Today's must...

Today's must:
The Inflection Is Near?

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
What if the crisis of 2008 represents something more fundamental than a recession, and 2008 was when we hit the wall - when Mother Nature and the market both said: "No more."

State of the Union, er State, or ...

It’s been a long eight years. Some may argue for the better, some for the worst. I’d say it’s arguably the longest and most downtrodden political section of my life. Let alone foreign policy, the economy, education and No Child Left Behind, his tax cuts and fix while the economy continued to flail, Bin Laden still runs free, the United States is known for its inhumane stories at Guantanamo, Bush violated laws and constitutional limits on presidential power.

By golly, though, I’ll miss him. Not just due to the problems finding jobs or salvaging our foreign used-to-be-allies, but I don’t know who I’ll misunderestimate now… nor where I’ll find my entertainment when truly looking for news. Without Bushisms, I’m not sure what I’ll do.
I mean, I watched the quasi State of the Union Address tonight, and i almost didn't understand Obama's plans without "strategeries", or "misunderestimated" numbers, or “learned children”.

Let's reflect on some of President Bush’s greatest moments:

"People say, well, do you ever hear any other voices other than, like, a few people? Of course I do."—Washington, D.C., Dec. 18, 2008

"So I analyzed that and decided I didn't want to be the president during a depression greater than the Great Depression, or the beginning of a depression greater than the Great Depression."—Washington D.C., Dec. 18, 2008

"I've been in the Bible every day since I've been the president."—Washington, D.C., Nov. 12, 2008

"I remember meeting a mother of a child who was abducted by the North Koreans right here in the Oval Office."—Washington, D.C., June 26, 2008

"Anyone engaging in illegal financial transactions will be caught and persecuted."—Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2008

"Now, there are some who would like to rewrite history—revisionist historians is what I like to call them."—Elizabeth, N.J., June 16, 2003

and to end, because they're all so amazing[ly horrid], a quote that applies to tonight:

"And so, in my State of the—my State of the Union—or state—my speech to the nation, whatever you want to call it, speech to the nation—I asked Americans to give 4,000 years—4,000 hours over the next—the rest of your life—of service to America. That's what I asked—4,000 hours." —Bridgeport, Conn., April 9, 2002

To quote my friend Lindsay, no wonder we can't find jobs.. this man ran our country for eight years.

Presidential Rankings, C-Span styles.

Thanks to a recent survey by C-Span, conducted with consult from 65 presidential historians, we have our most recent rating of the best and worst presidents.

According to the survey, Lincoln, Washington, and FDR were ranked as the top three presidents. Pierce, Andrew Johnson, and Buchanon brought up the end.

Interestingly, none of the Presidents from the 1990s or 2000s made the top ten... one made the bottom ten -President G.W.Bush, at number 36. Not too shabby, out of 42 so far (Obama was not included on the list). Personally, I think I'd be a bit upset if i found myself ranked under, or even with, Hoover (34th) or Tyler (35th).

According to a Wall Street Journal survey in 2005(Wikipedia ):

Another presidential poll was conducted by The Wall Street Journal in 2005, with James Lindgren of Northwestern University Law School for the Federalist Society.[6] As in the 2000 survey, the editors sought to balance the opinions of liberals and conservatives, adjusting the results "to give Democratic- and Republican-leaning scholars equal weight." Franklin D. Roosevelt still ranked in the top-three, but editor James Taranto noted that Democratic-leaning scholars rated George W. Bush the sixth-worst president of all time, while Republican scholars rated him the sixth-best, giving him a split-decision rating of "average".

Further, a survey conducted by Siena College of 744 professors reported the following:

* "George W. Bush has just finished five years as President. If today were the last day of his presidency, how would you rank him? The responses were: Great: 2%; Near Great: 5%; Average: 11%; Below Average: 24%; Failure: 58%."
* "In your judgment, do you think he has a realistic chance of improving his rating?” Two-thirds (67%) responded no; less than a quarter (23%) responded yes; and 10% chose no opinion or not applicable."

Although, not all of the past 30 years was a bust... Ronald Reagan topped the list at number ten, Bill Clinton came in at 15th, and George H.W. Bush ranked 18th. Jimmy Carter brought up this pack at at 25th, just above Nixon at 27th.

So, we've got in order:

• Carter, 25th


• Reagan, 10th


• HWBush, 18th


• Clinton, 15th


• WBush, 36th

Mind you, I promise I'm not attacking GWBush or anyone for any reason, I just think this is interesting. Here's the C-Span site with results:
www.c-span.org/PresidentialSurvey/presidential-leadership-survey.aspx,

and read more about it here:
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/02/presidential_rankings_leadersh.html


More to come, later.

I promise I'm back now. Needed a break for a while - holidays, traveling, and starting a (few) new jobs.

A must few minutes of your day...

Another Jib-Jab original. Gotta love WalMart...

annnnd

A message from the Treasury Department: Sponsor an Executive

American Dream, or downfall?

[Sorry its been a while. Travels, jobs/unemployment, life.. you know.
I'll be back at it from now on. Also, I'm still writing for Lucy Mag so keep your eyes their for posts as well. This is more of an opinion/reaction piece than my normal writing style, but please read and comment as always.]

It's appalling to think that after the largest day of sales in the United States, we finally officially announce that we're in a recession. That's right - a mere two days after Black Friday 2008, on the official Internet Black Friday, the federal government stated officially that the United States is in a recession. Some reports state that should things continue as-is, it will be the largest and worst setback since the Great Depression of the 1930s. No matter who would be stepping in as the next President, he or she would have one of the toughest jobs facing a president in their first few months in office ever.

It's amazing to think that we, almighty Americans, with our geocapital market and every-man philanthropical pipe dreams, might need to hold back.
It seems that our overzealous and nonchalant thoughts and beliefs of the market, economy, and our own pocket size have caught up with us. So maybe that extra eleven passenger four wheel drive SUV for a family of four is overkill - we certainly look good driving it. And my big screen TV surely isn't good enough, as its thicker than a bridged dictionary. And heck, while we're at it, this house is less prominent than I feel we should live in. Let's re-mortgage everything so we can really stand for what we want to. Onward [and upward], American Soldiers, marching in a row, right into Wal*Mart to trample an employee to death, just to save a few dollars even before the store opens. Or, for that matter, we'll just take our guns and battle it out.

For some reason, our college graduates are entering the workforce, if they can get a job, tens of thousands, if not hundreds, of dollars in debt. Oddly, they're the same group of people racking up credit card debt. Is it lack of education, training, understanding, mere nonchalantness? I'm not sure why our youngest generations have cell phones, and credit cards (or access to use them), and the latest edition of the newest gaming system - I don't remember ever having such things, or as many options, growing up, not because they didn't exist or we couldn't afford them, but because they are not essential. And I'm not too far off from these kids.

We've become obsessed with what we can have.
I've heard stories from friends, of kids stealing their parent's credit cards, reporting them stolen, and then later trying to reactivate them, for their use, at their convenience.
We've become obsessed with self growth and wealth.
A local grocery-store chain made an offer on a non-prime location, even over the asking price of the owners, but was denied the property because a "Supersized"', "Large", "Big", ... got it? ... grocery store more than doubled the offer from the local store, just to keep out the competition. The giant (get it?) chain had a store a few miles down the road, but could not see losing such an opportunity to shutout a business that clearly could not compete.

Our proud-to-be-American car companies have known for years that foreign competition was brining smaller and more versatile options to the market. It's obvious - my second car (in 2000) was a mid-80's VW that was dwarfed by the majority of domestic cars from the same time period. That's not to say that the car companies weren't making what demand asked for, but it is to say that maybe a little foresight is better than hindsight. Now we're faced with the dilemma of a flailing (and failing...) American auto industry and its owners and CEOs. If it were a small business, like my friend's local market, most owners would dump their lives into their businesses to keep them afloat and save them. Yet, here we are with the bigwigs of the auto industry asking the federal government for help from their private jets. I don't think they'll be selling their Italian leather shoes and Persian suits, let alone their private jets and getaways, to save the companies they represent. But represent they should.

If I remember correctly, GM announced more than a month ago, that the production of most SUVs, trucks, and even the Hummer brand, would be downsized or even cut. Yet we're seeing more and more 2009 and 2010 models being released, and plans for future SUVs and trucks in the making. Some car dealerships are offering "buy one get one free" deals with their large vehicles. The last thing I bought with that offer was a box of cereal, if I remember correctly... My point is this - we're able to offer such deals in the auto industry, or the housing market, or the banking with financing, loans, etc., yet now we're surprised we're sinking in a rut? I think it's obvious that our lifestyles have led us to our demise.

I'm not sure when these ideals took over our nation, our way of life. Sure we've always been the best of the best, topping out the top of... you name it. But when did our stupidity outrun our ideology? Why must we have the newest, greatest thing, just to get by? But yes, on top of all of this, we're finally realizing that maybe we should hold back, maybe we should be frugal and thoughtful on our spending and gluttony. And when we decide that maybe we should not be so thoughtless with our spending and we actually find the bottoms of our pockets, it's too late - we're failing to uphold what it means to be American, and our economy plummets. It seems that maybe we've woken up from the American Dream, and we've realized the realities of its dark corners.

Hope, with a new day.

I've been unhappy for eight years. I cannot fathom the fact that we may now have a president who stands and fights for what we believe in. Hearing discussions of plans and ideals for this new administration while incorporating many of the things we all stand for is beyond my comprehension. All this, after eight years of President Bush.

It's not a revelation like the civil rights movement, or women’s voting rights; it is a revelation of a new kind. I am reveled to know we have a president who is what we elected; he is not a president for the people but by and of the people.

We are watching videos from Australia, Greece, Japan, Indonesia, France, Kenya, England, Iran, China, … the world is celebrating a new leader that hope will bring them change as well.
Hope. Hope that will change America; hope that will provide support and change around the world. Kenya names a new national holiday. Iran announces hope for better understanding from the west and east worlds. France and England, that the United States will once again stand up, fight, and lead as it should in this world. We’ve put aside our hard-edged partisanship and banded together to prove once again, how great of a nation we are. Obama: “Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.”

No matter on which side you stand, the energy and excitement of these days is enveloping. We need not be afraid of a separated people if we can all continue our undying support and charisma in the coming times.

America is the land of the free, the home of the brave. “This is your answer,” Obama said, if you believe that anyone can achieve anything in America. We have moved on as a nation, beyond our bickering and strong lines separating us. We will put our hands on the arc of history, and once again bend it towards a better day.

“To those -- to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.”

It is morning in America; it is a new day.




(I hope none of you missed the acceptance speech made by President Elect Obama, if you did, or if you’d like to rewitness it: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/04/obama.transcript/?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail)


It's been a long haul, but here we are.