You know how the Obama administration's most dire economic forecasts turned out to be far too optimistic? Well, that's actually great news for the environment. As Climate Progress reports, it's "the perfect storm: a weak economy, low natural gas prices, state renewable energy standards, and a clean-energy-friendly stimulus." The result: "by year’s end we’ll actually be more than 8.5% below 2005 levels in energy-related CO2 emissions, which make up the overwhelming majority of U.S. greenhouse gases. And that is halfway to the 2020 Waxman-Markey target! And EIA doesn’t project a dramatic recovery in emissions in 2010 — just a 0.9% rise."Hey, whaddaya know? It’s fun to type with lots of exclamation points!!!!!
Obama's economic stewardship has brought use halfway to the Waxman-Markey target!!! It only took 2.5 million people losing their jobs!!!!!! Imagine how much more damage Obama can do to the economy, and how much less CO2 this country will produce, if Obama can put another 2.5 million people out of work!!!!!!!
Actually, the only reason I’m bothering to note this nonsense at all is because, in this post yesterday about the execrable economic performance of the prior presidential administration, I didn’t really say much about how bad Dubya was on employment (kudos to Bob Herbert for paying attention to that story here, though our corporate media generally does only on Labor Day anymore).
Here is the reality…
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose from 4.2% in January 2001, peaking at 6.3% in June 2003 and reaching a trough of 4.4% in March 2007. After an economic slowdown, the rate rose again to 6.1% in August 2008 and up to 7.2% in December 2008. [55] From December 2007 when the recession started to December 2008, an additional 3.6 million people became unemployed. [56] And, in January 2009, (Bush’s) last month in office, the nation lost 655,000 jobs, raising the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent, the highest level in more than 15 years. [57]So, if I were Michael Goldfarb, I’d keep my mouth shut on this issue, since Number 43 has no “bragging rights” at all (and speaking of bragging, get a load of this; truly an insufferable, incompetent lout for the ages).
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) is asking that both the Senate and executive branch open investigations into the actions of ACORN.Give me a break; meanwhile, ACORN’s Mike Shea tells us the following (here)…
The Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has come under fire recently when an undercover video showed employees offering to falsify housing applications for individuals claiming to be involved in prostitution. Additionally, former ACORN employees were arrested for allegedly falsifying vote applications during the 2008 election.
ACORN has stressed that the actions were the work of a few employees and do not represent the organization's policies.
…
"It is imperative that we proceed immediately to investigate what appears to be ACORN’s stunning disregard for the law and abuse of taxpayer funds. Such an investigation would serve as the basis for determining not only whether ACORN is worthy of receiving other federal funds this year, but ever again.”
Last week the nation became aware of video tapes made by a conservative activist targeting ACORN and ACORN Housing Corporation field offices across the country. A secret camera was used to record informal conversations. Three of the employees seen in the tapes are ACORN Housing employees, who are observed responding to the imposter's inquiries about ways to hide an illegal enterprise.And as far as “abuse of taxpayer funds” is concerned, this Think Progress post tells us that Shelby, along with the rest of his party, opposed caps on executive compensation at Wall Street financial firms, including those that received TARP money.
I was horrified, just like many of you, when I saw the video. While no transaction took place in this incident -- no client files were created or billed, no loan documents were signed or submitted, no bank loans were arranged -- this is not how members of our organization should behave. The employees might not have broken any laws, but they violated the moral and ethical standards that we have set for ourselves.
We have fired or suspended all of the employees that appear in the tapes and have transferred their client files to other offices. We have suspended all Housing counseling work in the DC office until we conduct a thorough investigation of that office's activity.
That’s a hell of a lot more of an “abuse of taxpayer funds” than anything ACORN has ever accomplished (and again, as Shea says, nobody was billed over this incident).
Update 1 9/16/09: And it looks like O'Keefe and his flunky tried the same stunt they pulled in DC also in Philadelphia, but with an altogether different result (here)...Shea actually notes this in his post above.
Update 2 9/16/09: And oh yeah, is anyone going to investigate this?
Update 3 9/17/09: I also agree that this is priceless; great catch.
“I’m sad to report today a death of a good friend to all of us…..Journalism,” Huckabee wrote in a post on his political action committee’s blog. “The once esteemed 4th estate of our nation and the protector of our freedoms and a watchdog of our rights has passed away after a long struggle with a crippling and debilitating disease of acute dishonesty aggravated by advanced laziness and the loss of brain function.”I would say that Huckabee has contributed himself in the “acute dishonesty” department with reports such as this, which claim that “not a drop of oil” was spilled during the Katrina disaster, when in reality, "124 spills were reported with a total volume of roughly 17,700 barrels of total petroleum products” as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita combined.
And when it comes to “loss of brain function,” I would also say that Huckabee is a subject matter expert based on this.
The post was written in August 2008.
Tee, hee, hee…
2 comments:
One of the trolls on phillyburbs asked if ACORN should be subject to a federal investigation.
My reply was yes if Freedom Works gets investigated as well.
Lets see how the outcome settles the wing nut accusations.
They have been after ACORN since the election.
At last someone had the guts to tell it like it is, thank you President Carter for your honesty.
Its time to let the south secede.
And Texas should lead the way - I'll "hold the door" for them.
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