After casting her ballot for Barack Obama, Amanda Jones said simply, "I feel good about voting for him." Ms. Jones, of Cedar Creek, Texas (a town just south of Austin), is African-American, and what gives her vote some historic punch is that she's 109 years old. Her father was a slave. Her mother was born right after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. She's been through it all--Jim Crow segregation, women's suffrage, the Great Depression, the poll tax, FDR, the civil-rights movement, desegregation, 13 years of George W (five as guv, eight as prez), and now: Barack Obama. This last change fills her with joy, she says.
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Bush's big show in waco
Step right up, folks, for George W.’s one-of-a-kind, razzle-dazzle Economic Forum & Political Sideshow, featuring herds of GOP elephants, loads of fat cats, seven cabinet members, a flurry of flimflam, and lots and lots of clowns!
The Bushites said they convened their made-for-TV economic forum to convince Americans that the economy is not in bad shape—even though we all know it is. W himself declared: “The economic forum will strengthen our economy and make workers and investors more secure.” Feel all better now?
Bush cited a slight increase in worker productivity as evidence that his “economic plan” is working. But if you look more deeply into those numbers, you find that the uptick in output-per-worker came because corporations have been firing staff and cutting back on overtime, without reducing the workload of those who remain on the job. In short, folks are working harder for the same or less pay.
Beyond the political blah-blah-blah in Waco, wages are stagnant, hours are down, worker health-care costs are skyrocketing, 1.7 million jobs have been lost since Bush took office, and unemployment is rising. Bush’s circus can’t hide this kitchen-table reality.