Obamanomics: 1 in 6 Americans live in poverty, revised estimates say

20 October 2009
By Hope Yen

The level of poverty in America is even worse than first believed.

A revised formula for calculating medical costs and geographic variations show that approximately 47.4 million Americans last year lived in poverty, 7 million more than the government's official figure.

The disparity occurs because of differing formulas the Census Bureau and the National Academy of Science use for calculating the poverty rate. The NAS formula shows the poverty rate to be at 15.8 percent, or nearly 1 in 6 Americans, according to calculations released this week. That's higher than the 13.2 percent, or 39.8 million, figure made available recently under the original government formula.

That measure, created in 1955, does not factor in rising medical care, transportation, child care or geographical variations in living costs. Nor does it consider non-cash government aid when calculating income. As a result, official figures released last month by Census may have overlooked millions of poor people, many of them 65 and older.

According to the revised NAS formula:

--About 18.7 percent of Americans 65 and older, or nearly 7.1 million, are in poverty compared to 9.7 percent, or 3.7 million, under the traditional measure. That's due to out-of-pocket expenses from rising Medicare premiums, deductibles and a coverage gap in the prescription drug benefit.

--About 14.3 percent of people 18 to 64, or 27 million, are in poverty, compared to 11.7 percent under the traditional measure. Many of the additional poor are low-income, working people with transportation and child-care costs.

--Child poverty is lower, at about 17.9 percent, or roughly 13.3 million, compared to 19 percent under the traditional measure. That's because single mothers and their children disproportionately receive non-cash aid such as food stamps.

--Poverty rates were higher for non-Hispanic whites (11 percent), Asians (17 percent) and Hispanics (29 percent) when compared to the traditional measure. For blacks, poverty remained flat at 24.7 percent, due to the cushioning effect of non-cash aid.

--The Northeast and West saw bigger jumps in poverty, due largely to cities with higher costs of living such as New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The Census Bureau said it expedited release of the alternative numbers for this month because of the interest expressed by lawmakers and the Obama administration in seeing a fuller range of numbers. Legislation pending in Congress would mandate a switch to the revised formula, although the White House could choose to act on its own.

Arloc Sherman, a senior researcher at the nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said that because the revised formula factors in non-cash government aid, the amount of increase in poverty from 2007 to 2008 was generally smaller compared to the current measure.

"Food stamp participation rose during the first year of recession and appears to have softened what could have been an even greater increase in financial hardship," he said.

Sherman said the revised formula could take on greater importance in measuring poverty for 2009 as more Americans take advantage of tax credits and food stamps under the federal stimulus program. Food stamp assistance currently is at an all-time high of about 36 million.

Obamanomics: Social Security Freeze Means Seniors Must Scrimp

Retired US truck driver Frank Ferrira, 90, talks about social security Thursday, 15 October 2009 at the Pembroke Pines, Fla. Southwest Focal Senior Center. There will be no cost-of-living increase for more than 50 million Social Security recipients next year, the first year without a raise since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975.


16 October 2009
By MATT SEDENSKY

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – If her check were bigger, 76-year-old Agnes Conti might be able to spring for a better cut of meat for her pot roast. She could afford to send her nine grandchildren more than $20 for their birthdays and Christmas. She'd be able to buy some nice new clothes, like she sees on QVC, not what she settles for at Walmart.

If only. The government has said the Social Security checks Conti and tens of millions of other seniors rely on as their primary source of income will not increase next year as consumer prices have fallen overall. And while the retired hospital clerk will get by, she'll be watching her spending even closer, knowing she can't expect the annual raise she's been accustomed to.

"We were good citizens all our lives. We went to work, we lived by the book, we weren't on welfare, we didn't ask the city for anything," Conti said while taking a break from crafts at a senior center here. "And what do we get?"

At the Southwest Focal Point Senior Center in this Fort Lauderdale suburb, seniors lamented the cost-of-living freeze and praised a White House plan for $250 checks to soften the blow. But they took all of the news in stride, saying they've had a lifetime of experience living on a fixed income and would manage with the money they currently receive.

Frank Ferreira sits in the center's lobby, near a decorative fireplace and an autumn centerpiece. The 90-year-old retired truck driver loves to sing, even practicing on a karaoke machine at home, and loves to dance even more. He gets about $890 a month from Social Security, most of which he hands over to his daughter to help pay his share of the bills.

The money isn't the biggest issue, Ferreira said. It's the message the government is sending about caring for seniors.

"I could use a little more, but that's all right, I get along," he said. "But I think that we deserve it, the elderly. You can't just discard them. You've got to help them."

Nearby, 89-year-old Miriam Danzinger is shuffling along with a walker. She gets about $1,300 monthly in Social Security, and after rent and other expenses, including a MediGap plan, she has little to spare. Her daughter helps pay her bills.

When her Chevrolet Cavalier broke down a few months back, Danzinger was forced to give it up. When she goes to the store, she's thrifty, having learned how to cut grocery costs when she ran a coffee shop. She lives as simply as possible.

"Listen, there's no money. People are going hungry," she said. "But what can I say? I'm only a little ant."

The freeze in next year's checks is the first since automatic Social Security cost-of-living increases were adopted in 1975, and follows a 5.8 percent increase in January, the largest since 1982. By law, the adjustments are pegged to inflation, which is negative this year because of lower energy costs.

The Obama administration plan to send $250 stimulus payments to about 57 million seniors, veterans, retired railroad workers and people with disabilities, would amount to a roughly 2 percent raise for the average Social Security recipient. If approved, the checks would cost about $13 billion, though there is no plan yet how to finance them.

While seniors here have grown used to the annual raises, many of them said they're willing to cut the government some slack given the recession and the federal deficit.

"When they have the money, they give us the raise. If they don't have it, they don't have it," said Lucy Polieto, a retired waitress who lives in Southwest Ranches. She wears a glittery gold sweater and chains around her neck, and walks with a spry bounce that belies her 94 years. "Sometimes, I'm so surprised when I look at the check and I get a raise."

The news this week that checks would be stagnant is buffered by some positives: Seniors won't be getting any less than they already do, most recipients' Medicare part B premiums will freeze as well, and the president's plan could soften the blow. But because the one-time stimulus payments won't be a lifetime raise, it means many seniors will never see what amounts to thousands of dollars.

For those in poverty, the raise could have made a huge difference. But for the average senior simply living on a fixed income, it is seen less in dollars and cents, and more in the tangible costs they might be more careful with.

Polieto cooks eggplant, chicken cacciatori and pasta fazool. A raise could have given her more leeway with her grocery bill.

"Then I could buy some steaks, maybe," she said. "But I'd rather have a pork chop."

Homeless and Starving in America

6 June 2009
by HRM Deborah

As the statistics came out on Friday, 5 June 2009 of US Unemployment reaching a staggering rate of 9.4%; which is about 1.4% higher then the 1930’s Great Depression and even staggering figure has came foreword of 12.4 million US children are at risk of starvation.

Some of these children are being equated of the countless photograph’s seen twenty years ago of what was occurring in Ethiopia of children so underfed that they where literally skin and bones, with the possible borderline of rickets; with some case's of fly’s embedded in some children’s eyes, as was reported by a children’s aid worker.

While some of these malnourished families are now homeless and some are living in homeless shelters; it is an ever increasing problem of not just single person’s; but whole families finding homeless on the street and the ever increasing tent cities.

While US President Barack Obama had pledged assistance by 2015, for the majority of these improvised American’s this is way to late for so many; especially with the further decrease of the American dollar and the ever rising cost of just basic necessities.

Update:

Climbing Unemployment Continues to Beat US

19 June 2009

The unemployment rate in the West jumped over 10 percent in May.

The Labor Department reported Friday that 48 states and the District of Columbia saw employment conditions deteriorate last month. The fallout from the longest ‘recession’ which the US claims in historical error as being “since World War II,” was the worst in Michigan as automakers cut tens of thousands of jobs. Its unemployment rate rose to 14.1 percent. With California at 11.5 and Nevada came in at 11.3 percent it was recorded; while Eastern states set record high's, like Vermont which claimed to be just bottomed out.

As quoted from Associated Press, “Joblessness is rising as companies lay off workers and turn to other cost-saving measures, such as trimming hours and freezing or slicing wages, to survive the recession. Housing, credit and financial problems — the worst since the 1930s — have sent the economy into a tailspin.”

“Factories, construction companies, retailers and financial companies are among the industries that have slashed the most jobs. U.S. manufacturers have suffered a double whammy: customers in the U.S. have pulled back along with foreign customers, who are dealing with their own economic troubles.”

As to US President Barack Obama’s Health Plan which with the ever increasing unemployment problems, because most American’s where covered by their employer and in some cases due to rising cost; employers in some cases dropping employee health care all together; this makes Obama’s plan a major bust, along with the fact that most American’s can not afford health care on their own; especially the elderly who have been suffering with this problem for years, with the ever increase of prescription cost. Which some elderly American’s have had to either pay for prescriptions and not buy food or buy food and do without needed medicines or health care.


The World Health Organization (WHO), in 2000, ranked the U.S. health care system as the highest in cost and it has continued to skyrocket especially in the last year due to the economic downturn, it goes without saying that the average American with the continuous economic collapse and increase, may have to forgo health care all together; which was also a critical situation in the 1930‘s, where home remedies where being more used to circumvent a doctor’s visit or in extreme only for emergency cases, which many still died over the debate of cost and some doctor‘s ill-efficiency.

As to the old argument that one on a good day in the 1930‘s, such as the instance of an American doing farm labor for a dollar a day with "luck" (because this type of employment was either temporary due to seasonal or not as common as people may think due to some US geographical locations); one need’s to remember a single loaf of bread was five cent’s and most people had to squeeze a little less money for the hope of flour to bake their own bread, because the average American even with the dollar wages could ill-afford the five cent loaf of "store-bought" bread. Which is so similar to the cost of living burdens the average American is facing today.

"Beep, Beep, Get out of the way; you road hog!"

Nevertheless, as Obama seems to thrive on his popularity or lack of with his alleged polls especially if people disagree with him; one has yet to be reminded of the promises never kept, the inept manner he has handled the variedness’ of circumstances both global and domestic in such a bumbling Mr. Magoo manner; one is yet, to wonder how he has kept from bumbling out a White House window only to find himself, face down on the lawn?

Majority of Americans Live in Poverty

2009 Soup Kitchen

The US once called itself a 'superpower' even within the economic forum, but with a recent poll, it was found that eighty-three percent of Americans are now living in poverty and with no turn around in sight; to further increase this poverty structure.

100 Days a Grim Reminder

Obama's 100 days of legacy a grim reminder of the past.

US's Various Shades of the Great Depression Poverty

US President Barack Obama is being compared to former US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was a known Nazi financier who not only bankrupted the US in his day to do so; but was a perpetrator with Adolf Hitler that created the Holocaust in Europe with one of the most notorious, barbaric horrendous cases of genocide to ever have occurred in history.

While Americans suffered the most severe poverty, during what was known as the Great Depression; where Roosevelt may have been a great orator towards a New Deal, in reality he cared less for the American welfare. But Nevertheless, Roosevelt bathed in what he considered the luxury persona of the White House; not unlike what the Nazi regime did when they confiscated the finest homes in Europe.

US President Obama looks at a portrait of former assassinated US President John F. Kennedy.

Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas at 12:30 p.m.(CST), on 22 November 1963; which has been considered by many Americans, as the greatest US governmental (internal) conspiracy in American history.

In 1991, director and producer Oliver Stone made a movie called, "JFK;"apparently with this conspiracy premise, in mind.

Around 600 troops attended the US President's address in Baghdad, Iraq; as the Iraqi genocide within the country continues.
US President Obama greets California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (who's family where Austrian Nazi's during WW2) and his wife Maria Shriver before the Governor's Dinner.

Obama Toots His Own Horn

Let’s not forget so soon, of Obama’s over zealousness towards tooting his own horn as far as every facet of the media goes and his public persona; his brashness is most unbecoming.

New jobless claims in the U.S. rise more than expected to 640K

23 April 2009

WASHINGTON - New jobless claims in the United States rose more than expected last week, while the number of workers continuing to filing claims for unemployment benefits topped 6.1 million.

Both figures are fresh evidence that layoffs persist and the job market remains weak. The Labour Department says initial claims for unemployment compensation rose to a seasonally adjusted 640,000, up from a revised 613,000 the previous week.

That was slightly above analysts' expectations of 635,000.

The number of people claiming benefits for more than a week rose to 6.13 million, setting a record for the 12th straight week.

This comes at a time when a US propaganda poll is claiming through US President Barack Obama, that their country is going into the right direction; even more so then it has in years, while hanging over the economic cliff with an untied rope. As to Obama's claim of confidence, he need's to rethink of how the American people are actually living from day to day or does he even taking into consideration their disgruntled voice and protesting.

"Pay the Bonus"

“Keep the Home Fires Burning;" is the song under the photograph, which was a propaganda tune from World War 1. If one also notices the upper part of the newspaper article header, one will also see that the harshness of segregation or racism between white and black American’s was still being enforced during this time period.

The Bonus March on Washington

The self-named Bonus Expeditionary Force was an assemblage of some 43,000 marchers — 17,000 World War I veterans, their families, and affiliated groups, who protested in Washington, D.C., in spring and summer of 1932. Called the Bonus March by the news media, the Bonus Marchers were more popularly known as the Bonus Army. The war veterans sought immediate cash payment of Service Certificates granted to them eight years earlier via the Adjusted Service Certificate Law of 1924. Each Service Certificate, issued to a qualified veteran soldier, bore a face value equal to the soldier's promised payment, plus compound interest. The problem was that the certificates (like bonds), matured twenty years from the date of original issuance, thus, under extant law, the Service Certificates were un-redeemable until 1945.

The Bonus Army was led by Walter W. Waters, a former Army sergeant, and was encouraged in their demand for immediate cash-payment redemption of their service certificates by retired U.S.M.C. Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, one of the most popular military figures of the time.

In 1924, over-riding President Calvin Coolidge's veto, Congress legislated compensation for veterans to recognize their war-time suffering: receive a dollar for each day of domestic service, to a maximum of $500; and $1.25 for each day of overseas service, to a maximum of $625. Amounts owed of $50 or less were immediately paid; greater sums were issued as certificates of service maturing in 20 years.

Some 3,662,374 military service certificates were issued, with a face value of $3.638 billion. Congress established a trust fund to receive 20 annual payments of $112 million that, with interest, would finance the $3.638 billion dollars owed to the veterans in 1945. Meanwhile, veterans could borrow up to 22.5% of the certificate's face value from the fund. In 1931, because of the Great Depression, Congress increased the loan value to 50 per cent of the certificate's face value; yet, by April 1932, loans amounting to $1.248 billion dollars had been paid, leaving a $2.36-billion-dollar deficit. Although there was Congressional support for the immediate redemption (payment) of the military service certificates, President Hoover and Republican congressmen opposed that, because it would negatively affect the Federal Government's budget and Depression-relief programs. Meanwhile, veterans organizations pressed the Federal Government to allow the early redemption of their military service certificates.

Bonus Marchers In Washington
Original caption: Bonus March on Washington, July, 1932. Veterans cheer Rep. Fish who was in Favor of bill to pay soldier's bonus, after they were ordered off capital steps.

Bonus Veterans Crouch Beneath Banner
Original caption: 6/19/1932-Washington, DC- "We need cash not a tombstone, pay the bonus now," says the sign these veterans from Muncie, Indiana display. And the Muncie contingent is just one of the many who say they will remain in the capital until the bonus is paid them.



"I was horrified to see plain evidence of hunger in their faces."

Evalyn Walsh McLean was the wife of the owner of the Washington Post and a pillar of Washington Society. She describes the scene as the Bonus Army first entered Washington and marched past her elegant mansion:

On a day in June, 1932, I saw a dusty automobile truck roll slowly past my house. I saw the unshaven, tired faces of the men who were riding in it standing up. A few were seated at the rear with their legs dangling over the lowered tailboard. On the side of the truck was an expanse of white cloth on which, crudely lettered in black, was a legend, BONUS ARMY.

Other trucks followed in a straggling succession, and. on the sidewalks of Massachusetts Avenue where stroll most of the diplomats and the other fashionables of Washington were some ragged hikers, wearing scraps of old uniforms. The sticks with which they strode along seemed less canes than cudgels. They were not a friendly-looking lot, and I learned they were hiking and riding into the capital along each of its radial avenues; that they had come from every part of the continent. It was not lost on me that those men, passing anyone of my big houses, would see in such rich shelters a kind of challenge.

I was burning, because I felt that crowd of men, women, and children never should have been permitted to swarm across the continent. But I could remember when those same men, with others, had been cheered as they marched down Pennsylvania Avenue. While I recalled those wartime parades, I was reading in the newspapers that the bonus army men were going hungry in Washington.

That night I woke up before I had been asleep an hour. I got to thinking about those poor devils marching around the capital. Then I decided that it should be a part of my son Jock's education to see and try to comprehend that marching. It was one o'clock, and the Capitol was beautifully lighted. I wished then for the power to turn off the lights and use the money thereby saved to feed the hungry.

When Jock and I rode among the bivouacked men I was horrified to see plain evidence of hunger in their faces; I heard them trying to cadge cigarettes from one another. Some were lying on the sidewalks, unkempt heads pillowed on their arms. A few clusters were shuffling around. I went up to one of them, a fellow with eyes deeply sunken in his head.

'Have you eaten?' He shook his head.

Just then I saw General Glassford, superintendent of the Washington police. He said, 'I'm going to get some coffee for them.'

'All right,' I said, 'I am going to Childs'.'

It was two o'clock when I walked into that white restaurant. A man came up to take my order. 'Do you serve sandwiches? I want a thousand," I said. "And a thousand packages of cigarettes.'

'But, lady - '

'I want them right away. I haven't got a nickel with me, but you can trust me. I am Mrs. McLean.'

Well, he called the manager into the conference, and before long they were slicing bread with a machine; and what with Glassford's coffee also (he was spending his own money) we two fed all the hungry ones who were in sight.

...One day Waters, the so-called commander, came to my house and said: 'I'm desperate. Unless these men are fed, I can't say what won't happen to this town.' With him was his wife, a little ninety-three-pounder, dressed as a man, her legs and feet in shiny boots. Her yellow hair was freshly marceled.

'She's been on the road for days,' said Waters, 'and has just arrived by bus.'

I thought a bath would be a welcome change; so I took her upstairs to that guest bedroom my father had designed for King Leopold. I sent for my maid to draw a bath, and told the young woman to lie down.

'You get undressed,' I said, 'and while you sleep I'll have all your things cleaned and pressed.'

'Oh, no,' she said, 'not me. I'm not giving these clothes up. I might never see them again.'

Her lip was out, and so I did not argue. She threw herself down on the bed, boots and all, and I tiptoed out.

That night I telephoned to Vice-President Charlie Curtis. I told him I was speaking for Waters, who was standing by my chair. I said: 'These men are in a desperate situation, and unless something is done for them, unless they are fed, there is bound to be a lot of trouble. They have no money, nor any food.'

Charlie Curtis told me that he was calling a secret meeting of senators and would send a delegation of them to the House to urge immediate action on the Howell bill, providing money to send the bonus army members back to their homes."

Arrival in Washington

The Bonus Army massed at the United States Capitol on June 17 as the U.S. Senate voted on the Patman Bonus Bill, which would have moved forward the date when World War I veterans received a cash bonus. Most of the Bonus Army camped in a Hooverville (transit or homeless Camps named after US President Herbert Hoover, well-known during the 1930’s Great Depression) on the Anacostia Flats, then a swampy, muddy area across the Anacostia River from the federal core of Washington. The camps, built from materials scavenged from a nearby rubbish dump, were tightly controlled by the veterans with streets laid out, sanitation facilities built and parades held daily. To live in the camps, veterans were required to register and prove they had been honorably discharged. The protesters had hoped that they could convince Congress to make payments that would be granted to veterans immediately, which would have provided relief for the marchers who were unemployed due to the Depression. The bill had passed the House of Representatives on June 15 but was blocked in the Senate.

Shacks, put up by the Bonus Army on the Anacostia flats, Washington, DC, burning after the battle with the military, 1932.

The U.S. Army intervenes

On 28 July, 1932, Attorney General Mitchell ordered the police evacuation of the Bonus Army veterans, who resisted; the police shot at them, and killed two. When told of the killings, President Hoover ordered the U.S. Army to effect the evacuation of the Bonus Army from Washington, D.C.

At 4:45 p.m., commanded by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the 12th Infantry Regiment, Fort Howard, Maryland, and the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, supported by six battle tanks commanded by Maj. George S. Patton, Fort Myer, Virginia, formed in Pennsylvania Avenue while thousands of Civil Service employees left work to line the street and watch the U.S. Army attack its own veterans. The Bonus Marchers, believing the display was in their honour, cheered the troops until Maj. Patton charged the cavalry against them — an action which prompted the Civil Service employee spectators to yell, "Shame! Shame!"

After the cavalry charge, infantry, with fixed bayonets and adamsite gas, entered the Bonus Army camps, evicting veterans, families, and camp followers. The veterans fled across the Anacostia River, to their largest camp; President Hoover ordered the Army assault stopped, however, Gen. MacArthur—feeling this free-speech exercise was a Communist attempt at overthrowing the U.S. Government—ignored the President and ordered a new attack. Hundreds of veterans were injured, several were killed — including William Hushka and Eric Carlson; a veteran's wife miscarried; and many other veterans were hurt.

The Posse Comitatus Act — forbidding civilian police work by the U.S. military — did not apply to Washington, D.C., because it is the federal district directly governed by the U.S. Congress (U.S. Constitution, Article I. Section 8. Clause 17). The exemption was created because of an earlier "Bonus March". In 1781, most of the Continental Army was demobilized without pay, two years later, in 1783, hundreds of Pennsylvania war veterans marched on Philadelphia, surrounded the State House wherein Congress was in session, and demanded their pay. The U.S. Congress fled to Princeton, New Jersey, and, several weeks later, the U.S. Army expelled the war veterans back to home, out of the national capital.

An infant, Bernard Myers, later died in the hospital after the incident but reports indicated the death was not caused by the evacuation of the BEF.

Casualties and Losses

All told their where 4 dead and as many as 1,017 marchers and family injured, with at least 69 police injured.

Aftermath

Following his election, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not want to pay the bonus early either, but handled the veterans with more skill. In March 1933, Roosevelt issued an executive order allowing the enrollment of 25,000 veterans in the Civilian Conservation Corps for work in forests. When they marched on Washington again in May 1933, he sent his wife Eleanor to chat with the vets and pour coffee with them, and she persuaded many of them to sign up for jobs making a roadway to the Florida Keys, which was to become the Overseas Highway, the southernmost portion of U.S. Route 1. On September 2, the disastrous Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 killed 258 veterans working on the Highway. After seeing more newsreels of veterans giving their lives for a government that had taken them for granted, public sentiment built up so much that Congress could no longer afford to ignore it in an election year (1936). Roosevelt's veto was overridden, making the bonus a reality.

References:

Evalyn Walsh McLean's account appears in: Father Struck it Rich (1936); Daniels, Roger, The Bonus March; an Episode of the Great Depression (1971).

Bonus Army, Wikipedia

Memory: The Bonus Army March, Library of Congress

Off the Record: The California Dream

Come to California
There are jobs of plenty
And land is cheap.
Every working man can have his own house and inside every house a happy all-American family.
You can have all this and who knows…you may even be discovered…become a movie star or at least see one.
Life is good in California...It is paradise on earth…that is what they tell you, anyway. Because they are selling and image…they’re selling it through movies, radio and television.

You think California was the Garden of Eden, but the underbelly always has had its serpent, with felony crime, corruption, prostitution and drugs.

Just as the clean fresh face Mid-Western girl’s who got of the bus in plenty, with star’s glittering in their eye’s with the hope of becoming that next big movie star and as far as she ever got on a Hollywood lot of fame and fortune; is some director’s office sofa or ending up along prostitution row, only to die from a drug over-dose, other unmentionables; to ending up on some vacant lot dead, all cut up like Elizabeth Short (The Black Dahlia) and this was her only walk to fame’s headlines of the butchering, with no solid lead of the killer.

A mug shot of Elizabeth Short (The Black Dahlia) by Santa Barbara police, after her arrest for underage drinking, on 23 September 1943; prior to her murder.

Or those fresh faced young men stepping of the bus from who knows where, with the same star twinkles in their eyes and end up a slap boy for some up and coming politician or lawyer; slapped and tickled homosexual play toy. To later, be tossed away on some trumped-up charge like a ‘kiddy rapper beef;’ heading for (San) Quentin or the “Q;” with yet, just the possibility of just getting their throat sliced from ear to ear.

But less we forget, it was all done with champagne luxury style…which in reality until the economic bust, California became one of the most expensive states to live in; other then New York City….so let’s keep this on the GT and very Hush-Hush with the same old tabloid rag.

Places called “Hoovervilles,” named after former US President Herbert Hoover sprang up during the Great Depression as people lost their jobs and homes; besides the shanty towns, there where an overwhelming amount of what was called “transit camp’s,” which many consisted of nothing more then tent cities. In 2009, American’s are living in what is now being termed as “Obamavilles;” after current US President Barack Obama.

Obamaville: The tents and other makeshift homes have sprung up in the shadow of Sacramento's skyscrapers

Today, tents are once again springing up in the city of Sacramento. But this time it is for people with no hope and no prospects.

Obamaville: The tent city is already home to dozens of people, many left without jobs because of the credit crunch

Those who have lost their jobs and homes and have nowhere else to go are constructing makeshift shelters on the site, which covers several acres.

As many as 50 people a week are turning up and the authorities estimate that the tent city is now home to more than 1,200 people.

In a state more known for its fantastic wealth and the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, the images have shocked many Americans.

Conditions are primitive, with no water supply or proper sanitation.

Many residents have to walk up to three miles to buy bottled water from petrol stations or convenience stores.

Obamaville: Ben Cardwell, carries supplies to his tent at a homeless settlement

Obamaville: Tammy Day, a homeless woman, cooks potatoes on a campfire at the site

At other times, charity workers arrive to hand out free food and other supplies.

Joan Burke, who campaigns on behalf of the homeless, said the images of Americans living in tents would shock many.

'It should be an eye- opener for everybody,' she said. 'But we shouldn't just be shocked, we should take action to change things, because it's unacceptable.

'It is unacceptable that in this day and age we have gone back to a situation like we had during the Great Depression.'

Obamaville: Keith and Tammy Day cook dinner

Authorities in Sacramento, where Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who's family in Austria where of the Nazi Party at Adolph Hitler’s height of in fame; at his office, admit the sight of families living in such poverty is not pretty.

The city's mayor Kevin Johnson said: 'I can't say tent cities are the answer to the homeless population in Sacramento, but I think it's one of the many things that should be considered and looked at.'

Foreclosure rates last year rocketed by 327 per cent, with up to 500 people a day losing their home.

Coupled with massive job cuts that have seen one in ten workers laid off, many people who once enjoyed a middle class existence are now forced into third world conditions.

Former car salesman Corvin and his wife Tena are among the newest residents of the tent city.

Obamaville: Tent city residents queue up to receive supplies handed out by a local charity

The couple, who are in their fifties, lost their home and jobs around the same time.

With homeless shelters full in Sacramento, they had little choice but to use what savings they had left to buy a tent.

The couple admit they have yet to tell their grown-up children about their hand-to-mouth existence.

Tena said: 'I have a 35-year-old son, and he doesn't know. I call him, about once a month and on holidays, to let him know that I'm well and healthy.

Many of those who have found themselves homeless worked in the building trade.

But with no new home builds and as many as 80,000 people losing their job every month, there is little chance of employment.

'He would love me anyway, but I don't want to worry him.'

US President Barack Obama jaunts jubilantly on stage as he arrives to speak about education at the 19th Annual Legislative Conference of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington, 10 March 2009. The song under the photograph above was called. “Where in the Money,” which came out in 1933 as a propaganda tune in retrospect as a mockery of how dire the condition’s actually where during the Great Depression. The song was first featured in the film called; “The Gold Digger’s of 1933” and was presented by a chorus line of scanty dressed women.

As these tent cities will continue to grow in the weeks, months and years ahead with no prosperity in sight. US President Barack Obama’s previous stimulus package fund’s finding its way out of the country for such thing’s as there terrorism genocide increase and troop build-up in Afghanistan or to fund various military contracts for their global initiatives on they’re domination projects for example or for such pet projects as $1.8 million for swine odor and manure management research in Iowa, $2 million to promote astronomy in Hawaii and $381,000 for music programs at New York City’s Lincoln Center.

But yet, the American people have to stand and wait and wonder what sorrows will still becoming there way, as the poverty problem continues to balloon somewhere out past the stratosphere.

Update:

13 March 2009

As to the Obamaville’s in Sacramento which are seen in the above photograph's, it has been reported while these camps are acquiring 50 to 100 people a day with no other place to live or no other foreseeable place to go; that US President Barack Obama’s solution for these particular camps was to order the city of Sacramento to evict all these tent resident’s from their present location.

As to the present living conditions which are deployable and unsafe health hazard with no sanitation or water for instance and having to in most instances to cook over dug holes made into a type of grill to cook what ever a person can"hope to find," instead of Obama helping these American’s; he has found a way to increase their misery.

These camps are also being considered worse, than any fourth world country.

Nevertheless, as to the US commenting of being a safe investment in the world, is nothing but arrogance; as the country plummet’s further into despair.

US Foreign and Domestic Policy

“Can’t quite reach it, without keep falling down!”

The Blood from a Turnip

It is tax time again; for the majority of American’s and it is assured your mouth is watering with the hope of that nice return check, but this year think again.

US President Barack Obama passed a bill to nix that income tax return check, instead the majority of American’s rather it is state or federal will have to pay until the pain can not even be relieved by an aspirin.

If American’s where wondering about the issue of how Obama was going to come up with money for his current beat the government over the head stimulus package, here is one idea.

What is saddened by this, is how American’s are struggling to make end’s meet now and those who took out loans with the hope to pay them back with the now invisible tax return check; it is a wonder of how far the American people will have to suffer before their government stripes everything away from them.

Hurricane Katrina: End of rent help is a disaster for many

Displaced by storm, they scramble to stay afloat

7 February 2009
By Katy Reckdahl

As a longstanding disaster rent subsidy ends this month, thousands of families might be unable to pay their March rent.

Among them is a nursing assistant from Algiers who just got laid off, a Gentilly homeowner who works with the homeless and now fears he could join their ranks, and a disabled St. Bernard Parish man who worked with oil for decades until the fumes scrambled his nervous system.

The federal Disaster Housing Assistance Program, known as DHAP, will no longer pay rent for nearly 15,000 New Orleans-area households and thousands of other families displaced by Katrina, including more than 5,000 in the Houston area. "We don't know what we're going to do. I guess we're going to have to become a burden to our children," said Charles Ricord, the disabled man from St. Bernard.

On the Bush administration's last day, federal housing officials refused to continue the program. The Louisiana Recovery Authority and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., are pushing for a one-year extension, arguing that New Orleans still faces an acute affordable-housing shortage and that thousands of Louisiana homeowners still await Road Home money.

In a recent letter to President Barack Obama, Landrieu wrote: "It would be remiss of the federal government to infuse hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy . . . while we terminate a program housing more than 30,000 people in a region struggling to restore its affordable housing stock."

As many as 80 percent of DHAP tenants might be eligible for permanent Section 8 rental assistance because they're elderly, disabled or impoverished, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administers the program. But only 300 of the area's 15,000 affected households secured vouchers by this week, officials said. Many renters interviewed for this story didn't know they were eligible.

HUD, along with the Housing Authority of New Orleans, has beefed up the staff for its toll-free phone line, 866.202.3487. The agency can handle as many as 150 appointments a day in the office and more through teams that make home visits, said Dwayne Muhammad of HANO. "Get in here and we'll see you on the spot," he said.

Still, the sheer number of vouchers at stake might make the task impossible, with three weeks left and Mardi Gras approaching, observers say -- especially since disabled and elderly renters are apt to need more time and help.

Even renters who emerge with vouchers have more work to do. If their landlords accept vouchers, HANO still must inspect each unit and sign a contract, which usually takes at least two weeks.

--- 'We don't want to unpack' ---

Charles and Cynthia Ricord moved into a house near the Murphy Oil plant in July, supported by DHAP, since their only income is his $637 monthly disability check. On one wall are family photos. All else remains in boxes.

"We don't want to unpack," he said. "We don't know when we'll be moving again."

Many tenants who remain on DHAP could be called the neediest of the needy, because the program took in the last Katrina holdouts living in hotels and in FEMA trailers. For some, the past three years have been a turbulent sequence of moves between temporary homes, made worse by illness, depression, meager resources and shattered support networks.

The Ricords, who ran a successful but uninsured oil recycling business before Katrina, lived in Texas and Mississippi motels before returning to St. Bernard. They've stayed inside a tent, a garage, a FEMA trailer and an apartment where sewage ran under the floor.

They had begun to repair the home they lived in before Katrina, making payments on it as part of a lease-to-own deal. But last year, their landlord evicted them without explanation, they said.

The house was across the pasture from where they grew up as neighbors, before her rheumatoid arthritis made it hard to fold laundry and before he was diagnosed with nerve damage that causes him to clench his fists in pain, even when he's taking painkillers. "It seems like a lifetime ago," he said.

--- No one is hiring ---

D'Antionette Johnson got the call from her supervisor on Wednesday, and her heart sank. Her employer had laid off a group of people, including her.

She has been trying to land a job as a nursing assistant. But few, if any, are hiring, she said.

After Katrina, a helicopter rescued Johnson, clutching her toddler daughters, from a roof in the Lower 9th Ward, where she had rented a one-bedroom apartment for $150 a month. They began a nomadic life, mostly following relatives who can keep her daughters while she works.

Before her apartment in Algiers, the family lived with an aunt in Baton Rouge, cousins in Houston, and in three different places in New Orleans.

Her girls -- Darreion Johnson, 9, and Laureion Johnson, 8 -- have now attended nearby Harriet Tubman Elementary School since March, their longest stay in the same place since the storm, she said. She hopes to get help there for her younger daughter, whose sweet disposition changed after the storm.

Lately, Johnson has earned about $800 a month, the same amount DHAP paid for her apartment. Inside, there's almost no furniture except a flowered couch, salvaged from the street. The girls sleep on the couch, Johnson on the floor.

Johnson graduated atop her high school class, got her nursing assistant's certificate when she was 19, and has always worked hard to provide for her children, she said.

She hopes to pay her own rent again, she said. But not by March 1. "I can do it if I have a little more time," she said.

--- 'I have to make a decision' ---

Last fall, FEMA relocated Clarence White from the trailer he had set up in front of his Gentilly house, citing potential formaldehyde exposure.

He's now in an apartment, paid for by DHAP, in the Irish Channel. But the house he owns is only half rebuilt because of Road Home delays, a bad contractor and the incessant demands of his job as a caseworker for the homeless.

White helped house hundreds of people from the city's homeless encampments at Duncan Plaza and underneath the Claiborne Avenue overpass. Most of his monthly salary goes toward his $1,200 mortgage, utilities and other bills.

But DHAP renters who aren't elderly or disabled can get vouchers only if their income is less than 30 percent of the area's median income. Even White's modest paycheck exceeds the threshold of $12,550 a year for a single person.

By the end of this month, I have to make a decision," he said. Right now, he's leaning toward living with relatives in Baton Rouge and commuting.

White spends every day working with people who live precariously. He and other caseworkers say thousands of homeless people squat in houses that lack electricity or plumbing.

Only his family saves him from that fate, he said.

--- Not so wonderful ---

The Ricords still hope to get a voucher by March 1, with the help of a New Orleans Legal Assistance lawyer. But they aren't sure their landlord will accept it.

The two flip through a photo album they brought when they evacuated on Aug. 28, 2005. Pictures show the family clowning on its boat, Mr. Mac. They're smiling, playing horseshoes and volleyball, boiling crawfish. "It's like we're in the movie 'It's a Wonderful Life,' " said Charles Ricord.

But in this version, no angel appears to give them the good part back, he said.

Further Reading:

Competing stimulus bills divide Congress

Bushonomics: Jobless claims surge to 26-year high

24 December 2008

WASHINGTON– The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits jumped by 30,000 to a 26-year peak last week, government data on Wednesday showed, as the country's year-long recession continued to chill the labor market.

Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 586,000 in the week ended Dec 20 from a revised 556,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said. It was the highest since the week ended November 27, 1982, when initial claims rose 612,000.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast 560,000 new claims versus a previously reported count of 554,000 the week before.

A Labor Department official said there were no special factors influencing the data and no noticeable impact from severe winter weather in northern parts of the country.

The official also said a number of states had reported increasing layoffs in the auto industry, which has been hit hard by consumers cutting back on their spending in the face of rising unemployment and scarcer credit.

The four-week average of new jobless claims, a better gauge of underlying labor trends because it irons out week-to-week volatility, increased to 558,000 from 544,250 the week before. This was the highest reading since December 1982.

This measure has mounted steadily as the U.S. economy suffers from a credit crisis sparked by the housing slump, forcing lay-offs as firms slash costs to offset weaker income.

The number of people remaining on the benefits roll after drawing an initial week of aid declined by 17,000 to a less-then-forecast 4.370 million in the week ended December 13, the most recent week for which data is available. Analysts had estimated so-called continued claims would be 4.400 million.

Video's
New unemployment claims reach 26-year high

More than half million jobs axed in November

Commentary:

Along with ever increasing unemployment, consumer spending fears of further poverty hit’s, along with threats of tax increases of what can be ill-afforded within the crumbling economy; one has the ever increasing rampant business failures across the whole spectrum of the US.

As to the problem of housing failures, it more appears many Americans are more worried if they will also be able to afford just to go to the market, with the ever increasing higher prices on just food to feed themselves and there families.

Some economist have expressed if they are further teetering on the brink of full collapse after the New Year, while other more optimist’s are saying a possible upswing maybe by 2010; while the next figure is 2015.

Miss. residents sue over Katrina housing funds

Damage to Long Beach, Mississippi following Hurricane Katrina, in 2005. (click to enlarge photograph)

10 December 2008
By SHELIA BYRD

JACKSON, Miss. – Housing advocates and low-income residents sued Wednesday to stop Mississippi from spending a half-billion federal dollars to expand a damaged port rather than replace homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

The Mississippi State Conference NAACP, Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center and residents sued the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in federal court in Washington, D.C.

Congressional leaders and others slammed HUD when it approved the state's plan to steer money to the Hurricane Katrina-damaged port despite a lingering housing crisis caused by the 2005 storm.

Gov. Haley Barbour maintains expanding the State Port at Gulfport, the third-busiest container port in the Gulf of Mexico, is key to the region's economic recovery.

The storm surge devastated Mississippi's coast, washing away much of the affordable housing. Three years later, about 6,000 families remain in temporary housing. Housing prices have more than doubled and insurance costs have increased, forcing some to relocate.

"They were just leaving us out to defend for ourselves," said Dorothy McClendon, 59, a disabled former state employee and plaintiff in the lawsuit who still lives in a trailer provided by the federal government after being denied assistance through the Katrina housing program. "Most people like myself are low-income, elderly people who own their homes, but don't have no other means."

In January, then-HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson said he had concerns about the plan to redirect the money but was obligated to OK the project because of congressional rules.

"Our basic claim is that HUD had a duty and responsibility to review the proposal and took a position we believe is inappropriate — that they did not have the discretion to reject it," said Joe Rich, an attorney helping the housing advocates with their lawsuit.

HUD spokesman Brian Sullivan declined comment because the agency had not received a copy of the lawsuit.

The agency that oversees federally funded Katrina recovery projects has said programs are under way to address the housing situation, including a $350 million plan to build thousands of homes for the region's working class.

Lee Youngblood, a spokesman for the agency, the Mississippi Development Authority, said the port project will proceed.

"It's somewhat surprising that they would file a lawsuit, but at the same time, we're moving forward," said Youngblood, who said the state has dedicated $700 million to low-income construction projects.

The lawsuit contends that so far Mississippi has devoted only 21 percent of $5.4 billion in federal hurricane recovery funding to projects that benefit low- to moderate-income households. HUD's Community Block Grant Program, which provided most of the money, requires 50 percent of all spending to benefit such households.

Several congressional Democrats tried unsuccessfully to stop Mississippi from diverting the funds to the port.

"Safe, affordable housing was touted as the hallmark of Mississippi's recovery efforts," said Charmel Gaulden, executive director of the Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center. "Now, our own government is seeking to leave the least among us out in the cold."

Iraqi Shia Muslim Widows and Orphan Children Receive Eid Zakat (Charity)

Shia Muslim children and women gather at a school in the impoverished Sadr City district of eastern Baghdad, on 6 December 2008.

Some 192 women whose husbands were killed and children who lost both parents in the violence that has racked this city since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, gathered to receive a parcel of clothes and some money donated by Islamic charities for the up and coming Muslim Eid al-Adha.

Obama a Future Extension of Bush’s House

US President George W. Bush makes remarks on the presidential transition as Vice President Dick Cheney (R) listens at the South Lawn of the White House, on 6 November 2008; in Washington, DC. It appears that Alcoholism has taken more of a toll on Bush; then his terrorist, criminal activities have; while in the White House.

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 8, 2008

Audio
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Earlier this week, more than 120 million Americans went to the polls and voted for a new President and Congress. No matter how we cast our ballots, all Americans have reason to be proud of our democracy. Our citizens have chosen a President who represents a triumph of the American story -- a testament to hard work, optimism, and faith in the enduring promise of our Nation.

When I called President-Elect Obama to congratulate him on his historic victory, I told him that he can count on my complete cooperation as he makes his transition to the White House. Ensuring that this transition is seamless is a top priority for the rest of my time in office. Our country faces economic challenges that will not pause to let a new President settle in. This will also be America's first wartime presidential transition in four decades. We're in a struggle against violent extremists determined to attack us -- and they would like nothing more than to exploit this period of change to harm the American people.

So my Administration will work hard to ensure that the next President and his team can hit the ground running. For more than a year now, the White House and agencies throughout the Federal government have been preparing for a smooth transition. We've provided intelligence briefings to the President-Elect, and the Department of Justice has approved security clearances for members of his transition staff. In the coming weeks, we will ask Administration officials to brief the Obama team on major ongoing policy issues, ranging from the financial markets to the war in Iraq. I will keep the President-Elect fully informed on important decisions during this critical time for our Nation. Taken together, these measures represent an unprecedented effort to ensure continuity throughout the executive branch.

A successful transition is just one of the many important tasks remaining for my Administration. Yesterday we learned that America's economy lost jobs in the month of October, and I will continue working hard to return our Nation to the path of prosperity and growth. To help address the global financial crisis, my Administration will host an historic international summit in Washington on November 15. We will also keep urging Congress to approve America's free trade agreements with Colombia and Panama and South Korea. We will continue working to defeat the terrorists and extremists abroad, to keep the American people safe here at home.

Americans expect their President to conduct the people's business. I will continue to uphold this solemn obligation for as long as this office remains in my trust. In the meantime, I join the American people in wishing President-Elect Obama every success. Laura and I wish the Obama family as much joy and happiness as our family has found in this wonderful house.

Thank you for listening.

Bushonomics: Government selling $55B in bonds next week

5 November 2008

By MARCY GORDON

WASHINGTON – The government will sell $55 billion in bonds next week as part of a massive borrowing to pay for its financial rescue programs.

The Treasury Department said Wednesday it is bringing back its three-year notes, selling them monthly to help cover the increased borrowing needs, and will auction $25 billion of them on Monday. The government also will offer $20 billion in 10-year notes next Wednesday, and $10 billion in 29 3/4-year bonds on Thursday.

The government plans to borrow a record $550 billion in the last three months of the year to help pay for the various financial rescue packages put into effect in response to the global crisis. Officials project that the government will need to borrow an additional $368 billion in the first quarter of 2009, putting a sea of red ink in front of the incoming president, Barack Obama.

The Treasury also said it will offer 10-year notes in December and January.

The balance of financing requirements will be met by offering weekly Treasury bills, monthly 52-week bills, monthly two-year, three-year and five-year notes, and 10-year and 20-year securities, the department said.

The borrowing is needed pay for the array of government initiatives: The $700 billion rescue program enacted in early October; efforts by the Federal Reserve to bolster banks' balance sheets which have required it to use Treasury's borrowing resources; and the need of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for funds to deal with a rising number of bank failures.

"Over the last several months, changes in economic conditions, financial markets and fiscal policy ... have contributed to an increase in Treasury's marketable borrowing needs," Karthik Ramanathan, the department's acting assistant secretary for financial markets, said in a statement.

In May 2007, shrinking deficits and smaller borrowing needs led the government to cease sales of the three-year notes. Now the financial rescue programs will force the government to borrow unprecedented amounts as the budget deficit climbs to record heights.

The Bush administration in July forecast that the deficit for the current budget year, which began Oct. 1, would hit a record $482 billion. But that forecast didn't include all the government's efforts since then to deal with the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.

The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Budget estimates all the government economic and rescue initiatives, starting with the $168 billion in stimulus checks issued earlier this year, total an eye-popping $2.6 trillion.

Supporters of the government rescue packages argue that the ultimate cost to taxpayers should end up being a lot smaller, partly because the Federal Reserve is extending loans to banks that should be paid back.

And in the case of the $700 billion rescue package, the government is buying assets — either bank stock or distressed mortgage-backed assets — that it hopes will rebound in value once the crisis has passed.

But the government still needs to borrow massive amounts to buy the assets, an effort that has driven up borrowing costs.

Bushonomics: Bush in the Militarized Flying Zone

US President George W. Bush, onboard Marine One with two extra security helicopter gun ships, arrives back at the White House from a weekend spent at the Camp David, on 2 November 2008; in Washington, DC.

While Bush has put on a front of all is good in Washington, the economic protests have became increasingly heated; especially closer the elections come.

Apparently, Bush must be getting extremely afraid of the American economic protestors, to order flying security gun ships; which is more long the line of Bush threatening to murder Americans.

Nevertheless, this current situation with Bush reminds me of another leader long ago in Rome; and his name of Nero.

Be it ever so crumbly, there's no place like Rome.
Nero, he was the emperor, and the palace was his home.
But he liked to play with matches and for the fire yearned;
So, he burned Rome to ashes and fiddled while it burned.

Roman Emperor Nero (54to 68) was in Rome when it burned for five days and some old historical writings did assert that Nero did start this famous fire and played the fiddle while it burned.

Nero's rule is often associated with tyranny and extravagance, with a number of executions; including his mother and adoptive brother.

He was also known as an early persecutor of Christians before the coliseum.

Nero in numerous respects was not only dysfunctional in the whole scope of his life, but was a great warmonger with intentions at global conquest. When Nero was facing execution after a military coup within his own government, he committed suicide; which is to often the case with these type of people.

Notwithstanding, Nero will always be known as the crazed emperor who "fiddled while Rome burned.”

The only wonder is does Bush know how to play a fiddle, for in a manner of speaking; America is already alit.

Americans Stand up for Your Human Right’s, for You can make the difference!