Robert Reich: Keep stimulus money away from skilled workers and “white male construction workers”
I missed Clintonite moldy oldie-turned-Obama economic adviser Robert Reich’s testimony a few weeks ago on how the government should spend federal stimulus money. The Berkeley professor engaged in academic fantasy land talk about getting all the cash out to workers as quickly as possible — a pipe dream debunked by the CBO report I mentioned in my column yesterday.
Even more noteworthy, however, were the comments Reich made about which workers deserve the stimulus bucks most. Reich’s proposal exposes the lie that the Obama administration is actually interested in revitalizing basic infrastructure for the good of the economy. No, what Team Obama really wants is to ensure that the least skilled, least qualified workers get jobs based on their chromosomes and pigment.
Reich wrote on his blog:
The stimulus plan will create jobs repairing and upgrading the nation’s roads, bridges, ports, levees, water and sewage system, public-transit systems, electricity grid, and schools. And it will kick-start alternative, non-fossil based sources of energy (wind, solar, geothermal, and so on); new health-care information systems; and universal broadband Internet access.
It’s a two-fer: lots of new jobs, and investments in the nation’s future productivity.
But if there aren’t enough skilled professionals to do the jobs involving new technologies, the stimulus will just increase the wages of the professionals who already have the right skills rather than generate many new jobs in these fields. And if construction jobs go mainly to white males who already dominate the construction trades, many people who need jobs the most — women, minorities, and the poor and long-term unemployed — will be shut out.
What to do? There’s no easy solution to either dilemma…
People can be trained relatively quickly for these sorts of jobs, as well as many infrastructure j0bs generated by the stimulus — installing new pipes for water and sewage systems, repairing and upgrading equipment, basic construction — but contractors have to be nudged both to provide the training and to do the hiring.
I’d suggest that all contracts entered into with stimulus funds require contractors to provide at least 20 percent of jobs to the long-term unemployed and to people with incomes at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. And at least 2 percent of project funds should be allocated to such training. In addition, advantage should be taken of buildings trades apprenticeships — wich must be fully available to women and minorities.
Reich made similar comments in his Jan. 7 congressional testimony on economic recovery. Naked Emperor News uploaded the video:
Partial transcript:
REICH: …”I am concerned, as I’m sure many of you are, that these jobs not simply go to high-skilled people who are already professionals or to white male construction workers…I have nothing against white male construction workers, I’m just saying there are other people who have needs as well.”
Yes, God forbid the jobs go to people with track records and experience. God forbid we judge stimulus recipients on the content of their resumes as opposed to the color of their skin.
There are other people who have needs as well.
Spoken like a true-blue wealth redistributor. The “needs” (read: demands) of politically protected minorities trump the need for competently build roads and bridges.
Rep. Charlie Rangel then chimes in to kvetch about how governors need to be “forced” to comply with formulas that earmark the stimulus money based on color-coded “needs.”
I quote Rangel: “Remove the discretion! Identify the ‘need.’ Do numbers.”
Translation: Screw qualifications. Quota-monger America out of its recession.
And here’s the kicker: Rangel tells Reich that he doesn’t have to worry about middle-class opposition to their social engineering plans for the stimulus. Why? Because they’re too busy working! It’s at the 2:33 mark of the video:
RANGEL: And one thing you can depend on, you don’t have to be worried about what the middle-class is gonna do. Things are so bad. They have to put food on their tables. Clothes for their kids. Get them in school. I think this is a tremendous opportunity for a stronger America.
Rangel wraps up by advocating that Reich “force” and “mandate” his social engineering “criteria” for stimulus spending.
So much for “post-racialism.” So much for “setting aside childish things.” The Age of Obama has resurrected the same old bean-counters.
Plus ça change…
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The more I read this stuff, the more I am reminded of Atlas Shrugged.
That’s better.
I saw the video and immediately put it on my profile at Facebook. Change, my patootie.
Aren’t really all that many new “infrastructure” jobs out there since many companies (union) are already in place to take the load and you really don’t need to repave every road or rebuild every bridge, just as Japan discovered for itself in time. (Of course, you could repave the Interstate with far tougher and resilient concrete instead of asphalt, but think of how many that’d throw out of work!) But rebuilding everything under the sun along with energy’s “whales” — windmills — lining the Interstates all sure feels nice and compassionate from Robert and Rangel, right?
Socialism Here We Come! Where’s our Army??
James Greenidge
Queens New York
Has he EVER STEPPED ONE FOOT in Southern California? Phoenix? or most of Texas?
He’s a Berkeley scumbag.
This would be fine, except these people are like Sharon Jasper. Who said, ” I tried it for a year — you know working and all. It’s not anything I would want to go through again, or wish on anyone in my family, but I am damn proud of that year.” Sharon at the time of this statement was 58.
I prdict very soon we will have a new catch-phrase to replace “affermative action”.
I guess the HOPE of a color blind society is truly dead. At least with this administration.
Selected quotes:
This statement is contradictory. If “skilled professionals” have to move from one technology area to another then it’s probably because there isn’t enough work for their previous skills. Therefore, it will generate jobs to employ those who aren’t working.
Training should be part of the soloution for all involved, from the skilled professional right down to the ditch diggers and pipe fitters. That I agree with, but you aren’t going to turn a ditch digger into an engineer and put them in charge.
This sounds well and good, but how many of these people are already attached to the govt teat? Why work for money when you can stay at home. I’m sure there are people in these categories who will want to honestly earn their keep. There is a percentage that will continue to suckle and no amount of money will tempt them from the comfort of their conditions.
Excellent point, Mach1. Reich wants to help the “long-term unemployed.” Most people who are unemployed for long periods of time don’t really want a job. And a lot of the people who are perpetually low-income are that way because they don’t have the gumption to get out there and get training that’s already widely available for a better job .
This is what the Dems don’t seem to understand, you can provide opportunities all day long but in the end there are just some people who won’t put forth the effort to take advantage of those opportunities. And no government program can fix a bad attitude.
Somebody has Marx’s little Manifesto on his nightstand. I seem to recall hearing all of this before: “From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need.”
Who didn’t see this coming down the pipe?
White men, the new slaves.
Well, Obama has the Chicago Way to fall back on, which works great in contracting in Illinois: nearly every major construction job over the last several decades has had “minority set-asides”, construction work parceled out to blacks, which ALWAYS has to be re-done due to lack of quality, competence, or the fact “minority contractors” steal the money and can’t finish the work. Millennium Park is the latest example of this. Who gets stuck in the end? Taxpayers, since the money is long gone by the time corruption and incompetence is “discovered”. Hmm. Hopenchange? Oh,yeah. Been there, done that. Over and over.
Charlie Rangel and Robert Reich: there is a pair to draw to and exactly what we can expect for the next four year-at best. Rather clever I must say-keep the white guy, brown guy and black guy at each others throat grasping for survival. It does work. The old plantation class of the south used the blacks to keep the whites poor and clingy. Tsars, emperors and tyrants through out time have used this strategy. Keep THEM hating THEM and maybe they won’t see what is really happening.
Charlie Rangel and Robert Reich are rather clever indeed. Liberal Fascism.
$25 an hour construction laborer jobs are readily available from spring til fall. All you have to do get one of these jobs is to actually go get in line and apply.
It is simplistic to believe that you can take one who’s lived in poverty all of his life and turn him into a construction foreman overnight. It’s naive and dangerous.
Don’t worry, I wont drink out of your water fountains or look at your womenfolk. Feel free to take my tax dollars for your redistributive “justice”.
Are we angry yet?
That’s what the new “public service” campaign is all about. They aren’t aiming the notion of “free work” at people who sat around and waited for the government to provide transportation during a class 5 hurricane. Those of us who do work for a living may just as well quit our jobs in the next year or two as all our income will be seized by barry hussein to pay folks who don’t want to work.
Now, if the Republican Party will only return to it’s Reagan-Conservative base, 2010 should be a shoe-in.
If Only!
Sounds like unconstitutional hiring quotas to me. But lets forget that and have massive layoffs so they can hire unskilled, unmotovated and uneducated welfare hogs. No, not a racist statement at all. I know
whiteNon-minorities that do very will on the government teat. They tend to work under the table and don’t pay taxes or report income because that could end government benefits. The government doesn’t pay for their illegal drugs, so they have to work.I’m sure the rules will allow that soon.
Since there is a possibility of the welfare agencies finding them a job, they get sleezy lawyers to find docters that will have them declared disabled so they can’t work. They even get to park in the handicaped spaces. Free healthcare, food, vehicle and housing, What a country!
In America, you can be whatever you want to be, even a blood sucking leach.
This certainly isn’t new, what is new is the % the runt is calling for.
free for non obambi voters !!
I used to work at a state ( not mentioned by intent ) DOT EEO in a compliance capacity. MBE and WBE set asides were a joke on a project wide basis, in that all it created was tokenism.
Most MBE/WBE are neither just the person on the owner line is.
As far as minority and women hiring within each company vast majority of that “threshold” was met by flaggers
and unskilled worker jobs.
I find endless irony and humor that the party that lives and breathes by the support of unions are demanding the policies of those very same unions who are never mentioned……. you get the drift. sigh
by the way I have designed a remote traffic flag stop n go program complete with video so we can work from home goof off here and get paid
Most,
“they get sleezy lawyers to find docters that will have them declared disabled so they can’t work.”
bingo you get the game, obambi ain’t going to get these people to change.
still awaiting clarification what “blacks won’t have to give back” means……
Kinda sorta related: Deadbeat calls collection agency, says Obama will fix her delinquent car loan.
Well, this mini-Atlas is beginning to shrug. So long a “spread the wealth” is the policy of the federal government, I shall try to earn up to, but not over, whatever level “rich” is. (I’m not near that figure, but it’s a goal–and “rich” seems to be getting defined downwards.)
I posted this on Dorf’s blog:
I have nothing against white male construction workers, some of my best friends are white male construction workers. I just wouldn’t want them moving into my neighborhood or dating my sister or anything like that.
Further, at the echo chamber that I indoctrinate in we have all agreed that the only way to solve the worlds ills is to give opportunity to people on the basis of race, creed, religion and gender. That is the only “fair” way and it has always worked out soooo well in the past.
To that end we should further bankrupt the country bu pushing our debt level to parity with our shrinking GDP in order to exclusively employ black transvestite Zoroastrian vegetarians to build re-education and sterilization camps for all the “white males” or anyone who is 1/6th white male.
See? I can be a professor as well! Book me on NPR!
Bill,
How many phone books do you need to sit on and are you part of the lollipop gang?
Democrats are racist bigots. This entire regime will be dedicated to the neutralization of white American workers.
The wealthy of this country don’t care because no matter what happens, they are insulated from any negative effects. Those of us who are trying to earn a living by working are the ones who are going to suffer during this time.
Hope they don’t have these people building bridges. I certainly won’t be driving on them if that’s the case.
I’m wondering how the “white male construction workers” in the northeast and midwest feel about their messiah, who they elected, and his advisors now.
This is classic liberal thinking. First, they intend to borrow one trillion dollars in order to spend on infrastructure and then employ people who don’t want to work in the first place, and wouldn’t know how to do it if they did. Then, we send our grandchildren the bill to fund welfare for the dregs of our society.
Liberalism really is a mental disorder.
So, when we’re building the bridges, we’re going to pass over the skilled, experienced contractors in favor of some people, hastily trained in government programs.
God help us.
We are so screwed. 01-20-2013 cannot come soon enough.
Patron,
Lift up your feet when crossing
Marco,
lets start a lean on shovel stand around and chat school 18 month diploma
student loans accepted!!
With a deceitful and wicked agenda.
So what will happen to those pockets in American that is poor but has no black or brown people to support?
As a business owner, long-term unemployed, in most cases equals unemployable. There’s a reason some people are not employed, they simply cannot hold down a job. I own part of a nursery and we hired one of these so called “long-term unemployed”. All we wanted him to do was cut back grasses we had in gallon pots. It was a total fiasco because not only did he not do it correctly (I mean come on!), he pulled container markers out of pots and we had to play “what’s that grass?” for months because of incompetence.
Now, let’s equate that experience with some “long-term unemployed” people building infrastructure. Let the nightmares begin!
A communist by any other name . . .
Annoyed said in post 19: “The government doesn’t pay for their illegal drugs, so they have to work.”
You haven’t been to Eastern Kentucky, have you? Food stamps are currency and used to by drugs. Medicare and prescription drug cards pay for the prescription drugs that are bartered and sold.THIS is the face of “Medical coverage for all Americans”.
On January 22nd, 2009 at 8:12 am, JohnnyAngel said:
We are so screwed. 01-20-2013 cannot come soon enough.
Yeah, Johnny, I can’t wait to see what happens when 30 million once-illegal aliens get to vote, too.
Well, of course we’re not going to let any of these stimulus dollars slip into the hands of poor white workers, many of whom could be union workers, but rather we’re going to make sure Jamal from the ‘hood, who thinks a hammer is for breaking and entering, gets that low-level construction job, if he’ll show up for it instead of “looking for his scale” (selling something by weight?) or worrying about his “trippin hoes” (from the lyrics to “My President is Black”, oh yeah.) But let the abuses be massive and quick and well-documented, in time for the Congressional races in 2010. Conservatives are never going to win the black vote, sadly, because that demographic has been pretty well bought and paid for by Obama’s election. But there are a lot of well-meaning, uninformed voters of other races who just might wake up and see what they’ve done. At least we can Hope for that Change. Yes, we can. Opps, was that raaacciiissst? No more than Reich and the Democrats, but maybe that much.
I don’t think we have enough white males serving at Hooters.
I don’t think we have enough white male
secretariesreceptionistsadministrative assistants.I don’t think we have enough white males working at Victoria’s Secret.
I don’t think we have enough white males making hip hop albums.
I don’t think we have enough white males playing in the NBA or NFL.
I don’t think we have enough white males running Chinese restaurants.
I don’t think we have enough white male beauticians or hairstylists.
I don’t think we have enough white male day care providers.
I don’t think we have enough…
I think I’ve heard enough of this crap in my lifetime. If an unskilled worker wanted to learn a skill, he or she would find out how to learn it. If a woman wanted to work in construction, she would apply for it. If a black man wanted to be President…
Let’s hope they are “smart” enough to unionize to, say, the International Union of Unskilled, Non-white, Infrastructure Employees (IUUNIE). Hopefully, like other unions, they will label everything they build.
(Singing to that wonderful seventies public interest ad music)
Ask for the union label:
And if you see if, stay off those roads and bridges.
We don’t know if concrete set right
Or if the bolts and cables are torqued to proper tolerance.
So when it comes down, you can blame Bush.
That’s what we did long after he left office.
So ask for that union label:
If might be the only thing that will save your life!
(Funny, that song also sounds like the theme to the Magnificent Seven)
So often it seems that socialists hate themselves, along with most of the rest of us.
Dead-on correct.
The socialists are planning to raise taxes on income, not wealth.
And the well-heeled socialists already have their wealth protected from the death taxes – that screw over so many of the rest of us – in the legal-fiction trusts that they have set up; and/or in overseas accounts.
When is the wealth of Warren Buffet, George Soros, Kerry, Kennedy, Peter Lewis, Pelosi, Clinton, etc. going to be confiscated for the “public good”, for “investment” in “infrastructure”, for development of “sustainable energy alternatives”, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah,…?
Yeah, I know….
President B. H. Obama’s Regime , Clinton 2.0 , seems to be a large verison of Carter’s Habitat for Humanity. First project could be a prison for illegal combatants in Jack Murtha’s district. He and Jimmy could both swing hammers and teach much needed skills. White men and rednecks need not apply.
‘
And who would of thought that when the Democrats said “Middle Class families”, they really weren’t talking about those who make $44,000/year (source: Democrat false definition, and Socialist definition). What they were saying was code for non-white families…
I thought only conservatives used code language. Guess I better go update Wikipedia with sources
This is going to be a fiasco. These liberal elite do-gooders think that by social engineering the economy they are instantly going to fix the inequities of society. When will they learn that the only way you crawl out of poverty is by pulling yourself out. Idiots.
They will never learn, because they believe the truth is that your definition is wrong. The only reason these people are poor is because Whites have intentionally, purposefully, and actively denied them the material things they deserve. They honestly believe that, if you give a man a fish, he will have a fish forever. They honestly believe that economics is not a zero sum game, and that there will always be production, even if no one works to produce. They believe that the “Haves” have because they take away from the “Have-nots”, not because the “Haves” utilize their time, labor, resources to produce the ability and goods in their possession.
They believe the motto:
From each according to their ability, to each according to their need!
They believe these things because they know that the expression of power utilizing a faceless mass is easier than the sacrifice, risk, and work necessary to succeed (or fail, as is also common).
And they complained about Joe the Plumber not having a license.
If the goal of the Democratic party is to turn me into a bigot, it’s starting to work.
GEEES!
We have achieved MLK’s dream.
This entire new administration and its congressional flunkies are destructive left wing fascists and hard-core racists. Thank you enlightened voters . . . you really slipped it to us this time.
My question to you is, why would unmotivated welfare hogs want the jobs? They’re unmotivated and already on welfare. That seems like a much better gig than actually working.
Well, with minority set-asides, the working class whites may not get the jobs and stimulus money, but well connected whites who donate to Obama and friends will be able to set up front companies with a Black man or lesbian or something as the nominal figurehead, and the money will come rolling in.
Why don’t they replace Reich with a non white male for his job or anywhere he goes, he can be denied because of his sex and race. Any other white male should resign too in the BO administration.
Can someone help me out here. I thought the federal government already has these quotas.
This story actually is making me ill.
Bill Grant -just for that I will make you Professor Emeritus!
Racial quotas in the United States began to be implemented with government approval after the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
So what is new about Robert Reichs proposal?
Want to get more minorities into the construction trades?
Repeal Bacon-Davis. Repeal the minimum wage.
Reich refuses to understand that the unions wanted, and still want, these laws precisely to exclude competition from lower-cost labor, which is often minority.
I don’t know about where the rest of you live, but around here there is NO ONE on a construction site but brown skinned people who seem to have severe difficulty with English.
I want my 40 acres and my mule, WHITEY! I’m 1/8 Cherokee!
Amazingly, both of these guys speak as though they believe they’re saying something profound. They don’t realize their comments move between pedestrian and stupid.
Reich needs his tighty-whities pulled up his back side and stretched over his head. G_d forbid that the money would go to those most qualified; those that would actually bother to show up to work every day.
To avoid or preclude the inevitable persecution of whites it’s time to form the NAAWP . . . don’t laugh, it was a boon for the blacks.
Lets start by getting all white males off the cabinet. Then clean out the government of the white male plague. Then eliminate all the white males in the military and states and country side. Send them all to Mexico.
Oh, how I hope the electorate is paying attention to this crap, this early in this administration, and remembers these clowns come 2010!
I live in western ct and the construction industry is dominated by illegal aliens. I cannot tell you how many times I have been outbid on jobs because I actually carry insurance and pay my help a living wage.
I say GOOD, let the people on welfare and gov’t assistance do the work. In fact, make them do the work.
I’ll trade places with one of them. I am tired of busting my butt and having 30% of what I make stolen from me just to be given to people who are not responsible.
Give me my free money, then I’ll spend time with my family, relax, enjoy life and complain about how all the working class are keeping my down.
Is it possible for young men to keep their zippers up and women to keep their legs together. If they would abstain from procreation long enough to get an education and a marketable skill, we wouldn’t need quotas?
GEEES!!!
The “post-racialism” of Obama appears to actually be “uber-racialism”.
Maybe whites should start looking out for other whites the way other races in this country appear to be looking after their own. There seems to be such animosity towards white men in this country.
As long as all of that 20% works on a bridge that must be crossed by Reich and every member of Congress every day they attend a session, then let’s give it a whirl.
Hey, Reich, with rare exception, there are fundamental reasons why people become “long term unemployed.” They are lazy, stupid, and / or have poor work habits. Not exactly the characteristics I’d recommend be involved in building bridges, roads, and levees.
And, please, quit lying. We know you have a white hot hate for white male construction workers. After all, a lot of them listen to C & W music and own a gun.
Apparently there is a Democrat Play book?
This is Paul Begala, this morning on Imus in the Morning. Day 3 of Obama’s day in office the talking points have been distributed?
http://youhavetobethistalltogoonthisride.blogspot.com/2009/01/paul-begala-men-in-tights.html
MikeG,
are you in New Haven area a prideful sanctuary city?
Laree,
suggest you use your radio for target practice if all you get is imus and his antiAmerican guests.
Some random thoughts on this.
Reparations for all the evil that Whites have done. And payback.
Davis-Bacon. I’d like to see how they get around this. I guess all those unskilled trainees will get prevailing wages just because.
In the ’30s, my dad had a WPA job building roads. Although I don’t remember the exact dimensions, it was something like this.
You were required to break rocks by hand, no machinery. 30′ long X 15′ wide X 3′deep.
If you couldn’t do it, you didn’t come back tomorrow and got no money.
There wasn’t all the social support programs.
Talk about needing a work ethic
Too bad, something like this couldn’t be implemented now.
But that would be racist, I’m sure.
WOW………
My self & wife & 2 little girls are all blond hair blue eyes……..
Is their a class on getting welfare???
Or do we just yell………….
BAYRACK!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHERE’S MY CHECK??????????
Don’t you understand?
(Yes, I know you do.)
The socialist opposite worldview-holders do not believe that men should have to keep their zippers up, nor that women should have to keep their legs together.
To them that is prudish, silly, outmoded, boring thinking.
Isn’t this exactly what they did to the morgage industry? How’d that work out for ‘em?
If this happens Id be very fearful of driving over any bridges.
This makes me so mad. My BIL was a drywall worker, considered a skilled trade. During the 80′s he made $15 – $20 an hour, plus he had a full benefits package.
Then they let all the Mexicans come in.
So, while new housing starts were all all time highs (both in price and in numbers) my BIL’s benefits disappeared and his wages fell to less than half of what they were previously.
Now they’re just making darned sure those wages don’t rise again. BIL is out of the business now, so it doesn’t matter any more to him, but it makes me absolutely sick.
Hey – abortion workers need jobs too!
Ever seen a custom built house these days with the drywall falling apart at the seems? Just get it up fast.
When I was fourteen years old, my father gave me ‘THE TALK”, about my duties of becoming a man. One of those prerequisites was not to knock up a girl. I would guess that is outmoded now.
And when the bridge collapses, will they accept the blame? I think not. Same with the Community redevelopment Administration that forced banks to make loans to those who would not repay them, thus just about breaking our monetary system.
Don’t you know? Libs don’t consider it racism if you are discriminating against whites?
This ought to work real well in states like Maine where the population of blacks is only about 2%.
I wonder what the unions think of this?
AHHHHH!!
Evil thought of the day.
Thanks yiddish, the visual that comment conjured up was priceless. Very funny.
bansharia,
No, i am north of Danbury in Brookfield.
Exactly.
I still smile when I remember my Dad’s (who passed away about a week ago) telling me, when we were chatting about me and my then fiancee, 30+ years ago, “You don’t have to be good…as long as you’re careful.”
God bless ‘im!!
GOD bless you and you father granite. I’m still lucky to have my father with us. He’s now 96 years old.
talk about getting this stimulus where it will create lasting investment. let’s invest in menial labor jobs, because we can continually import illegal immigrants for that job. of course legal immigrants and uneducated minorities will continually be welfare recipients because they can’t provide for themselves much less a family on $7 per hour. that’s 14K per year for normal workers, less 7% for fica/medicare. this is why we have created a class of welfare/criminals in this country. no one can live on welfare either, but at least on welfare you have 40 hours a week to ply a criminal enterprise to subsidize your welfare. if you work those 40 hours, you don’t. and we wonder why prostitution, drugs, criminal fraud scams, gambling, etc are so prevalent in our permanent underclass. blame the good hearted amnesty advocates, which keep constantly supplying slave labor to the u.s. market. and these unions vote for these jerks cutting their own throats and assuring their children will not have similar job opportunities. for my money, i see no difference between a company farming out it’s labor to some third world country because this country regulates business to death, and companies who have to work here, ie construction, importing slave labor. but this “compassionate conservative” or liberal idea (take your pick) has the unintended consequence of creating a permanent criminal underclass, which is where we are now.
Anyone who watches CNBC recognizes Reich as the staunch democrat zealot who has bad mouthed the economy for eight years. Now that the it’s truly bad, largely because the enforced socialism of cheap mortgages for bums, he wants to compound that error.
The best thing about Reich is that like under Bush, he’s still at Berkeley, still at arm’s length from any policy lever.
Robert Reich seems like most of “B.J.” Clinton’s picks for high government positions. Another far left Beserkely liberal / socialist / marxist thinker. And President O’bummer is surrounding himself with a lot more of these Clinton Retreads.
***
Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King had a much better vision of our future than Reich does–color blindness, respect and fair treatment for all people and groups. The logical conclusion for MLK’s vision is no more affirmative action, set asides, 20 percent minority hiring rules, etc.
***
I hope Reich never has to go in for surgery by a doctor who got there by his “set aside” and “second tier” theories. I want the most qualified people working on me, on my bridge, my airplane, etc.–not the best “equal opportunity” person. Skin color and ethnic background means nothing.
***
Hope and change you can (not) believe in!
***
John Bibb
Why?
He should get just what he asked for, just what he worked and pushed for, and just what he deserves.
Wouldn’t it just be easier to mail a check to all the Obama voters? At least then we wouldn’t ruin our electrical grid or our roads with repairs made by idiots.
As it turns out: Most of the money in the “stimulus” doesn’t come into the economy until 2011. So, the Dear One is willing to let people suffer for two years, just so an economic uptick will help his re-election chances?
Instead of the Stimulus, or the Inter-generational theft act, let’s call it what it is: The Obama 2012 Campaign Fund.
Dear Mr. Reich,
It’s schmucks like you that made me leave my career as a tradesman and take up journalism (yeah, right).
Signed,
Joe the Plumber
p.s. Make sure that you (and President Post-Turtle) know what a plunger is and how to use it.
*out*
The true purpose of the trillions in bailout money?
In ’73 seniority was changed in the steel industry because Companies and USWA were guilty of racial discrimination. With 25 yrs, I was laid off as well as a co-worker who was black. His comment then was they gave me $1200.00 and took my job. This is what happens with Libreals big plans, they hurt the people they think they’ll help and screw everybody.
Uh, why in the world is Berkeley employing a white male with a PhD when there are others with needs as well who could have that job?
BTW Bob – Stanford never called I assume?
Somebody should tell that garden gnome that his relevancy declined to zero a year after the Clinton regime ended.
Change has come! Hope!*
*If you are a white male, a white female or just plain white, your change will not be coming. Instead it will be leaving your pocket in order to support other people who have needs. Everyone knows there are no poor, unemployed white males, white females or just plain whites in America. Poverty is a function of race, so therefore, initiatives to combat poverty will also be functions of race.
My dad, an electrical contractor, did very well doing gov’t contracts in the 80′s and early 90′s. He says it’s hard to bid on contracts now because he’s not a minority, which seems to be a requirement. When he’s confronted gov’t contracting agencies about this bull, he was told that he could get ahold of winning bidders and get work as a sub-contractor. It’s pretty insane how contracts are awarded these days.