Unemployment Bad, More Jobs Shed… More Backlash on Michelle Obama’s Lavish Vacation — Public Beach Closed for Her by Police, Ingraham’s Parody of FLOTUS Vacation Diary
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on August 6, 2010
Despite what the Community Organizer in Chief claims, unemployment is bad.
How bad IS it?
THIS BAD:
Unemployment rate average comparison, by president. Clinton, 5.21 percent; Bush, 5.27 percent; Obama, 9.41 percent
From Wall Street Journal, U.S. Employers Shed Jobs:
The government’s latest snapshot of the job market was bleak, a sign the economic recovery is running out of steam with 14.6 million Americans still searching for work.
Job growth proved anemic in July as governments cut jobs and private-sector employers barely expanded.
The economy shed 131,000 jobs, as 143,000 temporary Census workers fell off federal payrolls. Private-sector employment grew by 71,000 in July after a downwardly revised 31,000 in June. Government employment, not counting Census workers, fell by 59,000.
The unemployment rate held steady at 9.5% largely because people gave up hope of finding work and left the labor force.
The latest figures confirm the labor market has lost much of its momentum in recent months. The private sector has added 90,000 jobs a month on average so far this year, well below the 125,000 needed monthly just to keep up with population growth, let alone recover the eight million jobs lost during the recession. Two-thirds of the private-sector job creation this year occurred in March and April, when the economy’s trajectory appeared stronger.
“It’s a double whammy because it causes people to take a psychological step back,” said Tig Gilliam, chief executive of Adecco Group North America, the staffing firm. “Now, it looks like not only has the economy slowed, but maybe it wasn’t as good when it was originally reported as we thought.”
[...]
The jobs report showed private-sector employers working their employees longer rather than hiring new ones. Aggregate weekly hours worked rose 0.3% overall, and 0.5% in manufacturing.
[...]
State and local governments shed 48,000 jobs, the most since last July, as many governments started new fiscal years that required them to cut budgets. Lawmakers in Washington next week are set to clear a $26 billion package to aid state governments, but that will only make a small dent in the longer-run problem facing governments. Last month, cities from Los Angeles to Dallas to Trenton either laid off workers or announced job cuts.
Seattle has been cutting jobs throughout the slowdown, including 13 jobs shed on July 20, and more layoffs are expected. The city drew down most of its rainy-day fund and other one-time resources to help close a $40 million gap in its 2010 budget. “It would be like paying your mortgage with your savings account,” says Beth Goldberg, the city’s acting budget director. “The situation that we’re now facing is that the savings account is nearly drained.”
The city is looking at a $56 million shortfall for the 2011 budget due next month. “The hard decisions are ahead of us,” Ms. Goldberg says.
Nonfarm payrolls up through July 2010 - from Labor Department
On the brighter side, Michelle and Sasha Obama had fun at the beach in Spain… Spanish police closed down a public beach to keep those pesky “regular” people away. Now that makes me feel much better.
No matter how devastating the economy gets, no matter how dismal the employment forecast is, we can always count on Michelle Obama to cheer us up by overindulging. For instance, yesterday she and her entourage had lobster, oysters, and rice for lunch — this was before she had a public beach closed down for herself, her daughter, and her buddies. Yum, yum, yum… Paris Hilton would be proud of you, Material Girl… you ignore those bitter, jealous, out-of-work Americans who would deny you a good time, you hear me? You deserve it, girlfriend.
And for dinner, The Washington Post reported, “The newspaper El Mundo ran a lengthy story Friday on the Obamas’ dinner their first night in Spain. Sasha ate pasta, and her mother and the rest of the U.S. delegation had tapas that included sea bass tartare, strawberry gazpacho and sardines, followed by a main course of lobster with seaweed risotto.” More lobster?
The left-wing media says Michelle will be paying for all her own personal expenses, as will all her 40 BFFs.
Was there a “wink, wink” after that? Couldn’t quite make it out.
The UK’s Daily Mail reported on our jet-setting Material Girl… Spanish police close public beach for Michelle Obama’s £250,000 Spanish holiday:
Michelle Obama today faced a fresh wave of attacks over her lavish break in Spain with 40 friends, which could easily cost U.S. taxpayers a staggering £50,000 a day.
The First Lady has been lambasted for her extravagance at a time when the economy is still struggling. One blogger went so far as to brand her a modern-day Marie Antoinette.
And her critics will be further annoyed when they learn that the president’s wife had a Spanish beach closed off today so that she, her daughter and their entourage could go for a swim.
Spanish police cleared off a stretch of beach at the Villa Padierna Hotel in Marbella after the Obamas had finished a busy day of sightseeing.
Police used palm trees and police tape to mark off the boundaries of a 100-yard expanse for the American delegation. On either side, onlookers gawked – and police occasionally stopped and searched sun lovers if they strayed too close to the private party.
It is unclear whether the police presence was paid for by Spain – or whether a nasty invoice could be landing in the lap of the American taxpayer.
Cordoned off: Police officers keep onlookers away today from the public beach site where US First Lady Michelle Obama and daughter Sasha are staying at Villa Padierna Hotel in Marbella, Spain | Associated Press
The controversy over the First Lady’s posh vacation is growing so much that even Katie Couric at CBS Evening News — YES, CBS — reported on it, and it wasn’t all sunshine, lollipops, and arugula either. From Kristinn at Free Republic, Katie Couric Covers Michelle Obama’s ‘Let Them Eat Stimulus’ Spain Vacation Controversy:
On tonight’s broadcast of the CBS Evening News, Katie Couric covered the controversy over Michelle Obama’s luxurious 60 room Spain vacation during the continuing economic crisis.
The report, which clocked in at a lengthy 2 minutes and 29 seconds, was made by Sharyl Atkisson from the White House and included graphics showing the cost of Michelle Obama’s round-trip airfare to Spain on a government plane and the per diem cost for the estimated 70 Secret Service agents on the trip:
• Transport on the Air Force version of a 757. That’s $146,000 for the round trip, not counting four to five days’ ground time.
• Expenses for the first lady’s support staff
• Mandatory Secret Service detail, which could number 70 agents. At the $273-a-day federal per diem for five days, that’s $95,550 for Secret Service room and board.
The report mentioned today’s New York Daily News column by Andrea Tantaros that compared Michelle Obama to Marie Antoinette.
Atkisson twice mentions, including at the opening of her report, that Michelle Obama got slammed for hypocrisy for vacationing in Maine, and now Spain, after she told everybody else they should vacation at the oil-damaged Gulf Coast.
There isn’t much room to defend Michelle Obama’s extravagance in these hard times. Even the Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus, featured in the report to defend Michelle Obama, conceded that the trip not “politically very smart.”
Visitors to the CBS News page where the Atkisson report is filed have denounced Michelle Obama’s trip as “improper considering the poor state of the U.S. economy” by a 79% to 21% Internet poll.
Sassy political parody on Michelle Antoinette’s lavish Spain vacation via her “diary” entries, from the incomparable Laura Ingraham… posted at Huffington Post, Diary of First Lady Michelle Obama — Marbella, Spain Vacation:
Visited an old Cathedral in Granada today. It was very sad to see. The tour guide told us that it was once a beautiful mosque before those Spanish monarchs turned it into a creepy Church.
And what’s with the food portions here? They are way too small. Oh, I know they’re “tapas” (small plates) — but I have a big appetite! I’ve come up with a strategy to get around the tiny tapas; whenever I see something on the menu I like, I just order three of them.
And what is up with the media coverage of this trip? Those nasty people at CBS actually reported that it cost the taxpayers $147,000 to fly my government plane here. (By the way, I thought it would have cost at least double that.) Others are harping on the 70 secret service agents working my detail! Do they want the First Lady to go out and about unprotected?! Sounds like some latent racism to me. Did Laura Bush ever receive such scorn? Noooo…because to them, Marian the Librarian was vanilla…and totally non-threatening. But let’s face it, a lot of Americans have trouble with strong, brainy, devastatingly beautiful black woman. Let ‘em keep nitpicking at me–I don’t give a rat’s ass. At least the international press is appropriately in awe of me. My staff says that 8,000 reporters are covering my visit. I should hope so!
I’m feeling a little bloated from all those salty Spanish olives I’ve been eating. As soon as we hit the Gulf Coast this weekend l’m going to start a green cleanse. I’ll be damned if I’m going to subject myself to any of that oily seafood down there. Since Barack “worked” so hard on that spill, let him eat the results.
Well, I better get going. My 40 traveling friends and Mama are waiting for me to go down to the shopping district before dinner. I suppose I need to pick up some trinket for Barack’s birthday. I’m thinking maybe a Spanish translation of “Dreams From My Father”…
Note to slow-on-the-upswing liberals… the above is a parody, so no idiot rampages in the comments section. Just chill. For those scratching your head (and that’s better than scratching your crotch), “parody” is satire, is humor, is meant to be exaggerated or untrue, is not meant to be taken seriously, and is not for real.
It’s much like Barack Obama and all the statist Democrat weasels in Congress, but instead of the payoff of wry humor, you’re left with an empty, sickening feeling in your gut.
Perfecting her 'prom queen on a float' wave, First Lady Michelle Obama is drawing loud criticism from conservatives and liberals over her outrageously lavish personal vacation to Spain... some are calling her a modern-day Marie Antoinette
Additional:
Diary of a Mad Conservative: Michelle’s glitzy Spanish vacation
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Yes, She’s Our “Uptown Girl”… Michelle Obama’s Ridiculously Lavish Vacation in Spain (video) and More Bleak “Hopenchange”… Record-Breaking: More Than 780,000 Families in Illinois Receiving Food Stamps and Obama & Reid, Two of a Kind: Responsible for Nevada’s Broken, Decimated Economy, Highest Rate of Home Foreclosures in Nation, Angle Slams Reid (video) and Bad News: Police Layoffs of Up to 30 Percent for East St. Louis… Blame It on Obama’s Terrible Economy and More Bad News for Dems: 75% of Americans Say Free Market Principles Better Than Government Manipulation & Interference… Obama’s Approval Index Drops to -19 and Rasmussen’s Prez Approval Index for Obama… Déjà Vu at Dismal Minus 17, Unemployment Improves Only Because Americans Have Lost Hope, Stopped Looking for Work and “Duh” Files: Obama’s Approval Drops Like a Metamorphic Rock in Arizona… Disapproval of POTUS Worsening on Economy, Illegal Immigration, Job Markets and Oops: VP Biden’s Campaign Owes Treasury $219,000 Due to “Sloppy Bookkeeping” & Excessive Contributions… Biden’s Still in Charge of Watchdogging Wasteful Stimulus Program and “Skin in the Game” Barack-Style– First Family’s Dog Bo Flies to Obamas’ Maine Vacation on a Separate Jet
Camp of the Saints: and The Pablum Puke Of The Day
Gateway Pundit: As Michelle Returns From Spanish Extravaganza Obama Cuts Food Stamps to Nation’s Poor and Krauthammer on Michelle O: A vacation to Spain Is a “Bad Idea for a First Lady Who Literally Tells Us to Eat Our Spinach” (Video) and Ohio’s Dem. Gov. Gave Stimulus $$ to Co. That Exported Jobs to El Salvador and Worst. Jobs. President. Ever… July Unemployment Rate Remains at 9.5% and Michelle And Sasha’s Excellent Spanish Adventure…At Taxpayers Expense! and First Lady’s Most Excellent Spanish Adventure Will Cost US Taxpayers Over $200,000 and IT’S OFFICIAL: Barack Obama Is Worst Jobs President Since Great Depression and After US Economy Loses Another 125,000 Jobs Obama Says: “We’re Heading in the Right Direction” (Video) and Custard Store Owner: Biden Went Off On Me, I Was Shocked and Biden Admits Obama Administration Won’t Be Able to Create Lost Jobs and Private Sector Lost Nearly 10 Million Jobs in Last 3 Years – Public Sector Gained 720,000 and Republican Sandoval Leads Rory What’s-His-Name By 18% In Nevada Governor’s Race and Rep Paul Ryan: By Every Objective Measure The Stimulus Has Failed (Video)
Nice Deb: Michelle et al’s Excellent Adventure In Spain
Pundit & Pundette: It’s easy being queen
Michelle Malkin: Unemployment at 9.5%; another Obama econ adviser bails; Mrs. Obama hits the beach
Mail Online: ‘Michelle Obama is a modern-day Marie Antoinette’: First Lady slammed for lavish Marbella holiday
Blue Crab Boulevard: Marie Obama
Is This Blog On?: Same As It Ever Was
FOX News: East St. Louis To Lay-Off Nearly 1/3 Of Police Force
David A Keene, Big Government: Success Is Obama’s Downfall
Goodtimepolitics: North Carolina June 2010 Unemployment Numbers Not Good
Motor City Times: Freep Op-Ed Advocates Higher Energy Costs For Everyone Except Low Income Households
Ace of Spades HQ: Obama Two Points Higher Than 39%
The Daley Gator: Obama: We MUST extend unemployment benefits so that drug addicts and criminals can keep getting paid!
Doug Powers, Michelle Malkin: CBS Reports Obama’s Unemployment Benefits Flip-Flop
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[...] White House China and Krauthammer: “Stimulus Was a Payoff, Not a Jobs Creator” (video) and Unemployment Bad, More Jobs Shed… More Backlash on Michelle Obama’s Lavish Vacation — Public B… and In AZ, Pro-Illegal Immigration Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon Is Suspected of Misusing Security [...]
[...] 14.6 million Americans are still unemployed: After billion$ spent, Obama has failed to create jobs: July 2010 Unemployment Rate Remains at 9.5% [...]
[...] White House China and Krauthammer: “Stimulus Was a Payoff, Not a Jobs Creator” (video) and Unemployment Bad, More Jobs Shed… More Backlash on Michelle Obama’s Lavish Vacation — Public B… and In AZ, Pro-Illegal Immigration Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon Is Suspected of Misusing Security [...]
[...] 14.6 MILLION AMERICANS ARE STILL UNEMPLOYED: [...]