President Obama gives a speech this week that John Nichols has called the most important speech of his career. With the economy stagnating and this time after labor day being really the unofficial kick off of the 2012 presidential race what do you think? Should he have moved his speech to accommodate the Republican presidential debate? DO more people care about the kick off to the NFL season than a primary presidential debate? Most importantly WHAT should the President say?
Tell him and us!
First of all, how did it come to this? Since when does a subordinate get to dictact to a boss, when the boss will run his meeting? Obama’s speech was scheduled for Wednesday and Boehner told him he couldn’t have it on Wednesday? How does that work? Am I missing something? Maybe I am .
Second, maybe this is really a blessing in disguise, more people will be tuning in? Yes, I meant that as a question. In the next post, I would like to tell you a story.
That was…when does a subordinate get to dictate to a boss…..
I still think he should give his speech from the 50 yard line during half time and send the House a keg of beer and a couple of wide screen TVs.
The question shouldn’t be…should he have moved it…it is WHY did he schedule the original speech for the same time as the Republican debate? Some kinda spite? Did he think it was the macho thing to do? Is his staff inept?
Maybe President Obama is like the other 99.99999999999999999 percent of America and does not take the current crop of republican presidential “contenders” seriously. i had no idea they were debating or even why they would bother.
What it is like to be unemployed in America today…
Sadly and embarrassingly, I have been unemployed for over a year. I have a master’s degree in education and an environmental education degree with a biology and now earth science minor. I went back to school last summer to get a paralegal certification from Boston University and took an added class in environmental law. My most recent employment, save for a brief contract job with the state of MN, was as a middle school science teacher.
Since becoming unemployed,I have faced ridicule, harrassment, belittling remarks, and blatant discrimination. Yes, there have been those who have offered sound advice and encouragement as well. But frankly, those are few and far between. What I have seen are signs stating that “unemployed need not apply.” “Only recent college graduates need apply.” And “No one with more than 5 years of experience need apply.” This is what our country has come to.
I cannot get a job to save my soul. I have botoxed and unbotoxed my resume so many times it is beginning to look like Joan Rivers.
The comments I hear from both “friends” and people I meet on the street are maddening. My facebook page has become a warfare zone for so many snide remarks and comments I have thought of ditching my personal page altogether. One of them told me..”well, hey you are still unemployed, maybe it is you.” I am not looking hard enough, there are jobs out there. McDonald’s is hiring, have you tried Menards. (Honestly, yes I have tried Menards, surprsing, I know but they won’t hire anyone with a masters degree.) Why would you put that on your application you ask? Have you heard of the internet? You can google anybody. If I lie, then I am caught in a lie. Besdides, last place of employement? ah, science teacher. What does that look like to you?
I have been called lazy, and that I am just soaking up my huge unemployment check waiting for it to run out, and then I will get serious about looking for work. I have heard radio talk shows where people call in and ask why aren’t unemployed people reporting babysitting jobs and other day jobs they are doing on the side to make extra money. That unemployed people do not desrve to make any more side money than what they are given on their unemployment checks. You know, ’cause they are so huge and can support a family. I know many people who are unemployed and have lost their homes and everything else,including their retirement savings just to survive. I have a friend who is able to get side jobs once in a while and reports them to unemployment. This money is taken out of his unemployment benefits. He made $30 one week.
A high school friend of mine recently “threw me a bone” on facebook and said he could give me some hours of work for his company, a cloud computing company. I checked it out, was completely unqualified, told him so, not to mention that I wasn’t even clear about what he wanted me to do. Now he chastizes me on facebook, saying that he offered me work and I didn’t take him up on it.
Recently, I had an interview (these are few and far between). Across the table from me were two 20 year olds. I passed out my reecnt resume and was immmediately berated by one of them when he said in a condescending tone,”most people’s resume is only 1 page long” I suppose that is true if you are in your 20’s. Yes, I realize the advice, I am going to get from some of the armchair posters, about resume writing. I have had everyone but God look at this resume. Everyone has a different spin on it. Most of the comments I hear are good.
The other 20 something was talking, and quipped”…. but I am old.” My God, if she thought she was old, you have to wonder if she thought I should be picking out gravesites. I am in my late 40’s. When you hear comments like these, you know your chances of landing a job with this organization are slim to none. I have heard other stories like this and much worse from friends who are unemployed. Age discrimination is Real.
Ok, I am doing a bit of whining here, but I am tired of being told I am a whiner, that I am not looking hard enough, that I should have found something by now, that I should be willig to take anything, that my standards are too high, I am lazy, and pick any other condesention you can come up with…
This is really what is happening out there with the unemployed. We are not all drop-outs, and under or uneducated people. Right now, I know three attorneys, a PhD. in pharmacology, an architect, and an engineer, out of work. I know these people personally and all of us have been looking for at least a year.
Sorry, that was so long folks, but I feel that some of these things need to be told to the public.
http://www.truth-out.org/will-top-obama-economist-fight-jobs/1315057040?q=right-wing-jobs-program-america%2F1311165966
I’m hoping he goes all FDR on our asses… but I’ve been disappointed so many times by so many Dems that I’m not expecting it.
I’d like to see him point his finger directly at the Repubs on almost any issue of the day. Not only have they destroyed the economy, they’ve frozen any efforts to truly deal with climate change, they’ve effectively stopped any Dem from appointing any judges and won’t even let a Democratic president fill out routine administration openings. They say no to regulations designed to give their own children healthier lives, or safer cars, or plastic that won’t turn me into a woman.
The list goes on and on and you all know it as well as I do. I just don’t understand why it’s so difficult to get a Democrat to actually stand up for Democratic (or democratic) principles.
I don’t want to talk out of school here. I don’t have permission to repeat this, but I suspect John wouldn’t mind. The first time I met John Nichols I was 14 and he was 12. We were at a Hubert H. Humphrey rally. We certainly aren’t close, but we do run into each other from time to time.
A few months ago on the street in Madison I was voicing my frustrations with being ‘fooled again’ by yet another Dem who ran as a progressive and rules as a conservative. “This man is to the right of Nixon!” I lamented.
He said, “We may have been fooled again, but I’m betting it’ll be the last time.”
So, if we can’t get the Dems to fight for us then it’s up to us to fight for better (and different) Dems.
What Randy said, with the following addition- Obama needs to say ‘we tried it the GOP’s way, keeping taxes on the rich low, trying to cut domestic spending, and trusting our corporations to do the right thing. That way has FAILED, and now we as government must be the ones to hire and produce, as the corproate sector has not lived up to their responsibilities.’
And who cares if the GOP blocks it in the House? The sides will be drawn, and the GOP would be wiped out in 2012, just like they were in 1948. Now, do I think Obama will do the right thing? No, and the fact that he didn’t have this speech on TUESDAY to pre-empt the GOP ‘debate’ speaks volumes.
We’ll have to go DIY to get this country back in the right direction, and we sure will do that in Wisconsin.