Gallup polls show blacks and liberals anchor President Obama’s support now at a low of 40 percent as GOP Texas Governor Rick Perry is a top of the Republican Oval Office contender list right now. The most important issue those vying for the White House face is the economy and job creation. Gallup polling shows blacks are still strongly backing President Obama at a tune of 83.9 percent. Blacks voted in mass between 96 to 98 percent in 2008 for Barack Obama to be President of the United States. Right now, black polling numbers are strong as the black unemployment rate is nearly twice that of mainstream America. Poll numbers for Hispanics for the President stand at 44 percent and white numbers 32 percent. Gallup also shows Liberals also are a strong base for the President who continues to hold low poll numbers. The Latest AP-GFK survey shows less than half of all women and less than half of all men approve of the Job Obama is doing. Just 50 percent of women said Obama deserves re-election. Still women are more likely than men to see Obama as empathetic or a strong leader, and they give him sharply higher positive ratings on his handling of the economy. The study also finds younger Democrats are more apt to say President Obama deserves re-election than are older Democrats. Twenty-seven percent of Democrats under age 45 says Obama is not a strong leader, compared with 11 percent in June.
The Obama White House is getting high marks for leading the response for Hurricane Irene that hit states along the East Coast. That response falls six years after Hurricane Katrina. The reason for the Irene immediate and integrated response, lessons learned from Katrina and Congressional action cutting red tape. Now the Federal Government does not have to wait for states to request their help. Craig Fugate, FEMA head, says Federal Government, state, local governments along with emergency agencies and volunteers work as a ”team” now.
Six years ago during Katrina, Fugate was the Director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management and worked with Katrina. Florida launched the largest mutual aid response in its history in support of those states during Katrina.
Six years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has regained over 80 percent of its population and tourism is on the rise. On the flip side, the city is still in dire need. The Big Easy still has problems in areas of infrastruture, health care, and affordable housing.
Last year former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said it takes 10 to 15 years to fully recover from a major disaster. Humanitarian, Actor and New Orleans Native Wendell Pierce agrees saying it will be “decades before the city recovers. Pierce laments, “a third of the city is a health desert” with no hospital. Pierce is speaking of New Orleans East.
Earlier in the day President Obama issued this statement on the anniversary.
Statement from President Obama on the Six Year Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina
Six years ago today, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, upending families and ravaging communities – and no one will forget the tragic events of those days. But what’s required of us is more than remembrance – what’s required of us is our continued efforts to make sure that New Orleans and the Gulf Coast fully recover, and to make sure that our response to such disasters is the best it can possibly be.
Over the past several years, we’ve seen what Americans are capable of when tested. We’ve seen the grit and determination of people on the Gulf Coast coming together to rebuild their communities, brick by brick, block by block. At the same time, we’ve made sure the federal government is doing its part to help. We’ve cut through red tape to free up funding for recovery efforts in Louisiana and Mississippi. We’ve taken steps to help school systems get children the tools and resources they need for a proper education. We’ve broken through gridlock on behalf of tens of thousands of displaced families, making sure they have long-term housing solutions. And we’ll keep at it until these communities have come back stronger than before.
When it comes to disaster response, we’ve worked very seriously to enhance our preparedness efforts so that Americans are ready before disaster strikes, and to strengthen our recovery capabilities so that we’re more resilient after disaster strikes. Over the last week, we have experienced the power of another storm, Hurricane Irene. Before the storm made landfall, the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA worked closely with our state and local partners to preposition supplies and teams of first responders, and support their response efforts. Those response efforts are ongoing and we will continue that partnership, responding as quickly and effectively as possible, for as long as necessary, until the affected communities are back on their feet.
Today is a reminder of not just the immediate devastation that can be caused by these storms, but the long term needs of communities impacted by disasters – whether in Mississippi or Alabama, Tennessee or Missouri, North Dakota, or the east coast states impacted by Hurricane Irene. This Administration will stand by those communities until the work is done.
August 28, 2011 will mark 48 years since the delivery of one of the most profound civil rights speeches in history, I HAVE A DREAM. On that date the MLK Memorial will be officially revealed. The Martin Luther King memorial rests between the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials with a street address of 1964 Independence Avenue. The address references the year of the a major civil rights advance with the 1964 Voting Rights Act.
The memorial is a first site on the mall dedicated to a black man. Currently the popular tourist area boasts statues dedicated to United States Presidents and those who died in wars. Reverend Al Sharpton says the 30 foot statute is validation affirming, “America has finally had to certify that story of that movement was part of America’s story as long as America stands.”
In 1963, at the time of the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech on his Dream for America, the black unemployment was three times that of white America. Fast forward to 2011, the black unemployment is almost double that of white america. Studies indicate racial disparities remain prevalent in almost every segment of society between blacks and whites.Those unequal areas include education, health, employment, and housing. Because of inequities that still exist Reverend Sharpton will be marching on Washington August 27, 2011 for jobs and justice urging the White House and congress to act.
Meanwhile, A new study by Gallup indicates, “A majority of blacks (59%) say that the government should play a major role in improving the social and economic position of blacks, while 19% of whites agree. A little over half of blacks (52%) say that new civil rights laws are needed in the country, while 15% of whites agree.”
President Obama is directing the federal government to design a new strategy in 90 days to hire, promote and keep workers of diverse backgrounds. Federal reports indicate the Federal Government work force is mostly white and male. An Office of Personnel Management report says that in fiscal year 2010, the federal workforce was 66.2 percent white, 17.7 percent black, 8 percent Hispanic, 5.6 percent Asian/Pacific Islander, 1.8 percent Native American. It also shows 56.1 percent is male. Reverend Jesse Jackson applauds President Obama matter saying, “diversity deserves a higher place…patterns of segregation are persistent.”
One the other side of the spectrum, A civil rights leader wishing to remain anonymous says “every Democratic president in recent memory issues such an order. But usually not much actually happens.”
The three-page order released Thursday directs the head of the Office of Personnel Management, a deputy director at the Office of Management and Budget and two other agencies to develop the strategy within 90 days. Agencies then have 120 days to implement it.
Kraft foods is launching a new triple double Oreo cookie. Conservative Talk Show host Rush Limbugh is naming it a bi- racial cookie. He even renamed it after President Obama, “Or-Ba-Meo.” Rev. Al Sharpton responds to Rush Limbaugh calling a new Kraft cookie, “Or-Ba-Meo.” Sharpton says, Limbaugh “has an obsession with race…and he has an obsession with cookies.He needs to go on a diet and he needs to go to a race therapist.”
The Congressional Black Caucus Jobs fair and Town Hall meeting in Detroit became the setting of a vocally angry crowd. Their opposed to President Obama’s jobs plans that do not target the black community. Detroit Congressman John Conyers will march on the White House September 20th in the issue of jobs. In September the President will deliver a major address on the issues of jobs, and job creation for those Americans who want to work.
The White House contends the President will be aggressively pushing congress to act. One issue that is especially critical to the White House is congressional approval on tax cuts.
Obama Conversation With Tea Partier Gets Heated
By Ed Henry
Published August 15, 2011 | FoxNews.com DECORAH, Iowa - President Obama got into a heated back-and-forth Monday with a Tea Party activist who demanded to know at the end of a town hall meeting here whether Vice President Biden had called Tea Partiers “terrorists” during the debt ceiling debate on Capitol Hill.
In public, Obama did not directly answer the question from Iowa Tea Party activist Ryan Rhodes about Biden. But Obama fired back that he knows better than anyone what it’s like to be slammed for his political views and was not about to accept a lecture on the topic.
“Now, in fairness, since I’ve been called a socialist who wasn’t born in this country, who is destroying America and taking away its freedoms because I passed a health care bill, I’m all for lowering the rhetoric,” Obama said.
Obama did say he would discuss the matter further with Rhodes, founder of the Iowa Tea Party, after the event. And the duo was spotted in an animated conversation a few moments later.
In an interview later with Fox News, Rhodes claimed that the president had insisted that Biden had not made the original comment.
“He just denied it. He said the vice president didn’t make any of those assertions,” Rhodes said. “If he doesn’t want to even admit what was on TV nationally — all over the place — then how can you have a conversation?”
Rhodes added that Obama brushed him aside. “Then he said, ‘We can’t have a conversation because you’re saying I called you a terrorist,’” recalled Rhodes. “The fact is it demonstrates the deep divide that he is unwilling to negotiate without going after the other side. The whole day was about going after Republicans and talking about how unreasonable they are.”
The private conversation between Rhodes and Obama was partially picked up by a TV camera, but the audio was tough to make out. Obama in general seemed to be saying the incident with Biden was misconstrued and that if Rhodes wanted to insist that the word “terrorist” was used then they were never going to see eye to eye.
The incident stems from a private meeting Biden attended, at the height of the debt ceiling debate, with House Democrats who were angry that Republicans were not meeting the president halfway. One lawmaker, Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., went so far as to say that Republicans affiliated with the Tea Party had behaved like “terrorists” during the debate.
Some Democrats familiar with the meeting said at the time that Biden had appeared to agree with the sentiment expressed by Doyle and others as a way of moving the conversation along and convincing Democrats to support the final compromise. But Biden himself denied to CBS News that he had uttered the word “terrorist” in the meeting in the context of the Tea Party.
Here in Iowa, some people in the crowd seemed to be unhappy with Rhodes. One woman was overheard confronting him by saying, “That was extraordinarily rude” to the president.
A second woman who did not want to be identified by name said she felt the exchange was “over the top aggressive.”
But Rhodes was not backing down. “I said my piece,” he said.
Obama’s Jobs Agenda For Congress: Does It Actually Create Jobs?
First Posted: 8/15/11 02:40 PM ET Updated: 8/15/11 07:11 PM ET
WASHINGTON — It’s become almost daily practice for President Barack Obama to point out the four things he says Congress can pass now to create jobs “immediately,” if only lawmakers would act: infrastructure investments, patent reform, free trade deals and a payroll tax cut extension.
But even if all four proposals became law — a huge “if” with a dug-in House GOP — it’s not clear they would actually create jobs. In fact, the proposals with the best shot of passing Congress appear the least likely to create jobs. One of the most likely to pass, the trade pacts, will probably cost jobs.
Obama has been injecting new urgency into the measures since early July, when he spoke during a press conference that coincided with a dismal monthly jobs report.
“There are bills and trade agreements before Congress right now that could get all these ideas moving,” he said at the time. “All of them have bipartisan support. All of them could pass immediately. And I urge Congress not to wait.”
He ran through all of the proposals again during a Monday town hall in Minnesota, the first of several to come as part of his Midwest bus tour on the economy this week.
“There is no shortage of ideas to put people to work right now,” he told the crowd. “What is needed is action on the part of Congress. A willingness to put the partisan games aside and say, ‘We’re going to do what’s right for the country, not what we think is going to score some political points for the next election.’”
Here’s an overview of how each proposal would create jobs, or not, and where it stands in Congress.
More Investment in Infrastructure
Obama wants Congress to create a federal infrastructure bank — that is, a fund stashed with tens of billions of dollars dedicated solely to rebuilding the nation’s crumbling roads, bridges and ports.
“Right now, there are over a million construction workers out of work after the housing boom went bust, just as a lot of America needs rebuilding,” he said during the July press conference.
“We connect the two by investing in rebuilding our roads and our bridges and our railways and our infrastructure. And we could put back to work right now some of those construction workers that lost their jobs when the housing market went bust.”
Of all of Obama’s job-creation priorities for Congress, this is the one with the potential to put most people back to work–and fast.
But top Democratic and Republican aides concurred that the proposal has next to no prospects in Congress.
A House GOP leadership aide put it succinctly: “No money.”
“It’s expensive,” said a senior House Democratic aide. “Harder to see us doing anything significant in near term” given the 2009 passage of the $787 billion economic stimulus package.
The idea of an infrastructure bank has also raised bipartisan concerns because it would take the decision-making process out of Congress and hand it to the administration.
There hasn’t been “a clamoring for it” in the Senate, said a Republican leadership aide, because people on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works don’t like the idea of handing over their control of highway construction projects to the White House.
Standard and Poor downgraded the United States governments Triple “A” credit rating to double “A+”. Roderick Harrison of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies contends things are “bad” for the nation economically. Harrison believes the nation could see a double dip recession because of the downgrade and recent numbers in housing, consumer spending and incomes.
After putting pen to paper and making the Budget Control Act law, President Obama will travel the country to try to ignite the job creation engine. August 15 the President will start his jobs tour. The current overall unemployment rate is 9.2 percent expecting to go higher with the new report due August 5, 2011.
Gallup polls show blacks and liberals anchor President Obama’s support now at a low of 40 percent as GOP Texas Governor Rick Perry is a top of the Republican Oval Office contender list right now. The most important issue those vying for the White House face is the economy and job creation. Gallup polling shows blacks are still strongly backing President Obama at a tune of 83.9 percent. Blacks voted in mass between 96 to 98 percent in 2008 for Barack Obama to be President of the United States. Right now, black polling numbers are strong as the black unemployment rate is nearly twice that of mainstream America. Poll numbers for Hispanics for the President stand at 44 percent and white numbers 32 percent. Gallup also shows Liberals also are a strong base for the President who continues to hold low poll numbers. The Latest AP-GFK survey shows less than half of all women and less than half of all men approve of the Job Obama is doing. Just 50 percent of women said Obama deserves re-election. Still women are more likely than men to see Obama as empathetic or a strong leader, and they give him sharply higher positive ratings on his handling of the economy. The study also finds younger Democrats are more apt to say President Obama deserves re-election than are older Democrats. Twenty-seven percent of Democrats under age 45 says Obama is not a strong leader, compared with 11 percent in June.
