Playing the Middle Against Both Sides - #politics

No one is giving Barack Obama much credit for continuing to try to be President of the United States at a time when the nation, politically and ideologically, is split in half.

Despite repeated setbacks and rebuffs, he is still trying to do what he was elected to do: Be President to the people on both sides of the big divide.

So he is not likely to veer sharply left and become President of the Progressives. And those on the right long ago decided to treat him like the Antichrist or, on a day when they are feeling magnanimous, merely as Public Enemy #1.

Personally, I wish the President now would side strongly, firmly and loudly with the Progressives, the liberals and moderates who still believe it is possible to take care of the least among us while also creating jobs, restoring education, encouraging science and fighting our way out of the Great George W. Bush Recession.

But then, President Obama would not be doing the job he was elected to do, which is to serve all of the people, even the ones who have tried long and hard to wreck his Administration at every turn and thus prolong the nation's economic woes for their own political gain.

In any case, a presidential move to the left would only raise the outrage and partisan resistance of the right, widening the great gap even more and further deepening it.

If Barack Obama is not re-elected, the next President -- Perry, Romney, Bachmann or ? -- likely will not try to represent anyone to the left of deep right field, except with sneering lip service.

In that case, the political gridlock will worsen and the right-left divide simply will expand as battered Democrats pull out their now-long list of grievances and seek revenge and full payback for all that the Republicans have done to them during the Obama Administration.

Electing a President in 2012 who is to the right of center will just give us four more years of stalemate and empty, futile political posturing.

Like it or not, America's economic recovery and psychic recovery will have to happen somewhere in the murky center.

It will never happen in the now sharply defined right or left.

-- Si Dunn

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Remember When Information Technology Was Hot, Hot, Hot?

I came across a very telling article recently while cleaning out some old piles of my journalism. In January, 1999, I co-authored a piece, "IT careers for sale," that appeared in Computer User magazine. The subhead stated: "If you have computer skills and a pulse, recruiters want you on the IT front lines."

Remember when information technology (IT) was hot, hot, hot? Clinton and Gore were in office in those days, and the overheated dotcom boom was still underway.

Here is how the article began:

Chances are, you've gotten their calls. And their emails. And their faxes, postcards and letters. You've seen their big "Now Hiring!" signs hanging on the sides of buildings. You've read their billboards, heard their radio commercials, even felt their earnest handshakes and gotten their business cards at professional association social gatherings.

Lately, you may even have noticed their pitches in a most unlikely place: On monthly statements from some of your credit card companies.

It's a recruiters' jungle out there, and you, friend, are the big game they are stalking, even if you don't want to be hunted.

Blame it on demand versus supply. There are now many more information technology jobs than there are computer professionals to fill them. The Information Technology Association has estimated that one in 10 computer-related jobs currently is going begging--that's almost 350,000 vacancies.

Desperate companies are searching far and wide, recruiting on the Internet, on college campuses, at rock concerts and in distant lands. They are offering referral bonuses, signing bonuses and bigger bounties to outside recruiters. Some even are raiding their competitors' talent--or at least being accused of it...."

Sadly, those days likely are long gone now. But that seems to be how the American economy works: in cycles of boom and bust.

A decade later, in troubled 2009, if you have computer skills and a pulse, you likely are unemployed, underemployed or in fear of losing your job very soon.

It may be time now to recruit yourself and turn your computer skills and job experiences into self-employment. If you still have a job or need more income, you can start something on the side and test the waters of small business. If you are unemployed and standing now with others in long lines to compete for one, two or a few jobs, it may also be time to recruit yourself and create your own job.

It's not easy, but if you have computer skills and a pulse, you can do it. You might even have to do it if the economy doesn't pick up soon.

Operators, unfortunately, are not standing by.

--Si Dunn

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It's the BushCheneyRoveLimbaugh Economy, Stupid

It's funny--yet not really funny at all--how the current economic crisis suddenly exploded into public view just a few short weeks before the end of the Bush-Cheney-Rove-Limbaugh Administration. And lawmakers were given something like one week to come up with massive amounts of bailout cash, or else the American and world economies would all swirl down the tube like a flushed toilet.

Conspiracy theorists might postulate that Republican insiders were frantically trying to keep the meltdown hidden until BushCheneyRoveLimbaugh made it out of office, so the economy then would implode just after President Barack Obama was inaugurated. And Democrats would get all of the blame for the collapse just as they tried to put forth their agenda of change and help for the downtrodden middle class and poor.

Anyway, it all blew up on the GOP's watch, and the elephant boys now are feeling the wrath from people all over America and the world while they frantically try to deflect the criticism toward President Obama--and make it "his" economy.


“Never underestimate the capacity of angry populism in times of economic stress,” Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and labor secretary under President Bill Clinton, recently told the New York Times. “A big challenge for President Obama will be to maintain a rational and tactical public discussion in the midst of this severe downturn. The desire for culprits at times like this is strong.”

The blame needs to stay squarely on the true culprits: the "free market" Republicans who pushed financial regulation almost completely out of the economy and let crooks, pirates and others driven by greed take over and rip us off while steering corporations, funds and worker benefits straight into the ground.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney recently has said "Don't blame us for this mess." He was just trying--very unsuccessfully--to steer the spotlight away from the economic sins of the past eight years, during which he helped advise and preside.

It's still not Barack Obama's economy--not yet. We're still trying to cope with the financial horrors of the BushCheneyRoveLimbaugh economy. And we will continue trying to cope with them for many months to come, until the Obama Administration's frantic flurry of emergency measures finally starts turning things around.

So, yes, do blame the free-market, anti-regulation Republicans for this current mess. Keep the spotlights squarely focused on BushCheneyRoveLimbaugh--and make them keep paying the electric bills for the illumination, as well.

For a long while, it seemed that the messes in Iraq and Afghanistan would be their main--and dubious--legacy. But those are small potatoes now, compared with the huge pile of burnt hash browns the GOP and their free-market cronies have made out of the American and global economies.

Once a recovery starts to take hold, remember who refused to help and cooperate in our nation's time of peril: the House Republicans and their incessant "No!" votes against the Obama Administration's proposals; and most (but not all) of the Senate Republicans, who keep clinging to the failed policies that nearly sent us into the Great Depression of 2009.

Oh, and especially the real head of the Republican Party: Rush "I Hope Obama Fails" Limbaugh.

--Si Dunn

Small Business: Too Big to Fail?

America's small businesses should also be viewed as "too big to fail." Indeed, small business should be given much greater focus in efforts to revive the national economy.

Small businesses create most of the nation's jobs. With better and focused support, they could create more jobs quickly.

With the top of the economy now in tatters and ruins, the recovery basically will have to come from the bottom up. That includes small business and the millions who own or work for small enterprises. The vast majority of them make a lot less than $250,000.

"Trickle down" has been completely and utterly discredited.

It's time now to emphasize and build upon "trickle up."

-- Si Dunn

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Have We Recovered Yet? Well, Why Not???

By Si Dunn

It's getting ridiculous out there in World Recession Land.

Pollsters here and abroad are surveying the public on whether or not they expect President Obama to make a good speech to Congress tonight about the economic crisis. News flash: Some people do and some people don't expect the President to make a good speech tonight. And a few people have no opinion at all or just don't care. (Feel free to quote my unscientific but common-sense poll results.)

The Republicans already are attacking the speech before it has been given and lining up a multiracial presidential hopeful from Louisiana (that paragon of fiscal stability) to give the GOP "response." Can you say "Tax cuts"? How about: "Earmarks" and "Why weren't we consulted? We have a lot of good ideas, such as tax cuts...and more tax cuts. Oh, and tax cuts!"

Meanwhile, world economies seem to be in free fall. Their financial leaders are particularly worried about Citigroup and Bank of America and AIG, plus a few others. Meanwhile, everyday citizens here and in Great Britain, Ireland, Russia, China and elsewhere are blaming "greedy bankers" and "bank bonuses," because the rest of the mumbo-jumbo makes absolutely no sense to those of us who don't have MBAs and a few years' experience at investment banks and have just lost our jobs and life savings.

We can certainly imagine major investment fraudsters hanging from lampposts, but we can't figure out how to string up or shoot a "derivative."

Anyway, everything apparently hangs in the balance with President Obama's speech. The whole enchilada. Some people apparently hope he will come up with the magic formula that gets us back to "the good old days" by next Friday, or Monday at the latest.

Good luck with that. A good speech is just a good speech, unless it somehow generates a rallying cry that sweeps America and the world.

Look, no one is going to save us except ourselves. The recovery will have to come from the bottom up, because the top is in meltdown and total chaos and ruins.

Figure out what you can do today to help yourself, your family, your friends and your favorite small businesses stay afloat in these absurd times.

Spend some money. Save some money. Sell off some crap on eBay or Amazon. Unclutter your life. Get lean and mean. Take some classes. Learn some new things. Stay in touch, but don't let the bad news keep knocking you down.

The recovery starts with you, with me, with us. Let's get it started now.

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Take This Tax Cut...and SHOVE IT!!!

By Si Dunn

I managed to retire just in time. But now, some of my limited income and retirement savings are being used to help keep some of my adult children afloat.

They absolutely need a helping hand right now from the Bank of Dad. (Memo to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner: Dude, I may need TARP funds soon.)

I'm also hearing from friends now doing the same thing. All across America, millions of branches of the Bank of Dad and the Bank of Mom are bleeding capital.

Their grown kids are out of work, out of health care coverage and having to quit college for lack of money. And their new-job prospects are zero. They fill out application after application and add them to thick stacks of other applications piling up for the same low-end, no-benefits position.

To the Republicans currently fighting tooth and nail (gold tooth and manicured nail, of course) against President Obama's economic recovery package, I have just one thing to say: Take all of your pet tax cuts...and shove 'em where the sun don't shine.

The need for jobs is NOW. The need for health care assistance is NOW. The need for more college funding is NOW. The repairs to crumbling infrastructure need to be done NOW.

And the money needs to be there NOW, not sometime in 2010 or 2011 or 2012, if it miraculously trickles down at all. Millions of people are hurting, scared and worried...NOW...and they need help and reassurance...NOW.

How will one your prized tax cuts feed their family tonight? How will a tax cut pay for their doctor visit and prescription medications tomorrow? How will a tax cut keep a son or daughter from dropping out of college next Monday?

Senators and Congresspersons, what part of NOW do you not understand?

Clearly, you don't venture much outside the Beltway, nor outside your cozy, socially-insulated clubs of well-off friends. Your advisors feed you just what you want to hear: Everything's rosy and another tax cut will make life even better.

President Obama went to Elkhart, Indiana, and held a town hall meeting in a city where unemployment is now approaching 16 percent. He answered stimulus and tax cut questions and tried to reassure Americans that we can get through this very real crisis if we work together.

What have you, Republicans on Capitol Hill, done lately for middle-class and lower-class Americans...except to stretch out their pain, heighten their fear and feed their sense of uncertainty with your stalling tactics, posturing speeches, and appalling yammerings about "tax cuts" and "pork."

There are now hundreds of thousands of Americans who would dearly love to have some pork--just a few slices--at their dinner table tonight.

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How One Dollar Can Help the Stupid Economy

By Si Dunn

Most of us can't battle layoffs. We can't bail out banks or corporations or sectors of the economy. Some of us think we can't do anything except stock up on canned goods and water and hide in the attic or basement until the current bad times blow over.

Two hot news flashes for the attic hiders and basement bunker-ites: (1) Things are gonna be bad for a long time; and (2) things are gonna be even worse if you try to hide from the recession.

No, you can't battle layoffs. You can't bail out banks or corporations or economic sectors. But you can help a few people save their jobs. And, in doing so, you will help lighten the load for their families and their families' families.

Tip a waitress or waiter or your barber an extra dollar today. Put an extra dollar in the church collection plate. Buy a birthday card or get-well card from a little, locally owned gift shop. Donate an extra dollar to a charity or a school fundraiser. Add an extra dollar to your kids' allowance or your grandkids' birthday envelope--and forget the usual admonitions to save it. They'd rather spend it anyway.

If there is something inexpensive you have been wanting to buy for your house or your car or your yard or your favorite hobby, buy it now. But don't spend every penny at your local big-box retailer that can still afford to undercut every Mom-and-Pop shop in your town. Go to the little shop in your neighborhood, instead, and willingly pay a dollar more than you would at the big shrine at the edge of town.

Your individual dollar makes no big difference to Wal-Mart or AIG or Bank of America. But to somebody trying to earn a living with a bicycle repair shop or a hair salon or a one-truck lawn service or a tiny hardware store, that dollar can have direct impact on keeping the doors open and keeping at least one person or a small handful of people employed and working.

If each of us keeps doing a little bit--a dollar here, a dollar there--to help out, the recession can be shorted and many jobs and households at the heart of our economy can be saved. But we will have to sustain the effort and keep doing it for a long time.

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