectured on tolerance quite often would feel a lot better about it if they felt it was a two-way street.
Delay on the inbound
Folks in Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C., complain all the time about traffic. They can just stop it right now. Chinese officials report a 62-mile traffic jam on the outskirts of Beijing that makes snarls on the I-5 in LA and the Capital Beltway look like joy rides. Road construction is being blamed for hanging up all those Chinese cars and trucks. The jam began Aug. 13, and one official said things might not be normal until Sept. 17, when the road work is scheduled to be finished. As much as it may disappoint The New York Times’ Tom Friedman, who has opined on the Chinese government’s efficiency in dealing with problems, even a dictatorship apparently is no match for one of the byproducts of last year’s globe-leading 13.6 million auto sales to Chinese buyers.
Who are these people?
Well, that’s embarrassing! No other way to look at separate polls indicating sizable numbers of Americans think President Obama is a Muslim. A Pew poll found 18 percent think that; a Time magazine poll put the number at an amazing 24 percent — nearly one-quarter of the population! “The president is obviously a Christian,” White House spokesman Bill Burton says. “He prays every day.” It’s likely that mistaken views on Obama’s faith stem from the ground zero Islamic center controversy, with Obama’s defense of the constitutional right of the mosque backers to proceed with their project being conflated with the president’s religious beliefs by some. Let’s hope this red herring doesn’t develop the shelf life of another specious belief — that Obama isn’t a U.S. citizen.
Longing for W.?
Look out the window, look right now, and see if there are donkeys flying around outside. Surely, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd’s new praise for George W. Bush would be accompanied by the airborne critters. Ms Dowd is queen of snide from the left side of the political spectrum and seldom (ever?) had much use for W. when he was president — other than as a flaying post. In a column this week Dowd begs Bush to come riding to President Obama’s rescue on the ground zero mosque deal, horrified that Obama would retreat from what looked like unequivocal support for the proposed Islamic center two blocks from the World Trade Center site. “W. needs to get his bullhorn back out,” Dowd writes. “It’s time for W. to weigh in,” to remind Obama what the former president understood and articulated quite well: the distinction between jihadists and peaceful Muslims. While it would be an exaggeration to say Obama has caused Dowd to join lots of other Americans pining for George Bush, this is noteworthy. Now, about that braying outside the window …
Spanish holiday
Likening Michelle Obama to Marie Antoinette seems harsh, yet there’s no question there’s some political danger to the first lady in her current Spanish vacation with 9-year-old daughter Sasha. Exhibit A is a New York Daily News article comparing Mrs. O to the ill-fated French queen. The White House calls the trip “private,” which suggests the Obamas are paying for all of the reported $375,000 cost, including travel on a government 757, meals, accommodations at a swank hotel — perhaps even the Spanish cops who cordoned off about 100 yards of beach for Michelle, Sasha and their entourage. But, hey, it’s their money, right? Even so, the political backwash is a perception of extravagance at a time millions of Americans are out of work — and especially after the first family already has vacationed in Maine, Massachusetts, Hawaii and other venues during the past year and a half. Again, they’re entitled to spend their dough however they want, but that won’t shield them from criticism — and comparisons with President Bush, whose general idea of good downtime was whacking brush at his Texas ranch and turning in before 9.
Soak the rich
What is it with Democrats and capitalism? They sound like they don’t understand or like America’s economic system, as though the free market is infected with cooties. From there they argue raising taxes on people who own small businesses (and create most of the new jobs in this country) is sound policy and besides, they can afford it. U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., was on “Hardball” with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, talking about how wealthier Americans should pay more in taxes simply for living in such a wonderful country. Yes, it is a wonderful land, but how is that a reason for one group of people to pay a higher tax rate than others? Other Dems say similar things — the rich won’t miss the extra they pay in taxes, they’ve been luckier than everyone else and should pay more, etc.
On another show Democratic Whip Chris Van Hollen basically argued keeping taxes lower (vs. higher) for top income earners doesn’t foster economic growth. Just look at the recession at the end of the Bush years, Van Hollen said. Tax cuts didn’t stop that downturn. Of course, Van Hollen omits mention of the cost of two wars, the burst of the housing bubble and high spending (first by Republicans and then Democrats) — all of which is quite a tide to be neutralized by folks in the 35 percent (39.6 percent if the Democrats get their way).
Hot town, summer in the city
It’s been pretty hot in Washington, D.C., and along the East Coast this summer, so it’s not surprising global warming — sorry, climate change! — enthusiasts use the higher temps to argue their view. One of the leaders of the pack is The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman, who cites hot weather here and in Russia in a column headlined, “We’re Gonna Be Sorry.” Friedman mourns the failure of climate change legislation in the Senate (forecast for months by Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma) and the continued greenhouse-gas assault on Mother Nature. Friedman notes the Russians are suffering their worst drought in 130 years and that Moscow had a high temp recently of 93 degrees, well above the city’s average July reading of 76. Yes, it’s been a hot one there and here. But recall that when Washington and other cities were weathering record snowfalls last winter, people like Friedman argued one cold, snowy winter was irrelevant to the global warming trend line (It’s about climate, stupid, not weather!). Well, they were right last winter, not now: Temperature readings in Washington, Moscow or anywhere on a given day, week, month or year are a tiny blip compared to the span of a century or several millenniums — truer increments in a climate discussion.
