January 5, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
At the end of Barack Obama’s first year in office, there is controversy over the nature and extent of his accomplishments, and even some allies and supporters appear to have forgotten the atmosphere of multidirectional crisis in which Obama took office. What’s more, the steady decline in Obama’s approval ratings appears to follow very closely a shift in media reporting away from reporting facts and back to the hyper-commentary style of the run-up to the Iraq war, an atmosphere in which conservative political propaganda fares better than the facts of deliberative action.
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October 9, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
Pres. Barack Obama, in office just under 9 months, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The award announcement has sent a ripple through world opinion, as critics and supporters clash over whether the award is premature, or whether Obama’s collaborative diplomatic method has achieved important gains for world peace. The prize could signal an endorsement of Obama’s work on comprehensive nuclear disarmament or on achieving climate consensus this fall, or it could be oriented toward affirming the gains made in international cooperation.
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May 11, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, jailed in Tehran on allegations of espionage, has had her sentence reduced from 8 years to 2 years, suspended for 5 years. Iranian officials announced today that she was free to leave Evin prison immediately. Saberi, originally detained for buying a bottle of wine, was subsequently charged with reporting without government credentials, then espionage. Her trial was a 15-minute closed-door hearing in which no defense was permitted.
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April 30, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Countless families and communities touched by our auto industry still face tough times ahead. Our projected long-term deficits are still too high, and government is still not as efficient as it needs to be. We still confront threats ranging from terrorism to nuclear proliferation, as well as pandemic flu. And all this means you can expect an unrelenting, unyielding effort from this administration to strengthen our prosperity and our security in the second hundred days, in the third hundred days and all of the days after that.
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April 29, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius was today confirmed by the US Senate as Secretary of Health and Human Services, and sworn in as the latest member of Pres. Barack Obama’s cabinet. This White House photo by Peter Souza shows Sebelius being briefed today on the US response to the 2009 H1N1 flu virus outbreak, reported to have begun in Mexico City.
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April 29, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
The Congressional negotiation on the budget for fiscal year 2010 has worked out a $3.44 trillion budget proposal that features many of Pres. Obama’s highest-priority initiatives. Healthcare reform will be included as part of the standard budget, meaning that votes on healthcare reforms can pass the Senate with a simple majority, i.e. 50 votes plus the Democratic VP Joe Biden. The agreed budget resolution would cut the budget deficit even in the first year by more than expected.
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April 29, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The biggest banks in the United States have been engaging in practices designed to nudge US economic policy and banking regulation toward permitting nearly any sort of interest-rate manipulation and ignoring, or erasing, necessary anti-usury laws. It’s been part of a concerted effort to try to shape policy to make it easier for banks to come into fresh money and claim new levels of profit from what would otherwise be considered escalating risk.
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April 29, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
The US-based watchdog group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a report on the 1st 100 days of Pres. Barack Obama’s first term in office. The report praises Obama for key reforms banning abusive treatment and moving toward a system of due process for detainees, but is critical of some holdover policies from the Bush era, which Obama has yet to reform or plans to keep in place. On the whole, Obama is rated by HRW as having “got off to a great start when he issued executive orders to close Guantanamo and ban CIA prisons on his second full day in office,” while “failure to reject the substance of the Bush-era ‘war on terror’ framework was a tremendous disappointment.”
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April 29, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Barack Obama’s first 100 days in office have been a flurry of major reforms and of global political and economic strategy. He took the oath of office on 20 January 2009 with the worst recession in 70 years setting in, major banks on the verge of insolvency, record numbers of home foreclosures, two wars in Asia, an increasingly hostile Russia and a predecessor’s policy of using torture to “enhance” interrogations. Not only has he moved forward on the economy, healthcare, security, and energy; he has reformed the entire American diplomatic paradigm, moving toward a “smart power” based on 3d vision: diplomacy, development, defense.
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April 28, 2009 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: No Comment Yet
Earlier this month, Cuban president Raúl Castro made the stunning announcement that Cuba was “ready to discuss everything” with the Obama administration, including political prisoners, economic policy, and democratic electoral processes. Pres. Obama has been firm but cautious in his declarations of a willingness to open a new era of engagement with the Cold War enemy just 90 miles from the Florida coast.
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April 28, 2009 :: staff :: 2 Comments
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), one of the most senior Republicans in the US Senate is switching to the Democratic party. The Democrats will now have an effective majority of 59-40, and can achieve the coveted 60-vote supermajority that can break any Republican filibuster, if Al Franken is seated as the junior senator from Minnesota. Specter was facing a determined challenge from the conservative side of his state Republican party.
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April 27, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
As the US State Dept. has issued a travel advisory warning Americans to avoid unnecessary travel to Mexico, and the two countries are screening all travelers coming from the other nation, Canada, Spain and New Zealand have reportedly confirmed at least one case each of swine flu. The multi-strain flu virus is expected to meet little immunity in the human population, which it has not previously affected in large numbers.
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April 26, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
The leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States is healthcare costs. The system, as it is designed is destroying people’s lives as punishment for their seeking means of staying alive or maintaining relative good health. This is a comprehensive failure of the system, at all levels. As of 2008, some 54.5% of personal bankruptcies filed in the US involved unpayable medical expenses or loss of income or insurance due to health-related causes.
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April 26, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
The Secretary of Homeland Security for Barack Obama’s US administration, Janet Napolitano, today announced that the new strain of influenza commonly called Mexican Swine Flu constitutes an “incident of national interest” to US security. The new strain of flu has been found in at least 20 cases so far in the US, across 5 states, with all known patients so far recovering.
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April 25, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Good morning. Over the last three months, my Administration has taken aggressive action to confront an historic economic crisis. As we do everything that we can to create jobs and get our economy moving, we’re also building a new foundation for lasting prosperity – a foundation that invests in quality education, lowers health care costs, and develops new sources of energy powered by new jobs and industries.
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April 25, 2009 :: Riga Listin :: No Comment Yet
Roxana Saberi, jailed for 8 years by Iran for alleged “espionage” (read: reporting without a censor’s license), is now in her 5th day of a hunger strike. She says she will continue her hunger strike until she is freed. Her father, Reza Saberi, says he has spoken to her, she is determined to refuse food until released, and that she “seems weak”. Foreign governments, the US, as well as individuals and rights groups, are calling for her immediate, unconditional release.
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April 25, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
There are few things as fundamental to the American Dream or as essential for America’s success as a good education. This has never been more true than it is today. At a time when our children are competing with kids in China and India, the best job qualification you can have is a college degree or advanced training. If you do have that kind of education, then you’re well prepared for the future — because half of the fastest growing jobs in America require a Bachelor’s degree or more. And if you don’t have a college degree, you’re more than twice as likely to be unemployed as somebody who does. So the stakes could not be higher for young people like Stephanie.
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April 24, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
The Pentagon is releasing today as many as 2,000 photos never before seen, some showing prisoner abuse at Guantánamo Bay. The photos were tied up in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU, calling for evidence of Defense Department actions at the prison camp to be made public. According to The Washington Post, the release will contain “21 images depicting detainee abuse in facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan other than the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, as well as 23 other detainee abuse photos”.
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April 24, 2009 :: Riga Listin :: One Comment
North Korea is proceeding with a trial against two Korean-American journalists from California, despite witnesses claiming they were detained when North Korean border guards entered Chinese territory to seize them while their cameras were rolling. The trial will be held behind closed doors, and foreign governments have expressed concern the process will not allow the journalists a fair hearing or even a defense.
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April 23, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: 2 Comments
With an Afghan-Pakistani hybrid Taliban taking hold of significant areas inside Pakistan, the nuclear-armed nation has become a grave security risk to the rest of the region and the world. After signing a deal with Pakistan’s government to take control of the Swat Valley and impose a brutal distortion of shari’a law, the Taliban almost immediately launched attacks deeper into Pakistan, taking control of parts of the Buner district.
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April 22, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
Because there’s something in it for everybody. The current global nuclear weapons-control regime operates on a dangerously untenable false premise: that only ‘responsible’ nations can or should be allowed to make and maintain arsenals of nuclear warheads. At first blush, it may seem highly rational: only those who will behave responsibly should have the most dangerous weapons; but, then, upon further examination, who is qualified to make that judgment?
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April 22, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: No Comment Yet
While clearly showing caution, taking care to repeat his position that prosecutions of former officials could be counterproductive, Pres. Obama today signaled that he does not rule out that some legal avenues may exist by which former Bush officials could face charges in relation to “enhanced interrogation” policy. The president did not, however, endorse any process of prosecution or call for action against any officials, saying instead “I don’t want to prejudge” what the attorney general might find legally necessary.
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April 21, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: 2 Comments
After just over two weeks of sporadic fighting in the Buner district of Pakistan, between the Swat Valley —now under shari’a law and run by the Taliban— and the nation’s capital, Taliban fighters have reportedly forced the local government to flee. This leaves them within 100 km of the capital, Islamabad, where the insurgents may seek to claim control of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.
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April 21, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 4 Comments
Today comes the news that the Taliban have taken more territory in Pakistan’s Buner district, just 100 km from the capital Islamabad. The shockingly weak government of Pres. Zardari has already ceded the Swat Valley to the Taliban, allowing harsh shari’a law to be imposed. The local government has been forced out of Buner, and the area is becoming a stronghold. If the Taliban reach Islamabad, they may be able to seize control of the one of the world’s 9 known arsenals of nuclear weapons.
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April 20, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
After one Republican senator committed the extremely dangerous act of openly calling for a run on the banks, something that could literally bankrupt the nation and lead to massive economic collapse, one would expect the national party to ignore, disavow or directly oppose the idea. But the national party is so drunk with the lust to sabotage Barack Obama’s presidency, it has endorsed the idea.
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April 20, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
The 24th and 25th banks to fail this year in the US, American Sterling Bank of Missouri and Great Basin Bank of Nevada, were closed Friday by the FDIC. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will fund their accounts to solvency and management of their insured deposits will be taken over by other banks.
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April 20, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
A court in Iran has jailed Iranian-American journalist, Roxana Saberi, to 8 years in prison, alleging that she spied for the US. Saberi had been detained originally on charges she violated Iranian law by reporting without an official press license. The charges were later raised to espionage, and within one week, she was found guilty, after a one-day closed-door trial.
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April 19, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
Lead by example. It’s a simple idea, and one that tends to be fully realized only by those who are most able. You lead by demonstrating the best qualities, because you are able to — 1. because you have them; 2. because you are in a position to do so; 3. because you are confident both of your ability to embody these qualities and of the qualities themselves, their virtue and their efficacy.
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April 18, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
The UN rapporteur on torture responded to the announcement by US pres. Barack Obama that CIA agents who engaged in practices the Justice Dept. had authorized as legal would not be prosecuted by saying that such an amnesty would violate US treaty obligations under international law. Manfred Nowak told the Austrian newspaper Der Standard that any acts of torture must be investigated and those involved prosecuted.
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April 18, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
En la Cumbre de las Américas, el presidente de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, ha proclamado su intención de llevar a cabo un nuevo programa diplomático en las Américas, buscando colaboración y apertura. Había establecido esta semana en México su apoyo al tratado interamericano contra el tráfico de armas, prometiendo impulsar al Senado a actuar para ratificarlo.
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April 17, 2009 :: Severino Villalonso :: One Comment
Cuban pres. Raúl Castro has said he is willing to engage the US in talks on any subject, including human rights and democratization, so long as there are no preconditions. Sec. of State Hillary Clinton today said that 50 years of US policy toward Cuba have “failed” to bring about the changes sought, and hinted the Obama administration would be looking to a new era of engagement and negotiation.
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April 17, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The Justice Dept. of Pres. Barack Obama yesterday released a series of memos, reported as ‘only lightly redacted’ (for security purposes), detailing the advice the Department gave the Bush White House concerning the legality of harsh interrogation techniques proposed for use by the CIA. Pres. Obama sought to preclude a political firestorm by pledging not to prosecute CIA agents who may have implemented the techniques, if they had been advised the techniques were legal, but no such immunity was offered to administration officials who may be liable for having deliberately misinterpreted existing law or authorized illegal techniques.
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April 16, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
Electronic medical records (EMR), like health insurance, benefit from being spread over the widest pool possible. A system that aggregates and cross-references data from hundreds of millions of patients can find statistical evidence far more efficiently than today’s statistical modeling for health problems and solution improvement.
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April 15, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
The problem with the recent furore over the anti-tax ‘tea party’ movement is that no one knows what its message is. Some say it represents a platform against all forms of taxation. Most of the newcomers to the movement seem to suggest they just want the proliferation of targeted taxes (gasoline, tobacco, property) to be minimized. Some radicals seem to favor anarchy (obviously not thinking much about the risks). And the Republican party has clearly latched onto this libertarian-originated movement as a way of sowing fear and opposition to Obama.
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April 14, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 8 Comments
Pres. Obama today gave an address at Georgetown University, in which he explained his economic policies and how his budget and recovery plan will achieve not only better healthcare for more Americans and a green energy agenda, but real substantive entitlement reform, new financial regulations intended to both curb abuses and spur sustainable investments in future prosperity, and protect against long-term decline stemming from mass under-education.
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April 14, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: No Comment Yet
An instrumental part of the radical smear effort being waged by well-funded conservative fringe groups against Pres. Obama is what is being called the ‘tea party’ movement. Members of the movement have been sending envelopes full of loose tea or tea bags, labeled “tax protest” to members of Congress, raising security concerns and provoking hazmat investigations, evacuations and other measures oriented toward addressing bio-chemical terror threats.
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April 10, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
In an effort to address the ongoing diplomatic crisis related to Iran’s refusal to follow certain UN mandates to cease nuclear research processes, 6 powers, including the United States, have invited Tehran to talks on how best to achieve a state of affairs acceptable to all parties and which does not allow Iran to expand the group of nuclear-armed nations. The move comes on the heels of US pres. Barack Obama’s announcement in Europe that he will initiate a program aimed at directing international treaties toward the ultimate elimination of all nuclear weapons.
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April 8, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
President Barack Obama, during a speech in Prague, announced his intention to embark upon the framing of a new global effort to eliminate all of the world’s nuclear weapons, admitting the goal may not be achieved for decades. The US president told his audience that the deadliest weapons known to humanity must be considered contrary to peace and stability by all humankind, and should be responsibly phased out by those powers that have them.
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April 7, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Largely ignored by the mainstream media, one major part of the president’s European tour was his insistence that the international community needs to make historic long-term commitments to food security. If made, that commitment would be perhaps the most significant security achievement of the G20 summit and Obama’s first European trip, as food insecurity poses [...]
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April 5, 2009 :: staff :: 4 Comments
When I was born, the world was divided, and our nations were faced with very different circumstances. Few people would have predicted that someone like me would one day become the President of the United States. (Applause.) Few people would have predicted that an American President would one day be permitted to speak to an audience like this in Prague. (Applause.) Few would have imagined that the Czech Republic would become a free nation, a member of NATO, a leader of a united Europe. Those ideas would have been dismissed as dreams.
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April 4, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot by a sniper 41 years ago this morning in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 39 years old. King had been the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace prize in 1964, for his efforts to achieve civil rights reform through nonviolent protest. The legacy of his commitment to peace, democracy, equality and justice, continues to inform all of American politics to this day.
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April 3, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
The Republican party has developed an astonishing tendency to shock the conscience with its inability to deal with facts or interact seriously with the political climate in which they find themselves, since losing handily to Barack Obama and the Democrats in November. That their entire economic philosophy has been roundly rejected by the electorate and by economists, seems lost on their leadership in the most comprehensive way.
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April 1, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: One Comment
In a gesture of cooperation toward the United States, and in answer to a call for regional assistance, Iran has offered its help in combating the spreading drug trade in Afghanistan. The offer has not been formalized by a diplomatic meeting or by policy-specific talks, but may be a signal that some negotiations could be begun between the two states. The US government insists that Iran halt any activities that could be part of a weaponization program for nuclear materials.
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March 31, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
The White House gets tough with automakers and Wall Street ‘takes a dive’. At least that’s the news the CNBCs of the world are pushing. Every time something happens in the world and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) swells or declines, it was direct cause and effect. Nevermind the millions of people who may have milions of reasons to act one way or another and the countless permutations of those interests.
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March 27, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you so much. Well, it is great to see all of you. And I am thrilled that all of you here in the White House and everybody who is viewing this online is participating in this experiment that we’re trying out. When I was running for President, I promised to open up the White House to the American people. And this event, which is being streamed live over the Internet, marks an important step towards achieving that goal. And I’m looking forward to taking your questions and hearing your thoughts and concerns — because what matters to you and your families, and what people here in Washington are focused on, aren’t always one and the same thing.
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March 27, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
Pres. Barack Obama held a live online town hall meeting yesterday, which is reported to have attracted 3.5 million viewers and 100,000 participants. It was a landmark event in the developing media of interactive democracy in 21st century politics. It was an opportunity for the president to reach out directly to the public in order [...]
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March 24, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Pres. Obama tonight held his second prime time press conference, in the East Room of the White House, at 8pm, EDT. The main topic of the evening was the president’s budget proposal and the process of economic recovery. Obama opened with a prepared statement, before taking questions from the press corps. He praised efforts being made around the nation to implement projects that are creating new jobs, and defended his plan for a tax cut for 95% of working families.
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March 11, 2009 :: Riga Listin :: One Comment
Pres. Barack Obama today signed an executive order creating a special White House Council on Women and Girls, saying the cause of gender equality dates back to the founding of the United States, the promise that natural and democratic rights would be acknowledged for all citizens.
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March 9, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 4 Comments
An array of reports show some 1,200 people living in a growing tent city outside the California capital Sacramento, as more and more people are left homeless by the housing crisis. The UK’s Daily Mail on Friday detailed the community, noting echoes of the Depression era. There are an estimated 2,000 people living in such communities around Sacramento, with foreclosure and jobless rates skyrocketing.
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March 7, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Yesterday, we learned that the economy lost another 651,000 jobs in the month of February, which brings the total number of jobs lost in this recession to 4.4 million. The unemployment rate has now surpassed 8 percent, the highest rate in a quarter century. These aren’t just statistics, but hardships experienced personally by millions of Americans who no longer know how they’ll pay their bills, or make their mortgage, or raise their families.
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