We’ve all seen the bar charts highlighting job creation under President Obama. But what is notable is that those bar charts only go back through 2008 (presumably to highlight the onset of the recession). But, what is perhaps just as striking is looking at the numbers all the way back to January 2001 when GWB took office. The reality is that the monthly jobs reports we’re getting now are fast approaching those seen in the best of times under Bush.
PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net 
Let’s put the Santorum Kansas “win” in perspective, shall we?
–Out of 725,000 or so active Republican voters in Kansas, only 30,000 or so voted yesterday.
–30,000 people is a smaller population than Salina and smaller than Hutch, but a smidge bigger than Hays. In other words, it’s not very many people.
–The total Republican turnout was 0.04, or 4%. That’s 4% of the *Republicans,* not 4% of all voters.
–Half of that 4%, or 2%, of those Republicans voted for Santorum.
–In most polls, the margin of error is 3% to 5%.
In other words, even in Kansas, Rick Santorum is insignificant. He’s a sideshow – a shell of an ideologue flogged by the media just to keep the primary cycle interesting. People should give him, and his misogynistic rantings, the attention they deserve: None at all.
Interest in voting in the republican caucus declined slightly. In Sedgwick County, nearly 3,000 people voted, as compared to 3,228 Sedgwick County GOP voters who cast ballots in the 2008 matchup between former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Arizona Sen. John McCain.
IIRC – Kansas voted for Huckabee in 2008 – didn’t they?
Enough said……
Huckabee did win the 2008 Kansas Caucus – and look at the percentage of votes – 59% – very similiar to Santorum’s results – around 52 or 53%?
Let’s face it – Kansas is full of Far Right Wingers….
http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/results/states/KS.html
You hear the incurious (kindest word I could come up with!) asking this all the time.
WHAT THE HECK HAS OBAMA DONE SO FAR?
http://whattheheckhasobamadonesofar.com/
That is part of it, to look at what the President has done and what has been accomplished. The complains are the same as the ole saying about complainning if hung with a new rope. Things were bad and there was a need for major and important things to be done which the President had done.
It is getting me how both side on the cable news networks are dismissing each other using the same exact method. expressed concerns and points of interest are being dismissed and disconcerting based solely on “well they are Liberals!” cased with a knowing eye to the person they say it to. Or “Oh of course it is because of their rampant racism…. They are a Conservative!”. Again cased with that same knowing eye.
While the reality maybe simply not as much “Knowing” and more as dismissing of having to think outside of a preconceived notion as to what is going on and who is causing it. Too much is being justified and dismissed as being justified based on past offensives and some even not factual offensives.
But howdy how well it works and especially so in a election year! It can dismiss any already known knowledge or facts that were long established until the statement that dismissed or misstated that known fact. Do not get me wrong in some cases it is true that some people’s opinions are based on no other fact then a political sway. Without thoughts on the subject or facts outside of their preconceived ideology.
Real facts are not true fact solely on the political sway that they support or dismiss. I would sincerely hope if a alien life form did come to make the evaluation as to whether the human race is intelligent enough to allow to continue or should it be exterminated? That they would look beyond MSNBC or Fox news, if not we are short lived for the future…
I was reading about the fungus that eats plastic this morning. Sounds like a real solution for waste, doesn’t it? Until you start wondering about the possibilities — this fungus is used in a landfill, there is rainfall runoff that gets into streams which ends up in water supplies… Eats plastic. Pipes, joint replacements… My, my, sounds like something that could be helpful could also be harmful.
Unintended consequences.
Do those who make the decisions that affect us all look at the issues carefully enough to weigh all the potentials, both good and bad?
I can’t remember details but without the details we can see that back in the middle of the 20th century when kudzu was brought from Japan to the U.S. as a ground cover to help with soil erosion there were unintended consequences. The vine which wasn’t aggressive in Japan found its ideal growing conditions in the U.S. Southeast. Today kudzu vines have literally invaded and cover trees, power poles, destroy valuable forests.
When Congress holds hearings on issues they’re thinking of regulating or making laws about they bring in experts to testify. These people are to help the Congress Critter understand the issue. The expertise of some of their ‘experts’ could be in question, or have a a bias, and sometimes they are ignored because the politicians and those who influence them have a bias. Yet they make decisions that affect all of us and all too often have unintended consequences.
This wouldn’t be as serious if everything that happens in Congress wasn’t declared a victory by one side or the other. Declaring victory means there was a loser! The ‘winning’ side then becomes incapable of admitting the need to change / amend / improve, and they double down and protect their ‘win.’ Winning — and making the other side the loser — has become more important than finding solutions.
On my way home from work tonight, I followed a van that had the entire back side plastered with bumper stickers.
There was the obligatory Jesus Fish symbol, several Anti-Obama stickers, a few Global Warming is a hoax stickers and several using Jesus’ name in different ways.
What I want to know is – if a person has to cover their entire back side of their van with all theses stickers about how Christian they are – who are they trying to convince – me or themselves?
A person who is truly following Jesus’ teachings does not need to advertise – everyone is able to see to this person is living with an unconditional love, peace and compassion – which is what Jesus taught.
I don’t remember seeing any bumper stickers on the back of that donkey that Jesus rode into Jerusalem telling people to ‘honk if you love Jesus’.