Checking the scoreboard...

Just had to comment on this...

Back in high school, my coach used to always say, "Before you go into the game check the scoreboard. Then when you come out check it again. If it is better then when you came in that is all that matters.".

So I just had to post some of the numbers MSNBC had up this morning comparing January 2001 to now (Steve Benen has additional commentary here):

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
Then: 4.2% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 2001)
Now: 6.7% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, November 2008)

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE
Then: 10,587 (close of Friday, Jan. 19, 2001)
Now: 9,015 (close of Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009)

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE (1985=100)
Then: 115.7 (Conference Board, January 2001)
Now: 38.0, which is an all-time low (Conference Board, December 2008)

FAMILIES LIVING IN POVERTY
Then: 6.4 million (Census numbers for 2000)
Now: 7.6 million (Census numbers for 2007 -- most recent numbers available)

AMERICANS WITHOUT HEALTH INSURANCE
Then: 39.8 million (Census numbers for 2000)
Now: 45.7 million (Census numbers for 2007 -- most recent available)

U.S. BUDGET
Then: +236.2 billion (2000, Congressional Budget Office)
Now: -$1.2 trillion (projected figure for 2009, Congressional Budget Office)

Not really the sorts of numbers that make you feel particularly optimistic. I suspect the excuses will start any time from the president's defenders and ideological supporters.

On the upside, it would not take much to get these numbers to improve. I would advocate making job creation priority
number one (sink money into colleges, infrastructure projects, new and alternate technologies), and push through a national health care system (that could relieve some of the burden on certain struggling industries, like the automotive and manufacturing segments of our economy), and finally stop listening to republicans, remove Harry Reid as majority leader, pimp slap Jay Rockefeller and Diane Fienstein. These people have been wrong more times then I can count over the last 5 years. If they want a seat the table, stop with the rhetorical bull shit. Singing the virtues of endless tax
cuts and empty paeans to bi-partisanship are not helping and have not helped.

I understand the dual weight of the statement I am about to make, some ideas are just wrong/incorrect, they do not deserve an equal hearing (Yeah I am looking at you Sen. Inhofe).

Also one other thing, this is small, but it would show the governments commitment to addressing the problem. Members of congress should retract the automatic yearly pay increase they receive, until the country's unemployment rate decreases. Why should they get pay raises when others are losing their jobs by the hundreds of thousands per month, especially since they share some portion of the blame?

-Cheers