Is President Obama Popular in the States?

GDPofDRC wrote:

MMAEYES wrote:

GDPofDRC wrote:

Good thing the newly elected's are going to do all they can to bring the country down again. No more jobs, no more recovery, no more empowering of citizens over special interests, no more tax cuts for the middle class and small business, no more small business stimulus, no more health care empowerment for consumers. No to them because they are Obama's Agenda.

Thank science we getting rid of all that crap and are returning to the agenda that got us to the problems those items meant to address. I was really getting worried there for minute.

Oh yeah them dems are all about empowering citizens over special interests Are you for real?


Uh and tax cuts, the gop just had to talk the dems into extending the tax cuts for the middle class,


And anything you said with the word stimulus in it yeah we don't want cause stimulus means spend more and increase debt, exactly what we don't need.

Stimulus is working in states where there was leadership with the foresight to use it. TARP is not stimulus, ARRA is. It has only started to move and produced results that will be an asset to recovery for a while.

What states are those, GDP? I have yet to see numbers that show any states that were in real trouble that have had significant gains. The states that are doing okay, were states that were never in trouble as much as other places. There's places under 6% unemployment and they never went over that mark. There's places like here that are pushing 11% (18% real) that have been at almost exactly that mark for 18 months now. There are no real swing areas...

Frustrating part is that there's still almost 300 billion of that stimulus that's not been tapped. Either you're going to use it or you aren't, make a choice. And in our area (As well as many more that I've heard of), the only way it's been put into place is in freaking road work and bridge repair. Are you kidding me? This is where it's supposed to really have benefit? Very frustrating...

I respect pretty much anyones political views. But people that lean too far in either direction are just unreasonable.

I hear ya Ziggy. I have been a legit Independent since the dawn of man. Voted for Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Kerry and Obama on the big stage... But I have never had a time where I'm feeling pushed farther to one side than now. Not only because of the incompetence of the administration but also because of the blind loyalty and criticism of non-Dems by the left. If you disagree that this administration is doing a good job, then you're somehow tabbed as being ignorant, out of touch, racist, etc. The vitriol is pretty frightening to be honest...

You got FHWA, FTA, DOE, EPA, and DOT awards, why because those are the agencies who were capable of fielding eligible projects in your area. What you get from it, road R&R, transit improvements to facilities, capitol and operations, energy audits, residential energy loan account, signalization performance audit, energy facilities upgrade and rehab, energy application analysis, well rebuilding, building and safeguarding, waste water treatment upgrade, various interchange and capicity upgrades to capitol corridors. People don't always get it, these things don't happen without approval after outreach and public participation. Everyone has to play by these rules. The 164+ million awarded in you county to plan and program those funds won't be for nothing. Project obligation means people working. Strange for government but it is that simple. Projects are not obligated without detailed government and public scrutiny, the number one goal of the local Deschutes Comprehensive Plan, the guiding policy document. Maintenance and improvements to local, regional, state and federal facilities are a job creator, security investments and represented as wanted features in almost every county and city general plan and regional transportation plans in this country. The 300 million left over was just that, here it is use it, program it, get it jumped through all local hoops, benefit or it's gone. The job done by local agencies all over this country was phenomenal to accomplish what was, another benefit of the act. Inter-agency collaboration has never been as efficient as it was in the past couple of years.

It is working in all states, there is not one you can look at and not find projects that would of otherwise been scrapped or put on hold that are now employing people working on them. Projects which directly benefit people and place. Even the politicians who vehemently opposed it were fighting tooth and nail to reap the benefits of it for the people in need of work in their states.

Great GDP... You managed to Google up my town and county and Wiki some info that we're already aware of. What I'm telling you is that here, in this area the actual usage has been minimal. We see the supposed (Inlfated) numbers and occasionally see crews doing work (Much of it drawn out over the last 18 months and not finished yet), but not nearly to the levels we were sold on and not effecting businesses and people that really need it. Most of these things were unnecessary, yet were what the bail-out money was awarded to (Repaving roads that were done less than two years prior, re-doing sewage treatment plants that were county issues forced to repair under civil lawsuits, turning a 13 mile stretch of highway from 2 lane to 4 lane, etc.). On one hand I appreciate it, as a few of my employees were able to get jobs with those paving companies. On the other hand, the bum on the corner could tell you that the funds were poorly distributed and have little to no effect on our community as a whole. And talking to people around the country, we aren't alone. And by looking over the overall economic numbers... It's not real hard to say that these policies have failed for the most part...

Public information is the easiest info to obtain. City of Bend and Deschutes County are no different than any other jurisdiction in the nation in regards to publishing their work, they have to do it. What you see, what is being done is only just beginning. Funds are obligated for projects programed over then next several years or more. Pace is beyond that which it has been in many years. Addressing transportation infrastructure is the most important element to issues in land use planning, resource conservation and general scocio-economic vitality. I disagree, public health projects are not unnecessary, and it does benefit more than those responsible for constructing it. Your state DOT also will get engineering funds for cost life analysis of their applied resources, same as mine. Building better and with greater efficiency is important. The bum on the corner has to help himself first and foremost, what he needs to keep his eyes open for is a place where he can have a functioning place in the society he chooses, if that's what he wants. ARRA failed? It has been working in precisely the manner it was intended to in spite of those who very much wish(ed) for it's utter failure. Where I came at before. There are certain people banking on failure and collapse for their own future advancement. A trade off that bothers me.

GDPofDRC wrote:

Public information is the easiest info to obtain. City of Bend and Deschutes County are no different than any other jurisdiction in the nation in regards to publishing their work, they have to do it. What you see, what is being done is only just beginning. Funds are obligated for projects programed over then next several years or more. Pace is beyond that which it has been in many years. I disagree, public health is not unnecessary, and it does benefit more than those responsible for constructing it. Your state DOT also will get engineering funds for cost life analysis of their applied resources, same as mine. Building better and with greater efficiency is important. The bum on the corner has to help himself first and foremost. ARRA failed? It has been working in precisely the manner it was intended to in spite of those who very much wish(ed) for it's utter failure. Where I came at before. There are certain people banking on failure and collapse for their own future advancement. A trade off that bothers me.

... Again, you're clicking on a link and not here to see what is or isn't going on, so you're opinion on what we are getting and what we need is blind and reliant on outdated web pages. What we have are road signs in various areas speaking of allocations and little to no work happening. Work being done on projects that aren't necessary. Every program slated under the various funding areas has gotten off the ground... A few finished and most not even close. We know what we were given, what it was for, and there was severe unnecessary spending while many things got ignored. Without living here, you have no idea what is necessary for our future and they have missed the mark badly so far (Mostly because they are as far away if not farther than you from seeing what would be most beneficial). And there in NO pace here. This tri-county area has the highest unemployment in the state which you should be able to click on as well!

No one I know is hoping for failure. Maybe in the political world, people are banking on that for their benefit... But your every day average Joe just wants to be able to have a job, a place to live, food on the table, and to be able to afford to have the occasional beer with a friend. Right now, right here, the stimulus is not working and if you ask around the majority of the country is in the same boat. If it was doing its job, the voters wouldn't have kicked the party in the nuts so hard on Tuesday...

If I read a policy document made my the county, city or RTPA I'm reading the will of your fellow constituents and subsequently the councilmen, supervisors and commissioners they have chosen to represent them in the policy making precess. Policy documents see no plan, program , or project go through without scrutiny from various members of private and government agencies, but more importantly the public. Law prohibits policy at a local level from taking effect with out duly addressing the concerns of the public through various means of outreach. As far as people working, your areas spike in unemployment is not much different than many areas, the key culprit is growth. You lost a handful of jobs combined with a spike in population who moved to your area creating a unemployment surplus. Zero jobs could of been lost over the years and there would still of been an unemployment spike. I'm facing the same issues in my rural areas.

GDPofDRC wrote:

If I read a policy document made my the county, city or RTPA I'm reading the will of your fellow constituents and subsequently the councilmen, supervisors and commissioners they have chosen to represent them in the policy making precess. Policy documents see no plan, program , or project go through without scrutiny from various members of private and government agencies, but more importantly the public. Law prohibits policy at a local level from taking effect with out duly addressing the concerns of the public through various means of outreach. As far as people working, your areas spike in unemployment is not much different than many areas, the key culprit is growth. You lost a handful of jobs combined with a spike in population who moved to your area creating a unemployment surplus. Zero jobs could of been lost over the years and there would still of been an unemployment spike. I'm facing the same issues in my rural areas.

First off, what the hell does this have to do with what I'm trying to explain to you? You think becasue you read a few lines of a document on the internet that it is law? Do those documents tell you where the projects stand, give you pictures of progress or tell you how many people are working on them?

As far as your guess on why the unemployment here, you couldn't be farther off. We boomed as a contruction/tourism area in the 90's and 2000's tripling our population in a 17 year stretch ending in 2007. At the peak, we were at 5% unemployment in summer of 2006. We have lost over 5,000 to our population base, yet have a real unemployment approaching 20% now. If zero jobs were lost over the last 3 years we would be at a negative unemployment with those people leaving the area.

Again, you CANNOT just look up info on the area and get a REAL picture of what's going on there. It's just not possible... I'm not sure what you're attempting to get at here short of attempting to defend a failing stimulus, but you aren't grasping the reality of what I'm telling you. I know you're smarter than this, and any further discussion without you actually driving up here and spending a couple of months on the bus isn't going to do either of us any good. I'm done trying to explain to you the nature of our local economy...

My guess is partially that, the word I have heard from the mouths of public works directors, elected officials, and planning commissioners from places like Lake, Lane and Wheeler who have offered insight on the matter from a rural perspective via regional conference or committee. If I hear different from Central ACT then.. What's happening for other areas though doesn't apply universally though so I take your word for it. I will take it back because I have had no contact with any representative directly serving you. Those public documents are adopted as policy, it's how it works. Not because I think it. If it is not to print I could simply pick up my phone and know in short time the answer to those three questions associated to any project, it's how it works, here and there, public agencies have a legal obligation to disclose any information of that kind, it's often important do do just that depending on the level in which one is vested in it. Disclosure does allow any member of the public to know how their government operates at almost all levels, I work within and from public policy documents daily for many projects, and more recently in the past two years, ARRA, TIGER I & II, BA bonding. Most local officials and agencies are doing everything they can to take advantage of these programs for the benefits they have shown and will continue to show over the alternative option, doing nothing, relying on local funds and decreasing state revenues. The action is available for all to critique, opinion on results though is dynamic for this matter. It's been more popular to complain about the results thus far. I see a crisis mitigated through enhancement specific projects which has thus far creating a couple of million jobs and has had an exclusive impact on GDP of around 3 to 4% positive. It is the trade off of broad policy in this case, big picture, In my localities it is met with the same apprehension, warranted occasionally. The results are in line with the projected performance of the act. What I do deal with though constantly from rural areas is questions about results. The answer is the same, this process is not a quick fix. It's performance already has exceeded the capabilities on several levels I had, project programing and obligation, authorization, delivery, inter agency collaboration, and results. I will keep my eyes and ears open for the Tri-counties though now too, I want to see what they can do down from the Oregon STIP down to your to your place, I'm always into it. 4K on this, my life....down.

When asked about what Barak Obama would change in sports a few days before the election on Monday Night Football Barak Said something like this.....

"I would like to change College Football from not having a tournament."

He stated he would like to change the way the BCS controlled college football.

So I voted for him, and he hasn't tried to persuade anyone on the BCS committee with his power. He better get to work on that or I won't vote for him again. I only care about important things when it comes tothe US Prez!

I think the lower middle class and the class that relies on goverment for their existance is a bit disenfranchised with this administration. People who thought they would be given more are finding out that is not the case. It is the mindset of entitlement and everyone thinks they deserve a bigger piece of the pie.

Long story short, everyone was fooled by Obama, not that there was a plethera of good candidates anyways.

Great speaker, poor President

What is that Wax statue Obama?

GDPofDRC wrote:

My guess is partially that, the word I have heard from the mouths of public works directors, elected officials, and planning commissioners from places like Lake, Lane and Wheeler who have offered insight on the matter from a rural perspective via regional conference or committee. If I hear different from Central ACT then.. What's happening for other areas though doesn't apply universally though so I take your word for it. I will take it back because I have had no contact with any representative directly serving you. Those public documents are adopted as policy, it's how it works. Not because I think it. If it is not to print I could simply pick up my phone and know in short time the answer to those three questions associated to any project, it's how it works, here and there, public agencies have a legal obligation to disclose any information of that kind, it's often important do do just that depending on the level in which one is vested in it. Disclosure does allow any member of the public to know how their government operates at almost all levels, I work within and from public policy documents daily for many projects, and more recently in the past two years, ARRA, TIGER I & II, BA bonding. Most local officials and agencies are doing everything they can to take advantage of these programs for the benefits they have shown and will continue to show over the alternative option, doing nothing, relying on local funds and decreasing state revenues. The action is available for all to critique, opinion on results though is dynamic for this matter. It's been more popular to complain about the results thus far. I see a crisis mitigated through enhancement specific projects which has thus far creating a couple of million jobs and has had an exclusive impact on GDP of around 3 to 4% positive. It is the trade off of broad policy in this case, big picture, In my localities it is met with the same apprehension, warranted occasionally. The results are in line with the projected performance of the act. What I do deal with though constantly from rural areas is questions about results. The answer is the same, this process is not a quick fix. It's performance already has exceeded the capabilities on several levels I had, project programing and obligation, authorization, delivery, inter agency collaboration, and results. I will keep my eyes and ears open for the Tri-counties though now too, I want to see what they can do down from the Oregon STIP down to your to your place, I'm always into it. 4K on this, my life....down.

Shit GDP... Why didn't you tell me you had the inside track on this? I would have asked you a long time ago to give a call to ask why the hell our local projects (The necessary and unnecessary) are being manned with about 25% of the necessary crews dragging them out for 1-1/2 to 2 years and while you're on the phone drilling them ask why roads that were repaired less than two years ago are getting attention while many other major routes have become obstacle courses of pot hole dodgery. God know's I've asked and gotten the bureaucratic tap dance by front desk flunkies for my effort...