Obama ‘Stimulus’ Visit Stimulates Day Off Without Pay For Workers
**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers
This is a little like going to Louisiana and highlighting how much you’re doing for the oil spill cleanup effort while pouring a pint of Valvoline in the Gulf.
From Fox News:
President Obama went to the groundbreaking of a road project in Columbus, Ohio, Friday to show that his massive stimulus package is still churning out jobs — a “good news” story that was anything but for some construction workers who were trying to figure out how to make up for the payday they lost due to the president’s visit.
The workers were told not to report to their construction project at a nearby hospital Friday, because the Secret Service was shutting it down for security reasons. They also were told that they would not get paid for the forced day off.
The president blows a trillion taxpayer dollars on a “stimulus” sham and yet can’t find a way to make sure a few construction workers still get a couple hundred dollars each to make themselves scarce during his “10,000th stimulus project” showpiece?
He should have at least given them a job standing behind him during the speech — there’s plenty of room back there:
In any case, this marks the second time in less than a month, that I know of, that workers have been forced to take unpaid time off so Obama could brag about how much he’s doing for middle class jobs.
Update: Obama’s trip to Ohio yesterday cost between $500,000 and $1 million and he spoke for less than 10 minutes.
**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Categories: Barack Obama,Politics
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Yeah but I think he got in a round of golf today so it’s all good.
August gold is up to $1258…
For a minute there, I thought that was picture of Doc Ock.
I wonder how the people dealing with the effects of the oil spill feel about his little diversionary stunt.
Buffoon.
I guarantee there’s a portion of them that think it’s refreshing to see him helping our economy back to its feet after the failed Bush policies of the last eight years.
Never underestimate the stupidity of the average Democrat.
Sorry. Can’t call Obama the president. He’s just the guy currently occupying the White House.
White shirt and tie and a podium – on a construction site?? Looks absurd. Somebody tell this cretin how demagoguery works.
Hey, Barry. People don’t want your shovel ready jobs. They want their real jobs back.
Any hardship that furthers the regime are acceptable sacrifices. Any job these workers have is ultimately granted at the pleasure of the State in Obama’s view.
Know your enemy.
Mr. President, your administration is shovel ready.
Michelle,
Please keep Doug on. He has such a flair for sarcasm its delicious.
The funny thing is this administration was going to force BP to pay for laid off oil rig workers who were laid off due to the federal ban on drilling.
So by their own logic, they (unfortunately the federal government is ‘they’ and it’s our money) owe the laid off workers pay for time they lost due to the president.
The people in the White House are way in over their heads. They don’t quite understand that any government only governs at the consent of the people. Vote or not, if the government thinks they can control everything, the people will stop consenting.
When Protestants (majority religion by a LONG way) realize there are no Protestants on the 9 member supreme court, they won’t feel represented at all. Fortunately the media is mum on that whole (unprecedented) turn of events.
Getting obamuh to do anything positive for this country is like pulling teeth.
What a loser!!
Thanks Azygos! You’re too kind… and I’m not being sarcastic. Or… am I?
Have a good weekend! Back in the morning.
Workers lost a day’s pay and the taxpayers probably had to toss in an addition half a mil to run him down there for his latest dog and pony show….
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20008201-503544.html
The trip Columbus probably cost taxpayers between $500,000 and $1 million.
Air Force One alone bills out at $100,000 per hour, and the round trip is nearly two hours. Adding to the cost are military aircraft to carry limos and secret service vehicles, Marine One on standby, Secret Service, local police and other factors.
The JP4 that AF One burned probably came from a refinery that gets it crude from BP rigs in the Gulf.
We a lot more than the two shovel things in the background to clean up all the BS coming out of his mouth.
The “little people” lose again.
I wonder if they counted the road construction project a few miles from my house that is nothing but a Recovery.gov sign as one of the 10,000? Apparently the stimulus sign was so successful by itself, the actual work was never needed.
*Living in Michiganistan will do that to ya; Lived in big bad Motor City for many a year, and especially enjoyed the tanks rolling down Outer Drive during the summer riots of ’68.
*I say P-BO should visit Congress every day for the next 4 months so all those employed within can be told not to report, and without pay!
Where are the adults? I don’t have all the details of this trip, but I think many people would agree this president acted…stupidly.
I mean, his advance team, along with the SS support team knew that the location selected would require the cessation of construction, causing hard working citizens to be idle and unpaid for the day. Yet, they held the photo op/re-election groundlaying anyway.
Hey! Another Barack Boner Moment by the Self-Praiser-In-Chief. The guy pisses millions every where he goes and it all comes out of our pockets. Did someone even think about the hardhat situation? Well, boys what is it? Hats off or hats on? Are the president and the SecTrans stupid or are the guys in back all trying to make them look stupid? Don’t answer that.
***
It seems like forever for the the second Tuesday of November 2010 to get here. Like being in Army basic training long ago–I felt like I had been in a year at the end of the first week.
***
But the 2 years finally ended. And Comrade Obama (PBUH) just keeps shooting himself in the foot as time drags on to his political demise in the 2012 election. And killing more jobs by his badly thought out deepwater oil drilling moratorium–and the higher fuel costs that must follow will help end his reign. And his socialist / marxist buddies will also be heading for the FUNEMPLOYMENT lines then.
***
John Bibb
***
PBHO is not worried about the money for the 10 minute speech. Remember, he
wasis a community organizer and he/they don’t care where the money comes from. Just another form of extortion.That’s what annoys him – he wants to get it from Chavez.
I hope he had the foresight to bring a pizza back with him…
The Sec of Transportation was accidentally issued an MD’s white coat from the Prop Dept. – these guys can’t do anything right.
Obama/Biden go to Ohio to tout a $25 million project that will add turn, bike lanes and widen sidewalks. A trip that cost the taxpayers between $500,000 and $1 million. It is expected to create 300 jobs, or about $83K/job. These are jobs (just like all the others touted by this administration) that hire low wage workers, and only for the duration of the project, work complete and you are unemployed, however, I’m sure these were union jobs, thus the $83K/job. The American economy turned into a service economy (and we the taxpayers should be used to this considering how we are serviced by these politicians), not a manufacturing economy – all those jobs went to Mexico or SE Asia. We should be retraining the unemployed in job skills necessary to survive in the 21st Century, not manual labor.
In example, the clerical forces I supervised in 1990 were basically data entry clerks. By 2000, the job description requirements were 150 wpm keyboarding, ability to read and interpret electronic schematics, interface with CAD systems, and interface online using FTP technology to distribute work documents to remote work locations. Pretty hefty technology requirements (and yes, we raised their pay grade accordingly). We took surplussed ‘data entry clerks’ from other departments and retrained them, but had a 50% failure rate because many did not have the basic job skills necessary to be able to perform technical jobs. This is where we as a nation need to be spending ‘stimulus funds’, not on manual labor short term jobs. As an additional note, most of my ‘clerical’ were ex-teachers, four year degrees and teaching certificates who would rather work as ‘clerks’ because they got a higher pay and did not have to put up with the union’s BS. All were exceptional employees, and two were utilized to develop and teach the retraining modules. A huge loss to our educational system.
If I remember my OSHA law, if it is a Hard Hat/Eye/Ear Protection Area, there are no exceptions, including visitors. So the Anointed One and LaHood are in OSHA violation and should be fined!
Glad others noticed that, right away. It probably wasn’t a hardhat area but, for show, some wore them; makes them look official. Again, it’s another amateur hour stunt, from a rank amateur president. I’m not as concerned with the oil spill as much as I’m concerned with the BS spill out of D.C. for a year and a half. It has nearly destroyed our economy. I would like some action in plugging that, and cleaning it up.
See I knew he had executive experience in something other than street corner marketing. See all those hats.
Obama, the “I” of every storm. Whatever the crisis, you can always depend on Obama showing up to make sure everyone knows that it’s Bush’s fault but “I” am on it. I, I, I, I, I…
I largely chuckle at conspiracies, but that said, I think there ought be an investigation of Obama’s delays in responding to the spills, especially after this Coast Guard fiasco. The worst and longer this thing goes only feeds his windmill food-into-fuel C&T base. I’m very concerned that public rage and a eco-biased MSM will overlook the fact that the vast major of major and indie oil drillers have played ball and not had such accidents, and America will willy-nilly throw out the baby with the bathwater for Tinkerbell solutions. Yesterday on Fox(!) the early afternoon woman anchor was doing a report of drilling in Alaska and acted like a spill was _inevitable_ and (horrors!) would affect the (d***) polar bears. Excuse me! I care about cute white bears like the next man, but they — or heart-tugging oily birds — shouldn’t take priority of over heating millions of homes and keeping our factories running at an affordable rate. This is a _rare_ and _recoverable_ event. We have to get our life priorities in order.
James Greenidge
Queens NY
Bottom Line
If Obama had been President in 1970, the Apollo 13 crew would have died.
If Obama had been President, there wouldn’t have been an Apollo 13, nor “America’s Greatest Moment”.
We have allowed for an Imperious Presidency for entirely too long. They wish to go where they will and in the name of the Security of the Imperious Presidency businesses, workers and citizens must put their miserable little lives on hold. The Secret Service and local police will demand the right to search businesses and private homes in the vicinity of His Most Important Self’s route and residence. It happened here for both President’s Clinton and Bush. More robust citizens will just tell the Secret Service and police No, you may not enter my home or business,
We are a Republic not an Empire, we have a President not a King.
One good thing about the oil spill and the moratorium. There will be less fuel to put into Air Force One. Maybe Obama will be forced to stay home…oh wait, we don’t want that! Never mind.
You all need to check out daybydycartoon.com today. It tells like it is about this bho trip yesterday.
L
More than that, I would like to get some clarification of what went on at the rig just before the blow out. What was reported during the Hayward flogging was that Transocean/Halliburton were responsible for the safety of the oil rig and for performing safety tests. If I understood correctly, there was a heated arguments among the various company representatives which led to Transocean and Halliburton being kicked off of the rig. BP conducted the tests themselves and BOOM!
Considering that BP was one of the original Cap and Trade advocates, that they were the biggest oil interest Obama contributors, that they are the biggest investors in “alternative energy”, and that Obama is always looking for a crisis to exploit, that the Copenhagen global warming conference failed miserably and needed something desperately drastic to get Cap and Trade back in the game, ….
Nome sane? Does anyone doubt that there is a big question begging to be asked?
I might also add the GOP leadership (global warming enthusiasts all) defending Obama’s shake down of BP.
This is beginning to look like the mother of all Kabuki plays.
So after BP used an inferior method of drilling in the Gulf, the plan is to get the Soros fund Brazilians to drill in even deeper water. What nuts! More disasters are coming.
Of course it had to be hats off. If you imagine Obama in a hardhat, then the song “YMCA” will instantly start playing in your head. Considering that we’ve already seen two instances of how he throws a baseball, his handlers know that the last thing they can afford is to allow footage of him looking like he’s in a Village People video.
That is a very important factor in this mess. Oil exploration decisions are very much driven by risk assessment and I would be very interested in having an expert assessment of the risk models they were using (Monte Carlo?), what those models were telling them and how they arrived at their decision.
I would also be interested in whether the government looked at these risk models before giving their approval for this well. Obama has lately claimed that he only approved drilling in the Gulf after being “assured” that they were perfectly safe. As John Hinderaker points out today,
This whole mess stinks to high heaven. Neither the US government nor BP are acting like this was an accident and there is enough evidence to suggest that maybe it wasn’t. We should at least be asking the questions.
IMPEACH OBAMA.
So far, the only benefits derived by anyone from the stimulus package have been government employees at all levels. Yes, the stimulus package “saved” approximately 2.5 million jobs, but almost ALL were civil servant positions, nothing in private industry.
As far as those “questionable” road construction projects go, have you ever actually watched what goes on when one is underway? From the way government propaganda machines describe them, you would think hundreds of people would be employed. No, if anything, the only additional people employed may be a sign holder to control traffic. Great future there!!
The government payroll has grown while the private sector has shrunk. At some point, and it has been reached, jobs producing tax revenues to pay government employees will be underwater, much like financing a home or automobile for more than it is actually worth.
Now, Obama is trying to tell European countries to NOT cut spending and embark on an austerity program to reel in uncontrolled and unsustainable growth than devours tax revenues.
Idiot.
Soros is a majority stockholder in BrasilPetro (or something like that.) The oil fields off the coast of Brazil are even deeper than that of the DW Horizon.
Soros also has oil & gas leases off the coast of Peru, an association with Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and leases in the natural gas fields of Indonesia. He has a very strong hand in all this…remember, he manipulates markets for personal, and political gain. He is no friend of America.
Take the time to look up who owns shares in BP, and Halliburton, and you’ll find our “old friend” Goldman Sachs on the list.
So, do we know what’s going on…hardly. This is no conspiracy theory. I predict that there will be all kinds of
shi*shenanigans with the recently agreed to $129B slush funds…connected lawyers, D.C. insiders, friends of Obama, you name it, will be benefitting from the cash that was proclaimed by “The One” to be set aside (guarded) for those hurt most from the spill, and it’s aftermath.Remember these words; Follow the money!
Hmmmmmmmmmm.
The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil’s Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil’s planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan…Apparently, Barack Obama’s pal George Soros has invested heavily in Petrobas.
These are the top 5 holdings of George Soros
1.Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.Petrobras (PBR) – 9,818,323 shares, 15.42% of the total portfolio
2.Hess Corp. (HES) – 5,123,198 shares, 10.56% of the total portfolio
3.Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.Petrobras (PBR-A) – 5,884,700 shares, 7.53% of the total portfolio
4.Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. (POT) – 1,978,053 shares, 7.06% of the total portfolio
5.Plains Exploration & Production Company (PXP) – 6,526,400 shares, 6.84% of the total portfolio
Heard on the radio last night that Petrobras has picked up the first 5 rig leases from rigs idled in the Gulf from the Obama Moratorium, and is negotiating for 14 more as we speak. Petrobras is aligned with Venezuela and Iran to be an alternate to OPEC. Does anyone see connections between the Sock Puppet In Chief, Soros, and the decisions to delay the response at all costs?Would the barges been inspected if it was a Democrap Governor or perhaps the delaying action was ordered as the small people rose up against the Sock Puppet and tried to actually accomplish something other than the destruction of our nation. Oh yes, I see the Sock Puppet In Cheif is so heavily committed to the ‘war’ on this spill that he is going on another campaign trip to promote the Stimulus benefits.
Again, how much of what is happening in the delays in the oil spill clean-up/moritorium is going to be investigated by our ‘most ethical congress evah’?
Memo to all dummies: A job not backed by a free economy is not really a job! Do you not get it? Do you not understand? “Gubment” jobs are a fiction. They are not jobs. The “cash” you get is not real money. Wake up for g_ods sake.
Take back “Publik” edukashun!
If this “administration” cannot be indicted and prosecuted then we are lost as a nation. This is crazy. Absolutely crazy.
Instead of “Cap And Tax” we need “Pop a Cap in his Muslim A**”. Why is this not high treason? Kick my a** and call me Alice.
The teleprompter would look REALLY stupid standing there without the podium, wouldn’t it?
Barack Obama is no fool. He is not incompetent. To the contrary, he is brilliant. He knows exactly what he’s doing. He is purposely overwhelming the U.S. economy to create systemic failure, economic crisis and social chaos — thereby destroying capitalism and our country from within. As Glenn Beck correctly predicted from day one, Obama is following the plan of Cloward & Piven, two professors at Columbia University. They outlined a plan to socialize America by overwhelming the system with government spending and entitlement demands. Add up the clues below. Taken individually they’re alarming. Taken as a whole, it is a brilliant, Machiavellian game plan to turn the United States into a socialist/Marxist state with a permanent majority that desperately needs government for survival … and can be counted on to always vote for bigger government. Why not? They have no responsibility to pay for it.
– Universal health care.
– Cap and trade.
– Make Puerto Rico a state.
– Legalize 12 million illegal immigrants.
– Stimulus and bailouts.
– Raise taxes on small business owners, high-income earners, and job creators.
With the acts outlined above, Obama and his regime have created a vast and rapidly expanding constituency of voters dependent on big government; a vast privileged class of public employees who work for big government; and a government dedicated to destroying capitalism andinstalling themselves as socialist rulers by overwhelming the system.
Add it up and you’ve got the perfect Marxist scheme — all devised by Barack Obama using the Clowardand Piven Plan.
Wouldn’t be a shame if this whole thing was sort of a set up so old George S could get a 20% discount on the oil platform leases?…..
Ya Think???
All the jabs at pointing out the incompetence of the left and ridiculing these Marxist bastards is not going to help do a damn thing.
When this reign of Odopo ends it is going to be ugly, and I mean ugly…the race riots of ’68 will look like a picnic compare to what America has in it’s future.
This once great country may never be rebuilt to what it was, the racism, the hatred brought on by the left runs too deep to be wiped away…it will take a deep, deep cleaning of our governments from Washington D. C. to your local municipality. I don’t see it changing any other way. There is too much hatred, too much selfishness, too much mememe, too much dishonesty. We have no idea what a hardship is, but we don’t have long to wait to find out.
God Bless this once Great Country.
Now who exactly is going to do that, DOJ run by a Marxist friend of Odopo’s, Holder? the left wing, liberal, Democrapic controlled congress, who exactly is going to impeach this great impostor?