The high unemployment problem is well known. Less apparent in raw figures is the loss of buying power by the employed. Writing for the Christian Science Monitor, Robert Reich reports:

Missing from almost all discussion of America’s dizzying rate of unemployment is the brute fact that hourly wages of people with jobs have been dropping, adjusted for inflation. …June’s decline in average hours pushed weekly paychecks down at an annualized rate of 4.5 percent. In other words, Americans are keeping their jobs or finding new ones only by accepting lower wages.

This is not partisan criticism of the Obama regime. Robert Reich was Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton.

One group is still thriving at the expense of the middle class, the monied interests. Reich notes:

Meanwhile, a much smaller group of Americans’ earnings are back in the stratosphere: Wall Street traders and executives, hedge-fund and private-equity fund managers, and top corporate executives….

We’re back to the same ominous trend as before the Great Recession: a larger and larger share of total income going to the very top while the vast middle class continues to lose ground.

And as long as this trend continues, we can’t get out of the shadow of the Great Recession. When most of the gains from economic growth go to a small sliver of Americans at the top, the rest don’t have enough purchasing power to buy what the economy is capable of producing.

Reich is not optimistic about Obama’s efforts to manage the problem. He describes the attempt at “financial reform” — The New Finance Bill: A Mountain of Legislative Paper, a Molehill of Reform.

Could his commentary be a harbinger of a Hillary Clinton challenge to Obama in 2012? Or a ploy to get Obama to forestall that by naming her as his vice-presidential running mate in 2012?

Congressman Mike Rogers from Michigan effectively skewered the Democrats’ health care plan speaking in the House of Representatives. He specified the dangers to individuals and described the unfairness to workers and employers. This short video is a must see.

It’s a government power grab, not a health care solution. For a good summary of facts and figures, read this article in the Christian Science Monitor — If Uncle Sam becomes your doctor:

Americans are doing their homework on healthcare reform. And, unlike some members of Congress, they’re reading the legislation, even though it’s more than 1,000 pages long.

They see that the numbers don’t add up. They note the contradictory claims by the Obama administration and Democrat-controlled Congress. And they recognize the unintended consequences of the government controlling one-sixth of the US economy.

According to several recent polls, on key issues of access, quality of care, and cost, Americans don’t support this government power grab.

….Analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation shows that the House bill that’s being rushed through by Democrats would add $239 billion to the deficit in the next 10 years – and that’s after raising taxes by $820 billion and cutting Medicare Advantage by $150 billion….

Go read the rest.

Thousands of dolphins blocked suspected Somali pirate ships when they were trying to attack Chinese merchant ships passing through the Gulf of Aden.

The picture is from Chinese Radio International, which carried the initial report. Chinese merchant ships are escorted through the Gulf of Aden by a three-ship task force, a practice initiated on Dec. 26 last year after the United Nations Security Council called on countries to patrol waters off Somalia, and after seven Chinese ships had been hijacked.

As several small pirate boats were approaching, thousands of dolphins surfaced and began playing and leaping in the air. Unable to get their small boats through the mass of dolphins, the pirates turned away.

China View reports:

Thousands of dolphins suddenly leaped out of water between pirates and merchants… The suspected pirates … stopped and then turned away. The pirates could only lament their littleness befor the vast number of dolphins. The spectacular scene continued for a while.

The economic recovery may be slower than everyone expects.

Alice Rivlin, head of the Congressional Budget Office, spoke at the National Press Club’s Business Breakfast Tuesday morning:

Standard forecasts, which generally call for the U.S. recession-ridden economy to bottom out late this year or early 2010 and then grow rapidly, “may be too optimistic,” warned Alice Rivlin….

Rivlin indicated that current economic models are based on statistics from recessions during the last several decades. “But none of those recessions started with a financial meltdown,” she said. “Our banking system was still functioning. It isn’t still functioning now.”….

Rivlin appeared at the Club the day after release of the Obama administration’s trillion-dollar plan to stabilize banks through a public-private partnership to buy their toxic assets. Calling the plan “quite complex,” she said it “likely will work if the private sector comes in quite aggressively.”

….she is not worried, she said, that Obama’s proposed budget “is astronomical in the next two years.” But she expressed concern that the budget does not raise enough revenue to deal with long-term obligations….

Author Daniel Sheehy Speaks on the North American Union Versus One Nation

Daniel Sheehy, author of Fighting Immigration Anarchy: American Patriots Battle to Save the Nation, in a National Press Club briefing August 20, explained the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) meeting this week near Ottawa, Canada. The globalists’ primary goal is the North American Union merging Mexico, the USA, and Canada by 2010! He addressed the NAFTA Highway being built by a Spanish company so that no information about it gets out.

“What can we do to defeat this?” Sheehy asked, citing the successful June 28 defeat by grassroots activism of the Guest Worker Bill.

• Visit NumbersUSA
• Listen to talk radio, get informed, and call in.
• Talk to your local county officials: some Virginia counties are restructuring illegal immigrants’ access to services.
• Support H. CON. RES. 40: ask your congressmen to halt work on the Highway (See Note 1).
• Support H.CON.RES.22: demand that we withdraw from NAFTA (See Note 2).
• Demand that the fence between Mexico and the US be built now.
• Demand that current immigration laws be enforced
• Demand an end to “anchor babies.”
• Demand an end to “chain migration” which comprises 2/3 of illegal immigrants.
• Discuss the issue! Spread the news!

For further details read:

Daniel Sheehy’s book: Fighting Immigration Anarchy: American Patriots Battle to Save the Nation, Copyright 2006, available from Rooftop Publishing

To get active, contact:

Daniel Sheehy’s website

The Coalition to Block the North American Union, Vienna, VA, 703-893-2777,

The Virginia Coalition for Immigration Reform, 703-605-5144

The American Council for Immigration Reform, Washington, DC, 202-659-9499

Note 1: H. CON. RES. 40

Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System or enter into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada.

Note 2: H.CON.RES.22

Expressing the sense of Congress that the President should provide notice of withdrawal of the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

North American Union to Replace USA?
BY: Jerome R. Corsi  |  Source

President Bush is pursuing a globalist agenda to create a North American Union, effectively erasing our borders with both Mexico and Canada. This was the hidden agenda behind the Bush administration’s true open borders policy.

Secretly, the Bush administration is pursuing a policy to expand NAFTA politically, setting the stage for a North American Union designed to encompass the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. What the Bush administration truly wants is the free, unimpeded movement of people across open borders with Mexico and Canada.

President Bush intends to abrogate U.S. sovereignty to the North American Union, a new economic and political entity which the President is quietly forming, much as the European Union has formed.
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