News Clips of the Day... Pay attention!

[Kathryn777]

Whether you agree or disagree with the current administration or the last makes no difference.  The reality is that we all need to listen to the information being shared by various news organizations and make sure you and your family are ready for whatever may come.  We, individually, are responsible for the mess we find ourselves and our nation in.  Dig down deep and find out what you can do to help... STOP taking hand outs!!  STOP the mentality that your neighbor owes you something via government handouts...  I promise not to ask you to pay for my problems if you promise not to ask me to pay for yours.  I am the first to give the shirt of my back to help a person in need but don't steal it from my children's mouths and then wonder what the hell happened to our country when it's gone!

K

Link:

Obama: Too much debt could fuel double-dip recession

BEIJING, Nov 18 (Reuters) - PresidentBarack Obama gave his sternest warning yet about the need to contain rising U.S. deficits, saying on Wednesday that if government debt were to pile up too much, it could lead to a double-dip recession. ... "It is important though to recognize if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession," he said.

Link:

"Double Dip Recession" Remarks by Obama on Video

November 18, 2009

'Double-Dip Recession'

Obama sits down with Major Garrett

Link:

Improper US Government Payments Hit $98 Billion

Improper payments by the U.S. government to people, firms and contractors rose sharply to $98 billion in fiscal 2009 and President Barack Obama plans new rules to clamp down, the White House said Tuesday.

Over half the mistakes were made in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and although some of the deterioration reflected stricter measurement, it also showed the need for healthcare reform, Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag told reporters.

Improper payments in the Medicare and Medicaid programs totaled $55 billion in fiscal 2009, according to documents provided by OMB.

Medicare covers healthcare for the elderly and some disabled, while Medicaid does the same for the poor.

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The worst is yet to come: Unemployed Americans should hunker down for more job lossesBY NOURIEL ROUBINISunday, November 15th 2009, 4:00 AM

Think the worst is over? Wrong. Conditions in theU.S.labor markets are awful and worsening. While the official unemployment rate is already 10.2% and another 200,000 jobs were lost in October, when you include discouraged workers and partially employed workers the figure is a whopping 17.5%.

While losing 200,000 jobs per month is better than the 700,000 jobs lost in January, current job losses still average more than the per month rate of 150,000 during the last recession.

Also, remember: The last recession ended in November 2001, but job losses continued for more than a year and half until June of 2003; ditto for the 1990-91 recession.

So we can expect that job losses will continue until the end of 2010 at the earliest. In other words, if you are unemployed and looking for work and just waiting for the economy to turn the corner, you had better hunker down. All the economic numbers suggest this will take a while. The jobs just are not coming back.

There's really just one hope for our leaders to turn things around: a bold prescription that increases the fiscal stimulus with another round of labor-intensive, shovel-ready infrastructure projects, helps fiscally strapped state and local governments and provides a temporary tax credit to the private sector to hire more workers. Helping the unemployed just by extending unemployment benefits is necessary not sufficient; it leads to persistent unemployment rather than job creation.

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California budget shortfall to top $21 billion

OAKLAND, Calif., Nov 17 (Reuters) - California faces a budget gap of nearly $21 billion over its current and next fiscal years, according to the state government's budget watchdog agency, the Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday.

The newspaper said California's Legislative Analyst's Office would issue an official report on Wednesday with its shortfall estimate.

The projection comes less than four months after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers agreed to a budget plan that closed a deficit of more than $24 billion largely with deep spending cuts to respond to plunging revenues amid the worst economic crisis to hit the most populous U.S. state since the Great Depression.

Schwarzenegger said last week he expects a budget gap for the rest of the current fiscal year of between $5 billion to $7 billion. His finance advisors had previously said the state government would see a $7.4 billion gap in the next fiscal year beginning in July.

But next year's budget shortfall will be much larger than initially forecast, the Los Angeles Times said. Citing sources briefed the upcoming report, it said the deficit will be $14.4 billion. (Reporting by Jim Christie; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

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Commodity Rally Drives Mining Stocks Higher as Dollar Drops

Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Commodities rose as the recovering world economy spurred demand for raw materials, sending gold to a record and mining stocks higher. Oil advanced for a third day as the dollar fell.

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US housing starts plunge by 10.6% in October

New US residential construction plunged last month, falling for the first time since April and taking the wind out of the housing market’s fragile recovery, official figures showed on Wednesday.

Separately, the labour department said the cost of living in the US ticked up in October, as the slow pace of the economic recovery has kept inflation in check.

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Obama renews climate pledge

By Fiona Harvey in London and Geoff Dyer and Edward Luce in Beijing

Published: November 17 2009 18:52 | Last updated: November 17 2009 18:52

Barack Obama, the US president, on Tuesday gave his strongest commitment yet to an international deal on climate change , with the backing of a chorus of world leaders.

Speaking at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, together with Hu Jintao, the Chinese president , Mr Obama said the climate summit in Copenhagen next month should establish a new pact on greenhouse gases even if the original goal of a legally binding pact was now unlikely.

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Tea partiers brutally beaten by pro-amnesty group
Shocking! Illegal immigration protesters attacked, pushed into traffic

Posted: November 17, 2009
10:13 pm Eastern

By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

Che Guevara supporters with a radical pro-amnesty coalition viciously attacked and bludgeoned tea party protesters at a Florida anti-illegal-immigration rally, including a 62-year-old man who was beaten and kicked in the face.

Americans for Legal Immigration PAC called for "Tea Parties Against Amnesty and Illegal Immigration" to form quickly across the nation on Nov. 14. In less than 30 days, protests were scheduled for more than 50 towns and cities.

But two Fort Lauderdale, Fla., tea party protesters were brutally beaten by pro-amnesty activists on the day of the nationwide rally as they attempted to film Florida's Act Now to Stop War and End Racism Coalition counterprotest.

ANSWER members carried Che Guevara signs and other black and yellow placards that stated "Full rights for all immigrants." They shouted, "Amnesty yes, racists no!"

As the two men attempted to film the protest, an ANSWER member in a black tanktop and blue jeans lunged after one of the cameramen and beat him with a sign, pushing him into traffic. Another ANSWER member in a white T-shirt attacked the same cameraman while the victim defended himself with what appears to be a camera tripod.

A female tea party protester began screaming as Dave Caulkett of Floridians for Immigration Enforcement and the initial ANSWER attacker fought in the middle of the street.

The following is a video of the attack released by ALIPAC:

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Poll: Only 43% would vote for Obama now
1 year after election, trust in president plunging

Posted: November 17, 2009

Just 12 months after voting by a 53-47 margin to put Barack Obama in the White House, only 43 percent of voters today would re-elect him, according to a new Zogby Internaional–O'Leary Report Poll.

"Most voters don't trust the president on the number one issue of the day: job creation. On top of that, a surprising plurality of voters, and Independent voters in particular, don't side with President Obama on the number one issue to him: whether or not he should be president," said Brad O'Leary, a former NBC Westwood One talk show host and publisher of the O'Leary Report.

Just 12 months after voting by a 53-47 margin to put Barack Obama in the White House, only 43 percent of voters today would re-elect him, according to a new Zogby Internaional–O'Leary Report Poll.

"Most voters don't trust the president on the number one issue of the day: job creation. On top of that, a surprising plurality of voters, and Independent voters in particular, don't side with President Obama on the number one issue to him: whether or not he should be president," said Brad O'Leary, a former NBC Westwood One talk show host and publisher of the O'Leary Report.

[peacefulkids]

Nov. 18, 2009 at 1:20 PM Thank you, I keep wondering the same thing...