Does President Obama Ever Do any Real Work?

Our taxes at work?

I turned on the TV today, and guess who I saw–again! Yes, our prime-time President. And he was on TV yesterday and the day before that. Does he really have to be on television every single day? Couldn’t he actually sit at his desk in the Oval Office and do a little real work once in awhile? Why can’t he at least pretend to take his job seriously, since we are supposedly in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression? He has already given two prime-time press conferences in which he said almost nothing and couldn’t be bothered to give a straight answer to serious questions.

On 60 Minutes last Sunday Obama told Steve Kroft that when he gets up early, has breakfast, and works out for an hour. Then he gets his security briefing. That takes him up to 10AM, and after that, anything goes. That’s what he said. I think he was suggesting that he spends the day dealing with crises that come up. But I don’t see any evidence that he actually does any real work. We can see what he’s doing on our TV sets: he is traveling around the country, going on Jay Leno, and announcing his college basketball picks live on ESPN. Now I hear he will be on the Face the Nation this weekend!

Yesterday Obama held a “virtual town meeting,” during which he responded to all of six questions. Six!! Out of hundreds of thousands that were submitted by citizens. How much taxpayer money was spent for that publicity stunt? I’m getting sick and f&&king tired of his act!

Unemployment Chronicles – could it really be that…

I

GOT

A

JOB

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After 2 layoffs within 4 months, illness, stress that was eating up my insides, I finally got one!   Ok, it’s a PT job but good paying part time job, which means I can pay rent and fill up my gas tank on a more consistent basis.  I start this Monday.

Nope, no health insurance.

But hey, at least it’s a job!

UPDATE: I want to thank everyone who kindly donated some funds my way the past month.  Without that help, I didn’t know how/what I was going to do as far as rent, bills, groceries and gas goes.   I truly appreciate my family here & know that I’ll never forget what you did for me.

We are living in very precarious times where we can’t trust the government to do what they’re supposed to do when those citizens who diligently paid their dues into the system are now needing that help.

We need to help our neighbors and friends who are victims of the O-cession.  If you know someone that recently got laid off and you can afford it, give them a gift card to a supermarket or offer to pay a utility bill.  Any little bit helps.   You never know if a couple of months from now, you’re going to be the one that needs help.   Again, thank you so very very much!

Open threadding it.

Friday: A sensitive subject

Dakinikat says this cartoon by Thomas Oliphant of the Boston Globe reminds her of something:

Mr. Oliphant should expect to get long, lecturing letters about the Holocaust, which he obviously has never heard of.

In other news:

• The NYTimes still hates Kirsten Gillibrand.  Now they are highlighting the work she did as a young attorney working for a firm representing Phillip Morris.  Look, guys, this personal vendetta you have against Gillibrand is getting ridiculous.  Caroline Kennedy didn’t get the job.  Give it up already.  Those who want to help Gillibrand out can contribute here.
• Paul Krugman (why aren’t you in the administration?) writes about where the finance industry went rogue on us in The Market Mystique.  He knows what I described the other day is probably true: The MBA Lifestyle was born and exploded onto the scene in the 80’s.  He also thinks we have to get rid of it:

As you can guess, I don’t share that vision. I don’t think this is just a financial panic; I believe that it represents the failure of a whole model of banking, of an overgrown financial sector that did more harm than good.

I don’t think the Obama administration can bring securitization back to life, and I don’t believe it should try.
Much discussion of the toxic-asset plan has focused on the details and the arithmetic, and rightly so. Beyond that, however, what’s striking is the vision expressed both in the content of the financial plan and in statements by administration officials. In essence, the administration seems to believe that once investors calm down, securitization — and the business of finance — can resume where it left off a year or two ago.

To be fair, officials are calling for more regulation. Indeed, on Thursday Tim Geithner, the Treasury secretary, laid out plans for enhanced regulation that would have been considered radical not long ago.

But the underlying vision remains that of a financial system more or less the same as it was two years ago, albeit somewhat tamed by new rules.

Now, if we could only get people like Paul to acknowledge that taxpayers have a right to protest instead of submitting quietly while the intellectuals and academics write sternly worded columns, maybe we could turn this baby around…

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