DUBYANOMICS
John J. Andrew needs a job. Hereís his resume [1].
John, by virtue of his job situation and some good old-fashioned fire-in-the-belly, has become somewhat of a populist activist. More on that in a moment.
Like 3 million of his counterparts in the US since Dubya took office, John lost his job. Times are tough, jobs are not easy to come by. People who were earning significant wages are finding the pickings are slim; younger or less experienced workers are available at less cost, or the jobs are simply vanishing. Other workers double-up to compensate for the loss of staff, but the work gets done.
Skilled workers, educated professionals, capable contributors to the economy, are taking jobs outside of their area of competence, simply to put food on the table. Many are trapped with a higher monthly nut than their current situation can afford. This means downsizing ñ less costly housing, and a more modest spending regimen. In almost all cases this results in tension and pressure of various sorts on the home front. Even the move to less-expensive housing (if one can find it and get it while out of work or while making less than before) is a costly endeavor.
While the unemployment rolls are 3 million people more populous than before Dubya took office, Halliburton and Bechtel (et al) are the lucky recipients of billions of dollars (yes, thatís billions with a B) of taxpayer money for projects to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan.
Remember those campaign chestnuts:
Are you better off now than you were 2 years ago?
and
Itís the economy, stupid!!
Maybe it is time to revive them. Wesley Clark [2], are you listening?
Back to John Andrew. The very same day he was ìdownsizedî out of his job and began searching for a new gig, he learned that Dubyaís economic team, Treasury Secretary John Snow and Commerce Secretary Don Evans, would be conducting a barnstorming sort of bus tour through Wisconsin and Minnesota that very same week, touting Bush's tax cut and its prosperous economic effects.
This riled Johnís hackles. From Johnís blog:
ìWhat a bunch of BS. I'd like to give their PR tour a dose of reality," is what I thought. So I packed up the minivan and decided to follow their bus around the countryside and talk to whoever would listen about the real facts--that this economy stinks, and Bush's tax cuts are making it worse.î
And so began the Economic Realities Tour, in John's minivan:
Read his blog [3]. It is a folksy day-by-day account of Johnís travels, his interaction with the Secret Service, and how an enterprising fellow can turn a drive-thru into an opportunity to meet up with one of the administrationís top blowhards.
On Johnís blog youíll see an interesting and informative chart he created. Again, from his blog:
That got me thinking... how many jobs will be lost while Snow and Evans are being bussed between PR appearances?
As the chart (full size version found here [4])so clearly delineates: at the rate of joblessness indicated by US Dept. of Labor statistics, once Dubyaís economic shills are done with their feel-good tour, another 3,854 Americans will have lost their jobs.
At the bottom of the blog is a great shot of John's son, pointing his finger at you, with the caption: "Kiddo says: Let's get Dad a job!"
John may actually have a future as the next Michael Moore!
And, if you happen to be in a position to hire John, give him a call!
The Second Half
My heart was broken in the bottom of the tenth on Friday, then in the bottom of the ninth yesterday evening, as the Yanks lost two of three to the Oakland Aís. But the good news is that the Yanks remain 3.5 games ahead of the soon-to-collapse Red Sox.
My son (he of both blog [5] and http://www.jumpingbaboon.com [6] ">dot-com linkage) pointed me over to an interesting blog: yanksfan-vs-soxfan [7]. Nice to see the level of discourse they maintain. Of course, as noted in my baseball blog, DeanOnBaseball [8], the Red Sox are about due for their annual August choke and plotz.
Susan wants to get to Fenway [9] and sit in the new Green Monster seats [10]. Iíd love to go, too. As Red Sox fans are known to say, maybe next year.