Robert Oak's blog

Obama Touts Corporate Lobbyist Wish List Items as "Jobs" Program

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corporate states of AmericaWho all is sick to death of politicians claiming some policy will create jobs when in fact it will destroy them? Such is the outrage from Obama's reaction to the pathetic jobs report.

Obama touted the South Korean Free Trade Agreement as an answer to the jobs crisis. KORUS is projected to lose 159,000 U.S. jobs over 7 years. For Columbia, a loss of 55,000 jobs is projected.

What was the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results? The South Korean Trade Agreement is based on the same failed model as NAFTA. The South Korean Trade Agreement is projected to increase the trade deficit in auto and parts alone by $700 million. Why would one bail out the auto industry only to enable unfair imports of Korean autos?

Panama is a tax haven with over 400,000 corporations located there to avoid paying taxes. If that trade deal goes through what meager U.S. tax haven laws we have now will be challenged. How's that for balancing the budget deficit?

Even Ben Bernanke has shown how currency manipulation is going on unabated and as a result these emerging economies, such as South Korea, are unfairly increasing their exports.

Screwing America Under the Cover of Deficit Reductions

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The validity of the public debt of the United States... shall not be questioned

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Except when one wants to screw over Americans by cutting social safety nets under the guise of a debt ceiling crisis.

After Congress and the Obama administration ranted and raved for months and under the cover of non-stories like Casey Anthony, we have Obama is putting social security, medicare and social safety nets up on the faux pas debt ceiling negotiation block, to be cut and slashed.

After putting controversial cuts to Social Security and Medicare on the table in negotiations with congressional Republicans over a plan to raise the nation's debt ceiling, President Obama still doesn't have a deal in the works. Emerging from a meeting with congressional leaders on Thursday, Obama said that both sides in the negotiations would find the ultimate outcome "painful." He also explained that the two sides had not yet arrived at an accord, but would reconvene talks on Sunday.

"I want to emphasize that nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to," Obama said, adding that the talks were conducted "in a spirit of compromise" but that the parties "are still far apart on a wide range of issues."

Outsourcing the Pentagon

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Did you know the Pentagon has issued 161,711 waivers to avoid buying American? buyamerican.jpg That it has cost us 620,000 manufacturing jobs and $53.5 billion dollars since 2007? So says a new report from the House of Representatives Buy American Caucus Chair, Chris Murphy.

Today, Congressman Chris Murphy, Chair of the House Buy American Caucus, was joined by local manufacturers and advocates for American manufacturing to unveil a report showing that federal policies of the Department of Defense are costing as many as 620,000 American manufacturing jobs. By issuing over 161,000 waivers to the Buy American Act, the Department of Defense has sent $53.5 billion to overseas contractors since 2007.

How in God's name could the Pentagon do this, considering the United States has a massive jobs crisis and that is, after all, U.S. taxpayer money. First, the Buy American act allows exceptions.

The Buy American Act, which has governed federal procurement since 1933, is full of loopholes and exceptions that allow billions of dollars to flow out of the country each year. Two of the biggest loopholes allow for waivers for any product that is to be used overseas, or for products in which the Department of Defense finds that there are no domestic suppliers.

But wait for it, the DoD is claiming there are no domestic suppliers when in fact there are. Some American Business are screaming political bloody murder as loud as they can about the Pentagon snub too.

We Don't Believe Her

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The attempted rape case of former IMF head Strauss-Kahn looks like it's heading for the skids.

Prosecutors acknowledged that there were significant credibility issues with the hotel housekeeper who accused Mr. Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her in May. In a brief hearing at State Supreme Court in Manhattan, prosecutors did not oppose his release; the judge then freed Mr. Strauss-Kahn on his own recognizance.

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