Barrack Obama, An Empty Barrel?

Posted by Editor on Aug 9th, 2011

BALTIMORE 08/09/2011 – Americans are increasingly realizing that Barrack Obama is an empty barrel; which is the loudest.
Because the American people have become some of the less politically educated in the world, they rely only on what they see on TV and hear on the radio. They chose the best smiles, the best looks, the best words as their leaders.
The era of citizen mobilization through the military, citizen administration and taxation being over, the US is experiencing the “decline and fall of the citizen” (Matthew A Crenson and Benjamin Ginsberg, in Downsizing Democracy – How America Sidelined Its Citizens and Privatized Its Public, The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2002, p. 45), which opens the road to leadership to incompetent individuals.
Exclusion of the poor and the uneducated, which leads to about 50% of the electorate not voting, reliance on the courts instead of the citizens to settle electoral disputes, treating voters as customers instead of citizens who have the final say, shift from popular to personal democracy, from electorate to virtual citizenry, to a private government where groups instead of mobilized citizens make public policy, where advocacy groups and their lawyers speak for the citizens, where policymaking is made through litigation, where citizens’ associations never meet their members physically, all those downfalls have led to a general demobilization and loss of interest for politics in American society.
The result is that Washington Establishment makes the President and the Representatives they want, through private and group deal-makings ruled by corruption.
It is confronted with US foreign affairs that world citizens have easily found that Barrack Obama is just an empty barrel. For in domestic politics, he has been able to hide his incompetence behind the Congress and the administration.
In Africa, his father’s continent, he surprisingly lined up behind Nicolas Sarkozy, a derailed and boorish French leader, in his drive to re-colonize Cote d’Ivoire.
Obama backed Sarkozy-sponsored coup, the massacre of thousands and the genocide of hundreds, sometimes labeling peaceful demonstrators rallying behind their nationally elected president as “thugs”.
In Libya, Barrack Obama showed the same incompetence.
After he had followed blindly his “friend” Sarkozy in a wild escalation of barbaric bombings to unseat Muamar Gadhafi by all means, the Black American President pulled back as his popular support was dropping at home because of the madness he had started and of the declining economy.
Today, as the American economy is unstoppably sinking towards unknown depths, Obama can hide no more his weaknesses in a presidential campaign period.
It looks like the American people have seen nothing yet…
Ndzana Seme

Obama’s Economic Downgrade Blame Game

NewsFlavor Published by Ulsterman on August 8, 2011 in US Politic

Read more: http://newsflavor.com/politics/us-politics/obamas-economic-downgrade-blame-game/#ixzz1UZ5MDo3Y

In a brief teleprompted speech, a weak and faltering Barack Obama blames everyone but himself for the historical downgrade of America’s credit rating that occurred last week, while the stock market plummets and fellow Democrats now openly push for a Hillary Clinton 2012 campaign.

Today President’s Obama arrived at the podium nearly an hour late.  Such tardiness has now become all too common for the man once heralded by an adoring media as so “in control”.  Little of that control was on display Monday afternoon as the president, reading from his ever-present teleprompter, attempted to lay blame for the current financial downgrade fiasco on everyone and anyone besides himself – and even as Obama read from his script the stock market plummeted by over 600 points.

Here is an excerpt of what the Leader Of The Free World had to say:

“It’s not a lack of plans or policies that is a problem here, it’s a lack of political will in Washington. it is the insistence of drawing lines in the sand. A refusal to put what’s best for the country ahead of self-interest or party or ideology. And that’s what we need to change. I realize after what we just went through there is some skepticism in that.”

This from the man who leaders within both the Democrat and Republican parties complained – sometimes loudly, about how the president was all but absent from the negotiations, and offered up very little in the way of substantive solutions to the problem.  Barack Obama walked out of meetings as negotiations were underway, repeatedly threatening to veto the solutions of both political parties.  He whined.  He sulked.  He gave speech after speech demanding political leaders “work together” while behind the scenes he complained over and over again at the actual process of legislators working together.  President Obama didn’t like how long it took.  He didn’t like having to sit in on meetings.  He even went so far as to place blame on the entire American institution of government, declaring how much easier if he was the only one he had to answer to.  This most recent canned speech by the president will do nothing to alleviate the reality of Barack Obama as a man no longer able to hide the truth of his many weaknesses, for those weaknesses are legion.  Upon his late arrival, Obama appeared to struggle even with reading the words scrolling across the screen.  His voice faltered several times, words were slurred, the eyes seeming to lose focus again and again.
And now more and more within the Democratic Party are acknowledging the terrible mistake that has been the Obama presidency.  A Yahoo News report aptly titled Hillary Told You So tells of a growing number of Democrats sharing their deep disappointment in Barack Obama – namely how the wrong choice for the nomination was made in 2008.  This same Yahoo news report utilized a scathing quote from presidential scholar Matthew Dickinson regarding how wrong voters were to choose Obama over Hillary Clinton:

“Remember that 3 a.m. phone call? Remember the warning about the rose-colored petals falling from the sky? Remember about learning on the job? Sure you do. Doesn’t a part of you, deep down, realize she was right?” wrote Dickinson, a political-science professor at Middlebury College. “If I heard it once this last week, I heard it a thousand times: You were duped by Obama’s rhetoric—the whole ‘hopey-changey’ thing. And you wanted to be part of history, too—to help break down the ultimate racial barrier. That’s OK. We were all young once. But now it’s time to elect someone who can play hardball, who understands how to be ruthless, who will be a real … uh … tough negotiator in office. There won’t be any debate about Hillary’s, er, ‘man-package.”

It appears America’s credit rating wasn’t the only thing to be downgraded last week – so too was Barack Obama’s standing within his own Democratic Party…

Fed to keep interest rate near zero for 2 years

Fed says it will likely keep key interest rate at record low for 2 more years

Martin Crutsinger, AP Economics Writer, On Tuesday August 9, 2011, 3:27 pm

A sluggish economy and painfully high unemployment have become chronic

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve sketched a dim outlook for the economy Tuesday, suggesting it will remain weak for two more years. As a result, the Fed said it expects to keep its key interest rate near zero through mid-2013.

It’s the first time the Fed has pegged its “exceptionally low” rates to a specific date. The Fed had previously said only that it would keep it key rate at record lows for “an extended period.”

Stocks plunged after the statement was released, but then shot up shortly after. The Dow Jones industrial average sank more than 176 points, then recovered its losses and gained more than 120 points in late-afternoon trading.

Many investors sought the safety of long-term Treasurys, whose yields fell as low as 2.07 percent.

“There is a definite undertone of significant economic concern from the Federal Reserve,” said Greg McBride, an economist with Bankrate.com.

University of Oregon economist Timothy Duy called the move “weak medicine.”

Duy said he wanted to see the Fed commit to buying more Treasury bonds, to try to keep long-term rates down, until the economy improved.

The Fed’s two-year time frame for any rate increase underscored a stark reality: A sluggish economy and painfully high unemployment have become chronic.

The Fed did hold out the promise of further help down the road but did not spell out what else it might do.

The central bank’s decision was approved on a 7-3 vote with three Fed regional bank presidents who have been worried about inflation objecting. It was the first time since November 1992 that as many as three Fed members have dissented from a policy statement.

The Fed used significantly more downbeat language to describe current economic conditions. It said so far this year the economy has grown “considerably slower” than the Fed had expected and that consumer spending “has flattened out.” It also said that temporary factors, such as high energy prices and the Japan crisis, only accounted for “some of the recent weakness” in economic activity.

The more explicit time frame is aimed at calming nervous investors. It offered them a clearer picture of how long they will be able to obtain ultra-cheap credit, and was at least a year longer than many economists had expected.

Fed officials met against a backdrop of speculation that they would say or do something new to address a darkening economic picture. The stock market has plunged and government data have signaled a weaker economy in the four weeks since Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress that the Fed was ready to act if conditions worsened.

The economy grew at an annual rate of just 0.8 percent in the first six months of the year. Consumers have cut spending for the first time in 20 months. Wages are barely rising. Manufacturing is growing only slightly. And service companies are expanding at the slowest pace in 17 months.

Employers hired more in July than during the previous two months. But the number of jobs added was far fewer than needed to significantly dent the unemployment rate, now at 9.1 percent. The rate has exceeded 9 percent in all but two months since the recession officially ended in June 2009.

Fear that another recession is unavoidable, along with worries that Europe may be unable to contain its debt crisis, has rattled stock markets. The Dow Jones industrial average has lost nearly 15 percent of its value since July 21. On Monday, it fell 634 points — its worst day since 2008 and sixth-worst drop in history.

The tailspin on Wall Street was further fueled by Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade long-term U.S. debt.

Bernanke didn’t speak publicly after Tuesday’s Fed meeting. The chairman this year made a historic change by scheduling news conferences after four of the Fed’s eight policy meetings each year, but Tuesday’s wasn’t one of them.

Later this month at the Fed’s annual retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Bernanke will likely address the weakening economy, the S&P downgrade and the market turmoil.

Earlier this summer, the Fed ended a $600 billion Treasury bond-buying program. The bond purchases were intended to keep rates low to encourage spending and borrowing and lift stock prices.

US Closer to ‘Junk Bond’ Status Than Triple-A: Bove

CNBC Tuesday August 9, 2011, 11:58 am EDT

The US credit rating would be even worse than its recent downgrade from Standard & Poor’s if the nation was judged as a private company, banking analyst Dick Bove told CNBC Tuesday.

Speaking amid the hotly contested debate over whether the US should have lost its coveted triple-A rating in favor of the new Double-A plus, Bove said the US balance sheet and the burdensome national debt tell a clear story.

“You’ve got a company which is losing about $1.4 trillion this year, probably will lose somewhere around a trillion dollars over the next couple of years. It owes $14.4 trillion (and) over the next five years that will get up to $20 trillion,” the Rochdale Securities analyst said.

“So there’s no likelihood whatsoever that this particular company is able to pay down from its own resources the amount of debt that it has, nor is there any likelihood that it’s going to get rid of its deficit,” he added. “If that was a real company, of course, that would be a junk bond.”

The S&P downgrade late Friday roiled financial markets, causing wild swings in trading Friday as rumors of the move spread and then in part triggering a more than 600-point selloff Monday in the Dow industrials.

While the market rebounded in early trading Tuesday, Bove said he would not be buying stocks that likely have more downward pressure ahead.

“I still would expect to see a thousand-point down day at some point in this market as people come to realize there has been a complete change in the financial structure of the world,” he said.

While he believes bank stocks are cheap he would not be buying amid what he expects to be significant turmoil.

“We’re building a reserve currency around a country which is bankrupt and can’t pay its debt. How can you in essence be aggressive and say, ‘I know where the bottom is, or I know how this is going to adjust’?” he said.

“We have people buying Treasury securities because they’re worried about the Treasury,” he added. “We’ve got people selling banks stocks, taking the cash and putting into the banks for safety. It doesn’t make sense. What you’re seeing is this adjustment is occurring and people are not sure how to react to this adjustment.”

If Bove did decide to buy bank stocks, he said one of his targets would be Bank of America (NYSE:BAC -News). He called the sharp selloff in BofA stock on Monday “a little bit obscene.” The drop followed rumors that BofA might declare bankruptcy and preceded a sharp rally in the stock Tuesday.

“This company is so far away from being in trouble or needing additional capital that it’s ridiculous,” he said. “I think the market’s going lower so I’m not buying anything. The fact is, if I were to buy something I would be buying Bank of America aggressively.”

Obama Gives Statement About Economy In Wake Of S&P Downgrade

Assiciated Press, BEN FELLER   08/ 8/11 06:44 PM ET

WASHINGTON — Eager to calm a nervous nation, President Barack Obama on Monday dismissed an unprecedented downgrade in the nation’s credit rating, insisting investors will stand by the United States even as stock markets plunged. Obama said Washington can fix its ills by showing more political will.

“Markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America,” Obama said. “No matter what some agency may say, we’ve always been and always will be a triple-A country.”

Investors did funnel money on Monday into Treasurys, a sign of confidence in the United States as a safe long-term investment even after Standard & Poor’s had dropped the U.S. credit rating down a notch. But the broader story was far more worrisome: stock markets kept tumbling over concerns about the weakening U.S. economy and the debt crisis in Europe.

The Dow Jones industrials plummeted to its worst drop since December 2008.

For Obama, a president seeking a second term from voters desperate for better times, the pressure for results is intense.

He is the first president to have a credit downgrade come on his watch. And whether blaming him is fair or not – he actually pushed for the type of deal that might have prevented a downgrade – presidents are always accountable.

After saying nothing about the downgrade all weekend, Obama sought Monday to use it as leverage against a Congress whose members are on an August vacation. He said a downgrade ought to compel a smart compromise from the bipartisan committee of lawmakers that will soon be tasked with shaping up to another $1.5 trillion in difficult deficit reduction.

Obama said he would offer his own recommendations, although the White House suggested that would likely mean ideas Obama has already presented in recent weeks. Obama on Monday said Congress should ask wealthy Americans to pay more in taxes and should make adjustments in programs like Medicare. Both ideas face fierce political opposition.

“I assure you, we will stay on it until we get the job done,” the president assured. But Congress remains in divided political hands, limiting Obama’s ability to keep that promise.

Heading into a campaign-style economic tour before going on his own vacation, Obama’s overall rating hovers below 50 percent in most polling. He is on far more perilous ground when it comes to public views on the key issue for voters – his handling of the economy – where his approval rating is under 40 percent in most major recent surveys.

Obama’s aim is to keep heat on Congress to enact concrete measures, separate from the grueling debt debate, which could help people in the short term.

He pressed lawmakers to extend a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits in September as a way to “put money in people’s pockets and more customers in stores.”

On a jittery day for the financial world, it fell to Obama to deal with a downgrade that S&P had warned for weeks would come if Obama and Congress failed to agree on a major debt-reduction package. The agency was dissatisfied with the deal lawmakers reached last week to cut more than $2 trillion from the debt over 10 years.

The administration has derided the downgrade as having no economic basis. S&P, though, has little faith in Washington’s ability to overcome its partisan woes on the debt.

“We didn’t need a rating agency to tell us that the gridlock in Washington over the last several months has not been constructive,” Obama said.

S&P has dropped the government’s rating to AA+ from the top rating, AAA. The agency attached a negative outlook that means the rating could be lowered again.

Asked under what scenario the United States could regain its AAA rating, David Beers, head of sovereign ratings at S&P, told reporters on Monday, “We don’t anticipate a scenario at the moment where the United States could quickly return to AAA.”

S&P officials said that five countries including Canada and Australia have lost their AAA ratings from S&P and then regained them. The shortest time that it took a country to regain an AAA rating was nine years and the longest time was 18 years.

Wall Street had its first chance to react to the downgrade on Monday. The Dow fell below 11,000 for the first time since November. The sharp drop extended Wall Street’s almost uninterrupted decline since late July, when the Dow was flirting with 13,000.

Republican candidates hoping to challenge Obama next year have placed blame for the downgrade on Obama, tying it to his larger economic agenda.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who leads the GOP field in fundraising and early polls, said the downgrade was a “deeply troubling indicator of our country’s decline under President Obama.” Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R-Minn., who has shown strength in the early voting state of Iowa, accused Obama of “destroying” the U.S. credit rating.

Obama calmly sought to dismiss all the talk of a dent to U.S. credit.

“Our problems are eminently solvable,” he said. “We know what we have to do to solve them. Our problem is not confidence in our credit. The markets continue to reaffirm our credit as among the world’s safest. Our challenge is the need to tackle our deficits over the long term.”

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Associated Press writers Martin Crutsinger and Ken Thomas and Deputy Polling Director Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.