The Michiganization of America
This is a remarkable slide show depicting the growth of unemployment in the U.S. in just two and a half years. In January 2007, before the credit and financial crises and the subsequent recession, the counties in purple or black — representing unemployment of 7 percent or more — were restricted to a handful of states.
Move forward to September of this year, and the whole map looks bruised.
I don’t intend this as a “blame Obama” post. The recession and the rise in unemployment started before he took office. But even “Saturday Night Live” understands that what the administration has been trying so far — namely, spending more money and piling up even more debt that will have to be repaid — isn’t working.
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265 comments Add your comment
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
7:15 pm
Peter, if Bush is an evil oil guy hell bent on power and money then I guess that would make Obama a jihadist hell bent on killing white people…..
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
7:16 pm
Peter, no…..last time I checked Obama Hussein didnt know what he was doing.
jconservative
November 23rd, 2009
7:17 pm
1- Bush 43 invaded Iraq not for oil or WMD – both were just excuses. He invaded because he felt that 9/11 made the US look weak & he wanted to do something to restore the mystique of a powerful America. Condi Rice said that is what he told her when he called her & said “lets invade”.
2- Is it really important who sells the most books, Bill Clinton or Sarah Palin? Is it really more important than the $12 trillion dollar national debt? Or the $1.4 trillion dollar deficit we suffered in FY 2009? Or more important than the fact that the US voters will not cut spending or increase revenue, thus leading to even higher deficits?
Just asking & I can’t wait to see the names I am going to be called.
Oh, source on the Bush quote in #1 – Richard Haass “War of Necessity, War of Choice”. Condi Rice recommends the book. You also can find on Council on Foreign Relations website, Haass is President of the Council.
atlshirt.com
November 23rd, 2009
7:18 pm
peter, they are the government as well, do any of you guys really believe that our vote counts ?? Come on, its an electronic voting maching with no paper trail at all.. they can make up any number they want, and put who ever they want into office… The president is chosen from a bunch of names in a hat, and this time, it just so happened to be Obama’s name drawn…
We need to take back our country, and we need to do it NOW.. or else, we will wind up just like China, Russia, Cuba and Iran.. where the ones with all of the money, and connections, dictate our everyday lives!!
ask a Native
November 23rd, 2009
7:18 pm
“Democrats who ruin states and bankrupt them like Michigan and California.”
What was that abt diversions? Why am I still being labeled a democrat? Wipe your frothy mouth.
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
7:18 pm
ask a Native wrote: When all else fails, hurl insults.
That’s exactly what you did when you first addressed me. Hmmm, guess you also suffer from selective amnesia.
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
7:19 pm
Hey David……..”Peter, if Bush is an evil oil guy hell bent on power and money then I guess that would make Obama a jihadist hell bent on killing white people…..”
No that wouldn’t ……..but it may be our opinion !
Bush was more a puppet, and Cheney the real Darth Vadder !
Funny the Guy was still associated with Haliburton as VP, and he wrote the contracts personally that Haliburton would sign……
Linda
November 23rd, 2009
7:20 pm
ask a Native@5:44, You can’t know how to get somewhere if you don’t know where you are. You don’t know where you are if you don’t know where you were.
This is called “history,” learning from past mistakes & successes & preventing us from being idiots—over & over again.
Bush is not innocent. The Blame Bush for Everything mantra is getting a little trite, especially for events he had absolutely nothing to do with.
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
7:20 pm
ask a Native, sorry, I mean “progressive.”
Diversion referred to your DNC talking points on every subject BUT the one Kyle posted.
Frothy mouth? Well, I don’t know about frothy but you could have said frosty. I had a Wendy’s Frosty for lunch with my baconator. Mmmmmmmmm
ask a Native
November 23rd, 2009
7:20 pm
‘Let’s invade!!! I’m the DECIDER!”-Big Spender Bush, Jr.
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
7:21 pm
Peter, if Cheney is Darth Vadar then I guess Obama is Count Dracula, I mean Chocula. Not to be racist or anything. You know, Ray Nagin said that black people were chocolate.
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
7:22 pm
I’m gonna bring the troops home….or not….where’s my teleprompter…….um…..what kind of dog should I get……….. -Barrack Hussein Obama
My economic policies will bring back jobs and not cost a dime -Barrack Hussein Obama
ask a Native
November 23rd, 2009
7:26 pm
@david-7:18, I hurl insults at will, with no apology. I have never made any claim that this was wrong, either. I do it for my amusement, and you are entertaining me. You’re the wingnut who wanted to be holier than thou and proclaim that hurling insults was exclusive to liberals. I have simply exposed you.
Linda
November 23rd, 2009
7:28 pm
Scott@5:46, What part of my synopsis of the cause of the world-wide economic collapse I posted @ 4:54 did you disagree with? I will be glad to post documentation to back up every statement I made.
ask a Native
November 23rd, 2009
7:29 pm
“We need to take back our country, and we need to do it NOW.. or else, we will wind up just like China, Russia, Cuba and Iran.. where the ones with all of the money, and connections, dictate our everyday lives!!”
You mean this isn’t already happening?? Well blow me down! You’re a conspiracy-theorist liberal. All free-thinking minds are a threat to society.
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
7:29 pm
ask a Native, exposed me? Huh, I’ve been trashing liberals for months on this and other blogs. The only thing you exposed was your own stupidity. Not sure what you mean by “holier than thou” but if it helps you sleep well at night then feel free to believe that.
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
7:36 pm
David..
America would have been better off if Bush took 4 months to figure out the planning for the Made Up War !
Chocula is funny……..LOL……
But America seems to be back on track…….even after all the Bush blunders…..and stock market at 800……Yep we have a huge deficit, and I hope that it gets corrected.
The name calling I will leave to Republicans !
ask a Native
November 23rd, 2009
7:37 pm
David @7:29, that would make you a hypocrite. But I would expect no less of a right wing nutjob.
ask a Native
November 23rd, 2009
7:39 pm
Linda, I responded to your post but I do not see it. Hmmmm, lemme try again.
Gee, was is something I said?
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
7:42 pm
Hey atlshirt.com .WOW I couldn’t agree with you more…Electoral College is another great American Scam !
Voting machines that can easily be hacked, No paper trail…….As mentioned before secret societies rule us, and have been since the signing of the Declaration of Independence !
For instance a member of the Skull and Bones was President, when the Federal Reserve was established……and funny all happened on an island off the coast of Georgia !
ask a Native
November 23rd, 2009
7:45 pm
Welp, I tried again Linda to no avail. LMAO.
Let me sugar-coat it by saying that we can go all the way back to Hoover, or even Lincoln (LOL) but to give credence to “stupid” just because it has an R or a D behind its name is naive and dangerous. Partisanship will be the fall of america.
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
7:47 pm
ask a Native, yeah, Obama is doing a bang up job. Skyrocketing unemployment, outspending Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter combined. Yep, that is some president…I mean Candidate and Chief.
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
7:48 pm
ask a Native @ 7:37 pm, how so? I mean, it was you who threw the first punch.
Liberals: do as I say not as I do.
Linda
November 23rd, 2009
7:52 pm
Ask@ 5:59, The American people, both Dems & Reps, had an alternative to the stimulus bill. Perhaps you missed the tea parties, town hall meetings, etc. Americans want the economy left alone to work naturally. We want companies who fail to fail. The bill had absolutely nothing to do with the economy or stimulus.
The Reps presented a hc bill. If you don’t watch Fox News, you missed it. If you would like to review mine, you can go to the comments on Kyle’s article on Georgia Can’t Afford… to 11/22 @ 1:39 PM. Let me know what you think. I would never ask you to shut up. I value your opinions.
Linda
November 23rd, 2009
8:15 pm
Peter@6:22, I agree it was wrong for both the Bush & Obama adms to bail out the failed corporations who were too big to fail & that the “stuff” sold on Wall St during the Clinton adm was stupid.
Linda
November 23rd, 2009
8:38 pm
Peter@6:33, Where are those hungry Americans? I’ve been volunteering at MUST Ministries for yrs. Even our homeless are well-fed. Food stamps are easily available. You’re sensationalizing.
We’ve been fighting the War On Poverty for decades. Are we winning? The Dems & Reps go after it differently. The Dems throw out fish. The Reps teach how to fish. The Dems want more & more people, generations, to be dependent on the fed govt. The Reps want to find a solution.
As an example, unemployment benefits have been extended for up to 99 wks! That seems charitable, but it demotivates the unemployed to aggressively seek work. It’s causing unemployment taxes on small businesses to double & triple, preventing small businesses to hire. We’re in a vicious circle with no end in sight.
Linda
November 23rd, 2009
8:57 pm
Peter@6:37, I have read everything that had to do with the economic collapse, the rhetoric & the facts, the pros & cons, the blame towards Dems & Reps. I don’t base my opinions on any one article. I had first hand knowledge, a front row seat. I watched it happen. I was in the business. I knew in the ’90’s, like many other people just as humble as I am, that Affordable Housing would lead to problems. However, I did not predict the severity of the outcome. Rather than my reading the article again, you need to read the article in its entirety & maybe a few more to come up with your own conclusions as to what happened.
Linda
November 23rd, 2009
9:23 pm
Peter@6:58, Maybe Powell can tell us the truth. Why hasn’t he? Is anyone holding him back? I wasn’t aware that Powell worked for Bush & Cheney. I thought he was his own man, a general. If he was a puppet, why hasn’t he come forward since he cut his strings & declared his support for Obama?
If there was faulty intelligence, it was the duty of every member of Congress to discover it. There were WMD’s. What happened to them?
People leave both the Dem & Rep camps all the time. I left the Rep camp last fall.
Linda
November 23rd, 2009
9:37 pm
Peter@7:04, Watch your language. You’re talking to a lady, not just a woman, & I hope you know the difference.
How are you planning to kill OSB without war?
I asked you a question that you did not answer. How would you put an end to the terrorist attacks that we have incurred for over 30 yrs?
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
9:44 pm
Well Linda …….all pretty silly stuff..including the stuff you write about the stuff sold on wall street during the Clinton administration…… But the A+ packages of mortgages were recently sold on wall street, and they didn’t even know what they were selling.
But hey who cares if it ruined lives across the Globe…..a Good capitalist only wants more for himself !
Thus the White man’s Bail out or Welfare to the Poor sloppy Rich !
Call it any way you want the WAR was about Money and Oil, and it never mattered how badly it hurt American’s or even the American soldier !
And “Faulty Intelligence” is just that for those who believe it ! “Mission Accomplished” was the Bilking of America !
Linda
November 23rd, 2009
9:44 pm
Peter@7:09, It’s the Dems who have given us a self-imposed ban on drilling for our own oil because we have to “save the planet” but we are forced to buy oil from other “planets” such as Canada & Mexico.
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
9:47 pm
Linda,
We are forced to burn oil and to do things as big business wants us to do ! I suppose food and clean water is less important than oil ?
Truth teller
November 23rd, 2009
9:51 pm
We all agree that Bush spent too much money and ran deficits also. Of course Obama comes in and quadruples what Bush spent and its all ok.
What I don’t get is all the people complaining about 8 years of Bush. If your complaint is about the Iraq war then fair enough.
But to complain about the economy when Bush was in charge? What planet are some of you guys living on? The facts are that for 6 of his 8 years we had full employment and hit record low unemployment rates that have never been seen since world war 2. We had low inflation, historically low interest rates, etc. Things were largely good until the oil shock that drove gas to $4 a gallon rocked the country. To say otherwise is simply in attempt to revise history. And lets keep in mind that Bush inherited a small recession and that 9/11 was a blow to the economy also.
People can blame Bush for the war and for spending too much and running deficits. That’s an honest thing to be critical of. But to ignore history and the fact that our economy did very well for 6 years is simply dishonest. The numbers don’t lie. The economy did very well for 6 of the 8 Bush years.
Linda
November 23rd, 2009
9:53 pm
Peter@&;36, Do you know the difference between the deficit & the debt?
Linda
November 23rd, 2009
9:54 pm
ask@7:39,????
Truth teller
November 23rd, 2009
9:58 pm
Peter,
The air and water are cleaner now than they’ve been in at least 7 or 8 decades. Take a look at pictures of Pittsburgh, Birmingham, or any other big city from the 50s and 60s. The air was filthy. Take a look at pics of large cities today and its obvious how much cleaner the air is. Water quality is also substantially better. The new air and water quality standards that were first enacted in the 70s with the creation of the EPA and later strengthened have made air and water dramatically cleaner in the last 30-40 years. Ever notice we don’t have acid rain anymore??? You may be too young to know about things like acid rain, ddt, etc. but we don’t have those issues any more.
People have been conditioned to think for some reason by over the top environmentalists that air and water quality are worse when that is simply not the case. The facts are otherwise.
Truth teller
November 23rd, 2009
10:03 pm
Peter,
Capitalism has raised more boats out of poverty than any socialist system. And as far as environmental damage goes capitalist nations have dramatically superior air and water quality than say China or eastern europe during communist times. Eastern Europe under communism was an ecological freaking disaster. Chernobyl handed in a communist not capitalist nation. The air quality in China is of incredibly filthy and has been for decades. If you’ve been to China or you know anyone who travels there they will tell you firsthand just how filthy the air and water are. And lets not even get started on North Korea.
Truth teller
November 23rd, 2009
10:07 pm
Linda,
What’s really funny is that the Obama administration gave brazil loan guarantees to fund offshore drilling for oil. Imagine that. They will help other countries tap their own oil resources but when it comes to us getting at our own oil. Nooooooo way Jose. No sir. How they try to explain this mind boggling policy is beyond me.
Truth teller
November 23rd, 2009
10:12 pm
Peter and Linda,
Actually yellowcake uranium (2 tons of it) was found in Irag last year by the Bush administration. Yellowcake is used for the development of nuclear weaponry. This was reported by the AP but in most papers was reported in 2 small paragraphs on the very back page of the paper.
As for the intelligence of WMDs in Irag 6 major intelligence agencies, us, the brits, the french, russian, German, and Israeli intelligence agencies all believed Sadamm still possessed WMDs. The iranians and several Kurdish towns still believed it also since they were gassed with Mustard and sarin gas several times in the 90s. Bush never lied. The intelligence was simply wrong and everybody got it wrong. Not just us.
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
10:20 pm
Hey Truth Teller……… we all know the ecological situation in China, and North Korea, it is all over the news………but drilling off the coast seams silly when the accident can cause many, many years of problems for the area that has the disaster.
I guess you all would like to go to Florida, and see it the same as the Texas coast ? A dump ?
Funny China, Europe, and other small places understand what Green power can mean, and it is typical US, that won’t go that way……just like we won’t go mass transit, even though it would help greatly.
Why are we not switching more to natural gas alone? It is cleaner, more efficient, and apparently we have a huge stock pile of it here already !
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
10:22 pm
Hey Truth Teller……. what do they have to do to the supposed Yellow cake to make it into a bomb ?
Linda
November 23rd, 2009
10:26 pm
Peter@9:44, I offered my synopsis of what caused the world-side economic collapse. Kyle didn’t call me on the carpet for what I said. You have argued & not offered any prove that anything I said was not the truth. Rather, what you offered solidified my opinion. Kyle called you on the carpet for repeatedly quoting the same article.
The subprime mortgages bundled with prime mortgages that were sold on Wall St. were NOT just “recently sold on Wall St.” If they were, why did we have a collapse that started a year & a half ago & what did the secondary lenders including Fannie Mae do with them for the last 10 yrs.?
You are really grasping at straws & refusing to face reality. Do your own research.
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
10:30 pm
Hey Truth Teller .Read about the Yellow cake that had been in Iraq since 1991.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2005/07/about_that_500_tons_of_yellow.html
Linda
November 23rd, 2009
10:33 pm
Peter@9:47, Excuse my inability to understand your logic. Why does big business force us to burn oil? I thought we burned oil to drive our cars. What does food & clean water have to do with oil?
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
10:35 pm
Hey Linda…… Kyle didn’t what ?
Why don’t you read this then……..http://www.ntic-us.org/documents/WallStreetandtheMakingoftheSubprimeDisaster.pdf
The following is a brief summary of each section of the report:
· Part I: Investment banks’ subprime motive: billions in revenues and bonuses. Subprime-related bonds
were the hottest products in the US financial markets from 2001 to 2006, and bankers who worked in these
fields took home some of the largest bonuses on Wall Street.
When did Bush take Office ?
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
10:37 pm
Perhaps you don’t like seafood Linda !
Linda
November 23rd, 2009
10:39 pm
Truth teller@10:07, The oil from Brazil was to satisfy contracts with China. It’s like an international soap opera.
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
11:10 pm
Hey Linda……Please watch this video, and tell me you want to see this scenario played out at your favorite Florida beach ?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/nov/02/oil-leak-timor-sea
Linda
November 23rd, 2009
11:14 pm
Peter@10:35, You are missing years of the debacle because you refuse to research it. You can’t just read & refer to any one or two articles. There’s plenty of blame to go around for what happened & it’s important that Americans know the truth so that we don’t repeat it.
Blaming Bush for the economic crisis makes as much sense as blaming him for 9/11. Just because 9/11 happened 7+ mts after he was inaugurated doesn’t mean he was piloting the planes. I’m not defending Bush for everything he did & I’m not defending enhanced interrogation techniques, but the fact of the matter is that he did keep us safe for 7 1/2 yrs.
Let me tell you one more thing before I sign off. This is not a football game. There are no sides. We, as Americans, either win or lose, together, as a country.
My parents were Dems. I was raised as a Dem. I’m still a registered Dem. Yrs. ago there was not as much difference between Dems & Reps & there still isn’t on a state or local level. However, there is a HUGE difference in the US Congress between the parties. The American people are still centered, either moderate Dems or moderate Reps.
Research & then decide your position, which is extremely important today. Don’t gamble on hearsay. Be your own man. May God bless you.
Linda
November 23rd, 2009
11:36 pm
Peter@10:20, You are indoctrinated. What “news” do you watch? You need to expand your horizons.
Peter@11:10 You want me to watch a video taped in Florida by the newspaper Guardian in the UK that is so left-wing it’s pathetic? I don’t have time for more rhetoric.
Prioritize your sources so you will be more credible.
Don’t believe everything you find on the internet. Question everything.