American Glob

Michael Scherer of TIME Magazine published a lengthy piece about Obama today in which he acknowledges the growing buyer’s remorse over hope-n-change…

With the local unemployment rate above 12% and rising again this summer, about a third of the employer display tables stood empty. Julie Griffin, who voted for Obama in ’08, sat down at the room’s edge, well dressed and discouraged. After 23 years as a payroll administrator at a local RV plant, she got laid off 18 months ago. “Really, what has he been doing?” she said when I asked about Obama’s efforts to help people like her. “I guess I don’t know what he is doing.”

Ironically, back in December of 2008 when I switched American Glob over from a news aggregator site to true blog form, my very first post was about the absurd number of times TIME Magazine had featured Obama on their cover.

That was almost two years ago. God only knows how many more times they’ve had him on the cover since then.

Read more opinion on the Time article at Memeorandum.

You can also watch Scherer summarizing his article in the video below.

Not a bad idea. You can get the basics from the Washington Post…

CLEVELAND — House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) called Tuesday for the mass firing of the Obama administration’s economic team, including Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and White House adviser Larry Summers, arguing that November’s midterm elections are shaping up as a referendum on sustained unemployment across the nation and saying the “writing is on the wall.”

Boehner said President Obama’s team lacks “real-world, hands-on experience” in creating jobs that are needed for a full economic recovery. The Republican lawmaker cited reports that some senior aides complained of “exhaustion,” including the recently departed budget chief Peter Orszag.

Of course the money quote comes at 0:46 in the video below. “We’ve tried nineteen months of government as community organizer and it hasn’t worked.”

Read more at Memeorandum.

If you know someone who works for a city or a state, you’ve probably heard them say something like, “The pay isn’t great but I have really good benefits.”

I’m betting you’ve never heard the same person say, “I work for a very poor small town but I make a cool $800,000.”

Hundreds of residents of one of the poorest municipalities in Los Angeles County shouted in protest last night as tensions rose over a report that the city’s manager earns an annual salary of almost $800,000.

An overflow crowd packed a City Council meeting in Bell, a mostly Hispanic city of 38,000 about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, to call for the resignation of Mayor Oscar Hernandez and other city officials. Residents left standing outside the chamber banged on the doors and shouted “fuera,” or “get out” in Spanish.

It was the first council meeting since the Los Angeles Times reported July 15 that Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo earns $787,637 — with annual 12 percent raises — and that Bell pays its police chief $457,000, more than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck makes in a city of 3.8 million people. Bell council members earn almost $100,000 for part-time work.

$100,000 for part time work? I must have missed that listing in the help wanted ads on Craigslist the last time I was looking for a job.

Maybe I should be checking at the porn listings. Is there a section dedicated to gouging the public that I somehow overlooked?

More at Memeorandum.

In addition to being a great actress and a beautiful woman, I think Katie Holmes could do amazing things to (ahem) stimulate the economy.

See (a lot more) below the fold.

Read more »

The American job market sure is great for sign makers lately. Especially for people who make signs touting the excellent job the Obama Administration did with the Stimulus Bill and unemployment.

ABC News reports:

As the midterm election season approaches, new road signs are popping up everywhere – millions of dollars worth of signs touting “The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act” and reminding passers-by that the program is “Putting America Back to Work.”

On the road leading to Dulles Airport outside Washington, DC there’s a 10′ x 11′ road sign touting a runway improvement project funded by the federal stimulus. The project cost nearly $15 million and has created 17 jobs, according to recovery.gov.

However, there’s another number that caught the eye of ABC News: $10,000. That’s how much money the Washington Airports Authority tells ABC News it spent to make and install the sign – a single sign – announcing that the project is “Funded by The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act” and is “Putting America Back to Work.” The money for the sign was taken out of the budget for the runway improvement project.

Obama has continued a number of policies from his predecessor, but now he even has a “Mission Accomplished” moment of his very own.

As reported by the Politico:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — President Barack Obama has a new campaign slogan.

“Yes, we did.”

And it doesn’t stop there. Republicans, an animated Obama argued Thursday, wouldn’t have.

They wouldn’t have set the economy back on track, he said during a fundraiser for Senate candidate Robin Carnahan, or passed a health care overhaul or financial regulatory reform. Giving the GOP control of Congress again — a possibility that Obama acknowledged — would usher in another era of a “you’re on your own philosophy,” he said.

In which alternate reality is the president currently residing? The economy is back on track? You could have fooled me.

Republicans wouldn’t have passed Obamacare? That’s a feature not a bug, Mr. President.

Your on your own philosophy? You mean like the people of Arizona who wish the federal government would do its job and secure their border?

If this is your idea of “yes we did” maybe you could do us a favor next time.

Don’t.

Maybe Chris Christie could share his common sense with the Democrats. They seem to be having some budget issues.

From the Journal Editorial Report this weekend:

Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin delivers the GOP weekly address.

I think this falls into the category of what Glenn Beck calls “common sense porn.”

HT to Smitty at The Other McCain who adds “cuts are fine, but we need to amputate the system that buries liberty in reams of legislation to support un-Federal tasking.”

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that many Americans share Rep. Paul Ryan’s fear.

It’s reassuring to know that California liberals have their priorities straight…

Self-described “whale-huggers” toughed chilling winds on the Santa Monica Pier on Sunday to restart a crusade they thought they’d won and to revise a familiar slogan: Save the Whales Again.

Way to focus on the issues, Golden Staters.

It’s not like California is broke or anything.

The more important issue is human rights for whales.

Notice the sign in the background which says Obama save the whales. How about Obama save the Americans? Too old school?

Don’t tell the “totally real” native American in the photo below that the Inuit people still hunt whales.