The Cellar - The Obamanation

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Sunday, March 04, 2012

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 27% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -15 (see trends).

I'm one of the uncommitted voters who put Obama in the White House. I would be a more natural GOP voter if they didn't fight culture wars and support corporations over individuals. Obama is still beatable if Mitt can change his message back to moderate governorship. If that happens and he loses the GOP will continue the culture war and be completely irrelevant unless someone can explain the reality of the situation to them. Maybe a huge Santorum loss would be best but having him that close with a partisan Supreme Court makes me damn nervous.

I got a whiff of dodgy stats when I noticed the figure they present ( -15) is based on comparing the strongly approve and the strongly disapprove. What about the moderates?
And then why base the data on that particular day? was it, perhaps, a bit of a statistical outlier?

Follow the links to the original source.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/publ..._index_history

Ignore the "Presidential approval index" which focuses on the extremists who aren't going to swing. Look at the two columns on the far right, total approve and total disapprove. Scroll back to look over the last couple of months.

Make your own interpretation.

My interpretation is hidden below:
So far this year:
The difference has never been more than 45/55, and has often been within four points.
Disapprove has been higher most of the time, but not always.
over the year, this shows a moderate preponderance of disapproval.

ETA it's worth scrolling at high speed through his entire term.

Of course, the problem for the republican candidates is that people disapprove of them even more.

The R's are in disarray and apparently have no cohesive anything right now.

Quote:

I'm one of the uncommitted voters who put Obama in the White House.
I would be a more natural GOP voter if they didn't fight culture wars and support corporations over individuals.
Obama is still beatable if Mitt can change his message back to moderate governorship.

Dunno, I think too much damage may have already been done.
I'll bet there are tons of Obama commercials already prepared and ready to
run simply based upon his gaffes and statements from the last couple months.

Why for you now convert others' posts to pomes?

FWIW: In 2009, GM employed 12,600 in Ohio, Ford had about 7,000. Honda had 15,000

General Motors has signed a new contract to bring 760 new jobs to Ohio,
increase parts and welding assembly work in Ohio that currently is being done overseas,
and call back of most workers that had been laid off due to parts shortages.
Here are some of the items in the new contract:

What UAW members get under tentative contract with GM

Quote:

* Bonuses - $5,000 in signing bonuses; $1,000 a year to cover rising inflation;
and up to $250 annually if workers hit quality improvement targets.

* Profit sharing - $1 in bonuses for every $1 million in GM North American
profits if the automaker earns at least $1.25 billion a year.
So $6 billion in GM profits would translate to $6,000 per worker in profit sharing.

* Jobs - 6,400 new jobs at plants in Spring Hill, Tenn., Wentzville, Mo.; and several Michigan plants.
In Ohio, Parma, Lordstown and Defiance plants could get new work.
* Wage increases - Entry-level workers would get about $3 an hour in raises over the life of the contract.
Workers receiving the higher wage would receive no increases.

* Buyouts - Skilled workers could get up to $75,000 to retire by March 31.
Non-skilled workers could get up to $10,000 to retire by then.

Quote:

In 2009, GM employed 12,600 in Ohio, Ford had about 7,000. Honda had 15,000

What are the comparative numbers now?

GM will also pay bonuses of at least $182 million to white-collar workers
most of whom make more than $100,000 a year. They'll range from 8-14%.
That's in addition to the over 300 million in profit sharing they already had planned for factory workers.

Additionally there are some who are raising new questions about GM's new tax structure which was
altered as part of the bailout. No word yet on what their new effective rate is now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by classicman (Post 799604)

GM will also pay bonuses of at least $182 million to white-collar workers
most of whom make more than $100,000 a year. They'll range from 8-14%.
That's in addition to the over 300 million in profit sharing they already had planned for factory workers.
The recent union contract makes it sound as though those 12.6K employees are/will be back to work.

Additionally there are some who are raising new questions about GM's new tax structure which was
altered as part of the bailout. No word yet on what their new effective rate is now.

The point of my post was that 12,600 direct employees of GM were working in Ohio in 2009,
and the employment multiplier effect added about 14,800 other jobs in the local communities.
That's nearly 30,000 jobs and almost as many families directly related to GM (only).

The recent GM -UAW contract sounds as if those 12,600 employees are/will be back to work,
along with 760 new jobs that are being brought back from overseas.
I'm not seeing a whole lot wrong with all that.

What point(s) are you making... just adding new information, or
- that white collar employees are/were making too much ?
- that GM can/should not to pay bonuses to white collar workers ?
- that the bailout of the automotive industry was wrong ?
- that GM should have gone bankrupt and all those jobs be lost ?
- that there is some sort of tax skullduggery going on ?
.

Quote:

I didn't read that as jobs added TO the initial 12,600. My bad, apparently.

Quote:

What point(s) are you making... just adding new information, or
- that white collar employees are/were making too much ?
- that GM can/should not to pay bonuses to white collar workers ?
- that the bailout of the automotive industry was wrong ?
- that GM should have gone bankrupt and all those jobs be lost ?
- that there is some sort of tax skullduggery going on ?

I do not know the answers. I am asking those same questions.
To your last point regarding the taxes, I just recently learned that their tax structure was altered in the bailout.
What effect it had, I do not know.

NSA whistle-blower: Obama “worse than Bush”

Quote:

Thomas Drake, the whistle-blower whom the Obama administration tried and failed to prosecute for leaking information about waste, fraud and abuse at the National Security Agency, now works at an Apple store in Maryland. In an interview with Salon, Drake laughed about the time he confronted Attorney General Eric Holder at his store while Holder perused the gadgetry on display with his security detail around him. When Drake started asking Holder questions about his case, America’s chief law enforcement officer turned and fled the store.

But the humor drained away quickly from Drake’s thin and tired face as he recounted his ordeal since 2010 when federal prosecutors charged him with violating the Espionage Act for retaining classified information they believed he would pass on to then Baltimore Sun reporter Siobhan Gorman. While Drake never disclosed classified information, he did pass on unclassified information to Gorman revealing that the NSA had wasted billions of taxpayers’ dollars on Trailblazer, a contractor-heavy intelligence software program that failed to find terrorist threats in the tsunami of digital data the agency was sucking up globally — and sometimes unconstitutionally. While Trailblazer burned through cash, in the process enriching many NSA employees turned contractors, Drake found that another software program named ThinThread had already met the core requirements of a federal acquisition regulation that governed the proposed system at a sliver of the cost, all while protecting American civil liberties at the code level. The NSA leadership, however, had already bet their careers on Trailblazer. So Drake blew the whistle, first to Congress, then to the Department of Defense Inspector General’s Office, and finally, and fatefully, to Gorman.

Last June, the government’s case collapsed. On the eve of trial, all 10 counts were dropped. In a Kafkaesque turn of events, Drake actually helped the government find a misdemeanor to charge him with — exceeding authorized use of an NSA computer — so federal prosecutors could save face. Once facing 35 years behind bars, Drake pled guilty to the misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to one year of probation and 240 hours of community service, what he sardonically calls “his penance.”

But his legal battles haven’t ended. Currently, Drake, along with the four other whistle-blowers he worked with to expose NSA waste, fraud and abuse, are fighting to get their property back that the FBI confiscated during its criminal investigations. Once a registered Republican and now a self-described “free-speech absolutist,” Drake describes the NSA as a rogue agency that operates in a black box that the public cannot penetrate.

In the New Yorker article, Jane Mayer quotes you as saying, “I actually had hopes for Obama.” What’s your opinion on the Obama administration’s stated support for whistle-blowers and, more generally, his counterterrorism record?

Worse than Bush. I have to say that. I actually voted for Obama. It’s all rhetoric for me now. As Americans we were hoodwinked. He’s expanding the secrecy regime far beyond what the Bush even intended, interestingly enough. I think Bush is probably like, “Whoa.”

Link

Interesting article.

Hiya Merc, you've been quiet lately ... working long shifts again?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZenGum (Post 801086)

Hiya Merc, you've been quiet lately ... working long shifts again?

Balls to the wall work, followed by guests from the UK for 10 days (day 5 now) and big Savannah Rugby Tournament this last weekend. Off to the Pink Floyd Experience with the UK guests tonight and back into a short work cycle this week, finishing up with the parade in Savannah on Sat. Guests leave Sunday then back to a balls to the wall work cycle. Life goes on. Thanks for asking.

http://www.npr.org/2012/03/12/148293...t-can-they-see

Yay for the surveillance state. :(

In the foreclosure agreement between the 5 big banks and the Federal and State governments,
there remained open the option for the governments to pursue additional penalties.

The first of these actions is being made public today...

Wall Street Journal
RUTH SIMON
3/12/12

Foreclosure Pact Alleges a Pattern of Malfeasance

Quote:

U.S. and state officials accused five large U.S. banks of
overcharging and misleading borrowers in court documents filed Monday
as part of the $25 billion settlement of alleged foreclosure abuses.

The filing offered a detailed description of how the five banks allegedly
violated state and federal law. Officials spent more than a year investigating
foreclosure practices that began as a probe of "robo-signing,"
or employees approving documents without proper review.<snip>

In settling, the five banks—Ally Financial Inc., Bank of America Corp.,
Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co . and Wells Fargo & Co
—neither admitted nor denied guilt.

Under the agreement, the banks will provide principal relief and other
borrower assistance valued at $17 billion. In addition, roughly $5 billion
of the settlement will be paid in fines, while $3 billion will be used to help
refinancing for homeowners who owe more than their homes are worth.
The deal also includes new mortgage-servicing standards.
<snip>

The issues laid out in the complaint go well beyond the allegations of robo-signing.
Among other things, the complaint alleges that the five banks
charged borrowers excessive or improper fees, failed to properly apply
borrower loan payments and wrongfully denied borrowers loan modifications.

The banks also provided homeowners with "false or misleading information,"
failed to have appropriate staffing levels to meet the surge in troubled loans,
and overcharged and improperly foreclosed on members of the military, according to the complaint.

Banks also engaged in a "continuing abuse of the bankruptcy process"
and filed "false or fraudulent claims" for reimbursement from the
Federal Housing Administration's mortgage insurance program,
according to the court filing. The complaint singles out Countrywide Financial Corp.,
which was acquired by Bank of America in 2008, for faulty underwriting that has
cost the Federal Housing Administration "hundreds of millions of dollars in damages."
.