Bush Tells Mich. Crowd Economy Improving

[Nambe]

Associated Press

President Bush voiced sympathy on Monday for this industrial state's economic distress but told a receptive northern Michigan audience that conditions are improving. ..

These poor people need to reed this: http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/9411711.htm?1c

Industrial auctioneers have stepped into the void left by manufacturers deserting North America and Europe for Third World companies where labor is cheaper. Nationwide, five major industrial auction houses will sell off 12 entire factories this week, The Detroit News reported in a Monday story. ..

"We are losing our middle class," said Noel, who worked for 36 years at the company. "The only offers I get are $8 an hour," less than half the wage he earned at Keeler for more than five years, Noel said. "Is that the kind of future we want?"

An estimated 10,000 Michigan factory workers lost their jobs in June, according to the state Department of Labor & Economic Growth. The state has lost nearly 26,000 manufacturing jobs since June 2003.

The industrial auctioneers include Hilco Industrial Inc. The Northbrook, Ill.-based company has helped manufacturing businesses liquidate at least $2 billion in assets and real estate in more than 500 auctions held since 2000. ..

Ride Don’t Drive * * It’s Global Cool

[MallRat]

1. We're turning the corner, George?

:eyes:

[Kierkegaard]

3. Steady boy

stay on topic, now. Keep taking those meds and remember, American's don't live here; they're just cardboard cutouts. It's all an illusion!

[Sydnie]

6. Building the Mexican middle class

one factory at a time.

The only place that might be hiring there ... the auction house!

[Yavin4]

11. Mexico Is Also Losing Jobs To China...

as well as Bangledesh. The race to the bottom is fierce indeed.

[Vincardog]

31. The race for the bottom

This is the Low-wage Conservatives dream. Impoverished Americans competing with Slave wage Indians and Chinese Prison Labor for the chance to make the almighty Bottom line bigger for the top 1% to benefit. Fortunately or unfortunately the end is coming QUICKLY.
The house of cards that is the floating exchange rate to benefit the banking interests is collapsing as we speak. The only hope is to elect John Kerry and have him immediately take the steps necessary to stop the rape of the American People. We can not allow the Draconian sacrifices that will be demanded of us to proceed. We the people will not allow the international banks to suck the economic blood from our children and grandchildren. We have to wake up and take action NOW.

[barb162]

64. Right on!

It is so self-evident but there are millions of Americans who aren't getting it!!!!!! Bush is destroying this country, plain and simple and these morons in his audiences are cheering him.

[AndyTiedye]

24. We turned the corner

and are doing that Wiley Coyote thing
where we ran off the edge of a cliff
and are standing on thin air.
You know what comes next.

[annabanana]

63. Yow!

Ummm.... Don't look down?

[kungfugrip]

41. The catchphrase now is

America and the world are safer.

[wicket]

2. Talk about being frickin' clueless!

Sheesh!

[HereSince1628]

21. No not clueless, perception is reality, ROVE has perception covered

or so he hopes.

I am not sure that "IT IS _JUST_ THE ECONOMY, STUPID" but Dems certainly must educate the populace with a superior message. The American dream has been globalized in an unregulated manner--
Frontier Economics & Ethics prevail, loss of standards of living among US middle and working class is evidence of poor handling of this issue (even the US Constitution recognizes value in tariffs.).

The labor competition between the US and undeveloped and unregulated nations is very very simply unfair. As Ross Perot suggested a decade ago the risk is that this becomes a rush toward the lowest actualized internal costs and maximized profit for a corporation. Developing nations deserve to develop with first rate technology and current awareness of pollution and workplace dangers.

Unless the global workforce competes at THAT level US workers are quite simply doomed. Displacements from jobs, homes, and even emigration to lower cost of living nations where jobs are available must become a reality...but then that _IS_ globalization under frontier ethics.

Even with pollution and worker protections set aside, Bush's affirmation that America's future is with investors is a missile of class warfare. EVERY US CITIZEN CANNOT BE PART OF THE OWNER CLASS unless there is significant restructuring of corporations, including the true vestment of employees in partial ownership of their activities...I know that is hard for the Dimson to get but it is true. Folks earning minimum wage are in a terribly, miserably, poor position to buy ownership in _ANY_ of their workplaces when their income includes NO surplus available for investment.

Personally, I can see a compromise here that puts worker perquisites into the market, and also gives them part ownership of their workplaces. Why should CEO's be the only employee's given stock options, etc???

Something very _different_ than traditional union-management divisions that continue to institutionalize adversarial relationships that for all practical purpose trap people into the worker status is needed.

People are people, their inherent worth on average, whether rich or poor, is IDENTICAL. Being born poor is a condition that a democratic _AND_ capitalist society should help to alleviate across a person's life. THAT IS REAL SOCIAL SECURITY.

A critical part of this for Democrats is to develop a strategy for global development that doesn't punish workers for being born in a developed nation (or forces into exploitation workers born to neo-colonial circumstances). The nation needs a solution that leverages American workers' status as one of the hardest working peoples (considering hours per week, hours per year, vacation & holidays, family leave, etc.) of developed nations into security for its population.

Invoking "free market realities" as a mechanism to impoverish one class of Americans while benefiting another is simply one of the many rhetorical tools of asymmetrical economic class warfare.

The nation can and _must_ benefit as a WHOLE.

[faithnotgreed]

4. i almost wouldnt have believed that he truly would walk the same

pot-holed path as his father

its just too awful for workers (and troops and children and...) across this country (and the middle east and the world...) that * cannot manage even one aspect of the administration except for the endless smears

[MichiganVote]

5. Yeah, there's a republican majority in the UP and not much else

What a crock. I live here, I know what's around this state and selling cherries to the chinese ain't going to cut it. Once this election is over, visits from George Bush will cease too, in or out of office.

Somehow I just don't figure this worship the ground George Bush walks on.

[The_Casual_Observer]

7. the economy is just a word like WMD or education

It has no meaning to that cynical redneck Texas good ol boy. He just talks shit, knowing that the suckers will eat it up as long as he beats the bible and says he believes in Jesus too. What does he care about the economy or anything else. He couldn't spend all of his inheritance if he tried.

[Sparky McGruff]

25. Just like WMDs..

Is the economy improving? Well, it has the potential to improve. What's the difference?

[NWHarkness]

8. Traverse City

Bush is obviously desperate, every time he comes to Michigan, he goes somewhere that is rock solid GOP. He knows he can't win Michigan, but he can't give the impression that he has written it off this early.

Come to Detroit or Flint or Saginaw, tough guy.

[west michigan]

13. Surprised he has not come ...

to Grand Haven or hold an Ottowa county rally.

[amandabeech]

18. Yes. He should've shown up for the Tulip Festival.

Or perhaps the Asparagus Festival in my home area, Hart, Oceana County, where a wooden school playground and some school buses were torched this summer.

I'd love to see him hold an open event in Muskegon Heights.

At least Kerry had the guts to hold an open rally in GOP central, otherwise known as Grand Rapids.

[west michigan]

20. Living in Muskegon ....

... I would bring popcorn if he came here :)

[amandabeech]

26. Supersize mine!

I'd be on that proppie joppie to visit Mom on a second's notice. Who knows, she might even be willing to go herself at the age of 82, because she despises Bush that much.

[TahitiNut]

17. Well, most Michiganders have always known life is better elsewhere.

Most of them resent it, too ... since "those people" don't deserve it and don't have the moral fortitude of a Michigander. Coming back after 30 years living outside the state in which I was born and raised only lowers my respect for the reichbot nightcrawlers that infest the compost piles scattered around this mitten - a place where "opposable thumb" has a certain political truth.

[noonwitch]

56. I've lived in Michigan my whole life and wouldn't live anywhere else

There are lots of places I like to visit, but I love Michigan. Big cities, small towns, lots of water.

[TahitiNut]

57. Well, I guess I just benefit from broader experience ...

... living in New York, Connecticut, Alabama, Texas, Washington, and California. The problem with "lots of water" is the enormous inconvenience of form: snow, ice, floods, humidity, etc. I like the "lots of water" called the Pacific Ocean. I can't scuba dive, go whitewater rafting, or swimming in snow, ice, humidity, or floods. The Michigan lakes of my childhood are now polluted and the shores are either privatized or littered. Simply stated, Michiganders have devalued and destroyed the assets I valued and allowed the infrastructure that my forebears helped build and preserve to deteriorate. The roads suck! Suburban sprawl has wiped out convenient public recreational facilities. Even the publicly available swimming pools (Crystal Pool and Salt Water Pool) I adored have been wiped out. Where's BobLo? Where're the water slides? The private enterprises have been permitted to become gross eyesores.

Right about the time I left Michigan 30 years ago, a public survey found that 70% of Michiganders would live elsewhere if they had the opportunity, particularly employment. Right now, Jennifer Granholm has officially acknowledged that the emigration of higher-educated young people is a major problem in Michigan. I can understand that. The "I got mine so fuck you" attitude in Michigan has led to an appalling deterioration of the public availability of the very things most Michiganders claim is a "nice thing"(TM) about living in Michigan. The mutual animosities of Michiganders for one another has further destroyed the state's social fabric and precluded the development of public infrastructure.

There's one major clue that Michigan has become less desirable: tourism. When was the last time anyone had to wade through throngs of foreign tourists enjoying a vacation visit to Michigan? (I did that repeatedly in the San Francisco Bay Area. All over the place.)

[shrike]

71. Sounds like you need to move again

I've lived in different places myself (Grew up in Detroit, haven't lived there in quite a few years) and grousing about an area does nobody good. If you feel that way about Michigan, then by all means, pull up your stakes and move on. You'll feel better and so will your neighbors.

[TahitiNut]

72. Since I'm providing support for an aged parent, that's not an option.

My mother is firmly entrenched here and cannot move. Nor can she, with her health conditions and recently widowed (the second time), live safely on her own. Thus, I had to return to Michigan (from California). All things considered, including financial considerations, another move isn't close to being feasible.

Thanks for the creative suggestion, though. It must be pretty obvious that I would've never thought of that approach. :eyes:


Hey! Look on the bright side! I'll be voting against the detestable Repugnant in this Congressional District (Knollenberg). One vote at a time, right?

[JNelson6563]

30. Actually he's scared

and I can tell you why. Here in Traverse City we Dems are really rockin'. They aren't feeling so secure about their base anymore, hence the visit. Trust me, the north is turning blue. I'm out there every day helping it happen.

We had a fabulous protest outside of Bushie-boy's venue. It was great fun, very exciting, tons of people!

:toast:

Julie

[5thGenDemocrat]

42. Dickless was here in Saginaw about a week or so ago

Hand-picked crowd of 8000 or so at Wendler Arena, waving their little flags and shouting out their joyous "sieg heils!". What was cool was that the Saginaw Police, et al, didn't pack all the protesters (a couple hundred or so) into a "First Amendment" zone, but let them stand right across Johnson Street from the arena and generally raise hell.
John
The GOP lovefest was as close to a Nuremburg Rally as you're going to see here in Saginaw County -- outside of Frankenmuth, of course.

[wildmanj]

9. economy improving

sure it is but sooner or later we all die

[SemperEadem]

10. the economy IS getting better.... in India

so I guess he's not lying in that sense.

[AlCzervik]

12. Pretty soon we will be the 3rd world country

we already have the banana republic dictator in charge.

[young_at_heart]

15. Just visit (parts of) LA County to see a 3rd world country

As a native (born 1939), I was very happy to leave the area! Bush ought to visit there.

[AlCzervik]

16. My Husband is in Fullerton right now

overseeing a factory setup, he hates it there.

[shanti]

22. native here too

mom's family goes back to the late 1800's in OC, but most of us have left for different parts of cali, arizona, and washington. it's kind of sad, really...:-( but the quality of life sucks down there if you don't have big $$$$.

[progressivebydesign]

29. We are becoming a nation of servants and consumers. N/T

[ramapo]

33. Bush's economy based on the ultimate Ponzi scheme

Build a big-box retail outlet. Create some temporary construction jobs.
Create a bunch of low-paying, minimal benefit retail jobs.

Keep building. Gives people a place to spend some dollars, part of which get sent overseas since we don't manufacture any of the stuff being sold.

The only way to sell is to create some jobs. Build another mall.

Repeat until the retail sector is saturated with stuff.

[banana republican]

40. I like it PONZI ECONOMICS make it stick

[ScreamingMeemie]

14. ...and yet MI's economy is backsliding. Check this out...I posted it

the other day, with no replies. It's an interesting article...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=745139

Office leases down in Metro Detroit.

[truthisfreedom]

19. must be those drugs they have him on. i guess they work wonders nowadays!

you can make an imbicile believe anything.

[Mari333]

23. 10 % Unemployment in this part of Michigan

kiss our ass George.

[llmart]

27. I can't believe that people in the UP.....

actually worship this guy. Of course, no one ever said the Yoopers were the smartest people. I'm in SE Michigan and I hear stories every day of the unemployed (long term) and underemployed. This guy is the biggest liar that ever occupied the White House.

[AlienGirl]

50. I'm an expat Yooper in Seattle...

The UP's economy has vacillated between bad and awful for a long time now, and as a consequence the area suffers a lot of the same problems that any economically depressed place has--drugs, violence, hopelessness.

Unfortunately, much of the UP is so *socially* conservative that they'll vote for whomever they think can "protect" them from gay people and environmentalists. (Since the UP lives on the timber industry and the ability to hunt is a matter of survival for a number of people, environmentalists and gun-control advocates are seen as major threats to Yooper livelihood.) They vote against their economic interests because the Repubs manage to tote out the appropriate bogeymen that many Yoopers view as immediate threats.

Tucker

[progressivebydesign]

28. But China is getting a Cadillac plant to cater to their NEW wealthy!!!

While we are falling further and further behind. How lovely that we all have to buy products made in China, while they are becoming affluent enough to choke the world with the pollution from their latest fad.. SUVs. I can't even imagine what it would be like to drive an SUV in China... they've been used to alternative transportation, bikes, and small cars. God Bless the American manufacturers who are enriching the Chinese. Who cares if their government is one of the world violators of humans rights? As long as we can buy $6.00 shoes at Walmart, because our jobs pay less than half of what they used to. God Bless George Bush and Corporate Fucking AMerica.. I mean it.. really.. :puke:

[area51]

32. (GW Hoover said): "The economy is improving."

... and monkeys are flying out of my ass. Not.

[steely]

34. The Asshat must use his own bank account as an economic...

indicator.

What a boor.

[boot@9]

35. Meanwhile...

the rich get richer and ...

[bullimiami]

36. HEY NERO.

FIDDLE ON.

[are_we_united_yet]

37. It is

at about the same rapidity that nuclear waste decays to something safe enough to sprinkle on your corn flakes.

[noamnety]

38. It's hard to convince us

Maybe Bush should give one of his inspiring "everything's peachy" speeches at the Detroit Train Station. There would be plenty of room for his supporters inside, if they don't mind sneaking past the pack of wild dogs living behind it, or scaling the concertina wire to get in.

[hatrack]

53. Man, that is straight out of Blade Runner!

Please tell me that once-magnificent building isn't just sitting there rotting away (though I'm sure the homeless guys appreciate having some kind of roof over their heads).

[noamnety]

55. not even the homeless appreciate it

All the windows are smashed (you can see daylight clear through the building as you drive by), so the inside is a moldy pit of stagnant rainwater. I have another view of it here where you can see the windows a bit better: http://ideamouth.com/twoamericas/twoamericas.php?img=3

[hatrack]

60. Thanks for the photo tour (I guess . . . )

That shit looks like post-Sherman Atlanta. Yessiree, no doubt about it, it's morning in America again.

[xxqqqzme]

62. those pictures are

heartbreaking......I love old architecture and hate 2 see old buildings neglected and abandoned....those pictures tell quite a story.

Welcome 2 DU.

[bogey18]

39. He then went on to say that

we would be curing AIDS right after his re-election, that we would all be driving hydrogen powered cars by 2006 and middle class families were going to reap a huge benefit from his final tax cuts. The his head spun around 3 times and he vomited pea soup all over Laura whose expression of glassy admiration did not waiver for even one second.

[tokenlib]

43. A beautiful day in Traverse City...lots of Anti-Bush sentiment.

There were lots of protesters in Traverse City--perhaps a thousand or so. Between the Democrats, Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, Veterans for Peace and many other groups--we had a great showing the local media barely noted on the evening news. An awesome showing for a work day afternoon.

Bush supporters had to walk past a gauntlet of protesters stretched for a few blocks to reach the safety of "W" yellow shirts at the gate to the civic center. We smiled, did some good natured taunting and made it known that the Bush love fest would not go unchallenged.

Hell, some of the Bush supporters accused us of being from DETROIT--they must be in denial that they have dissent in their own back yard.

[amandabeech]

44. Oooh! The ULTIMATE out-state Michigan slur! n/t

[Occulus]

46. Next time split off part of the protest

and hit the local television news stations with it. Make a lot of noise, too- have someone bring a drum. Or lots of them.

Hehehe- I'm picturing a line of nine marching snares standing on the sidewalk with sound shields at the bottom pointed directly at the building: brrrRRRAKKA-TAKata-TAKa-TAKata-taka-TAK! rrrRRRAK! TAK! TAK! TAK!!

(that last was a phonetically spelled snare lick. :P )

[tokenlib]

58. We did have some of that--you would have been impressed!

There were drums, dancing, people dressed up as King George drawn on a throne. We were spread out to make our presence known. It was very impressive. The local media just didn't give us fair coverage in my opinion. Though the local social studies teacher who was kicked out and had her ticket torn up for trying to wear a Kerry sticker--did get on one of the local news reports--so that was cool. A very nice respectable woman--no threat to anyone!

Way to go stupid ass "W" yellow shirts(campaign staff)!! Keep oppressing TEACHERS and you will truly reap the wrath in Nov.

[Occulus]

45. Ok, so help me out here

Am I understanding that Bush* pointed toward the auctioning off of the physical means by which people were employed, and used it as a sign that the economy is improving?

Do I have this right?

[Arcturus]

47. The economy is improving

[TahitiNut]

49. 'Tis a mere flesh wound.

You may turn the corner, but you'll never cross the bridge. :silly:

[hatrack]

54. "I'm invincible! The Texas Turd always triumphs!"

"You're a loony!"

[phattyt]

48. What a lying s.o.b.

the only way this economy will grow is with 4 years of a Democrat holding the reigns

[Tight_rope]

51. "Economy Improving" for the rich...but not for the poor...

[Strawman]

52. He's going to lose badly in MI this Nov.

I hope he keeps coming back to MI and saying stupid shit like that. Sounds just like his dad in '92. Like Poppy, he has no clue what working and middle class families go through during tough economic times and when he tries to talk about it, it just becomes obvious. Just went to my district convention where they were amazed at the unprecedented number of attendees. He's going to lose MI by at least 10-11 points. Watch. The Republicans are desperate in MI this year, hence their effort to triple ban gay marriage to get their dispirited base to the polls. They're running out of gimmicks. From what I've seen and heard, all they seem to be running on in MI this year is a ban on something that's already banned (gay marriage) and legalization of the right to blast the shit out of morning doves with an Uzi or something like that. Their well is getting pretty dry.

[barb162]

59. what amazes me: receptive northern Mich audience

are the millions who believe this lying crap. What amazes me are the people at his meetings who are cheering him when he lies like this.

[Tsiyu]

61. They are getting payed

or * has convinced them that after he blows up all the Iraqi babies he can, he will save the US unborn ones and they are very happy to hear this. Or they have been promised jobs with homeland security and will soon be able to spy on those unchurched neighbors? Whatever glee they exhibit toward *'s ascendance is sure to be founded on some self-serving goal, of that be assured.

[barb162]

66. oh yeah

and his consistent lying about the economy and lack of jobs in this country is amazing. Boggles my mind

[makeanoise]

65. Yeah, he got the information from the CIA

One bad intelligence report after another....

The sooner he's gone the better.

[DFWJock]

67. Economy improving?

Well, maybe not, but hey - we do have economy improving related activity programs going on.

[jackieforthedems]

68. Where Is It Improving?

Maybe up Bush's lying arse.:spank: Bush needs a good spanking!

[conflictgirl]

69. This finally brings me out of lurkdom

I'm in mid-Michigan, and I can assure you the economy isn't improving here. The unemployment rate is still about 2% higher than the national average, and as we know that's the official number. I know many, many people who have been out of work for so long that they aren't being counted anymore. Union employees here at Dow Chemical recently agreed to take a pay cut from $25 an hour to $10 an hour to keep the company from outsourcing their jobs. Of course, their jobs will be outsourced anyway, it's just a matter of time. When we moved back here from Fort Worth two years ago (why??) my husband was out of work for 5 months and the job he finally found was at a 40 percent pay cut.

If any candidate wants to win Michigan, they should know better than to try to convince us the economy is good here. It hasn't been really good here since the 70s. Find a different tactic, George. Or, come to think of it, don't - keep up with this one and Kerry will surely win!

[Nambe]

70. Welcome to DU conflictgirl !

I hope things get better for you. Things aren't so good here in Oregon either.