Gov Blagojevich still in office??

Shamed Governor Rod Blagojevich has still refused to resign as Gov. of Illinois and he has left spectators in awe by continuing to show up to work daily as if nothing was going on and attempting to handle state business as usual. The problem is that with an impeachment almost inevitable, the thing on everyone's mind is, "what is this guy thinking?" Blagojevich was spotted meeting with the hot shot attorney who has represented people like R. Kelley, Conrad Black, and many other corrupt public officials for four hours last week; we should know by Monday if this meeting will result fruitful for the corrupt Governor. Some people think that the Governor might be trying to leverage his seat as Governor the same way he was trying to do with President-elect Obama's seat in the senate; this would not be surprising at all as shameless as Blagojevich has been.

Bailout rejected by Congress, but still hopeful??

"My hope is that the administration and the Congress will still find a way to give the industry the temporary assistance it needs while demanding the long-term restructuring that is absolutely required." -President-Elect Barack Obama
The bailout bill for the auto-industry was rejected in the senate last Thursday, and surprisingly, now the Bush administration has stepped in and gone as far as saying that assistance must be given to the Big 3-->even if it meant tapping into the TARP funds which President Bush had long maintained was out of the question. What is going on? Congress is supposed to be the authority, the law-making part of our government. Now the executive branch is brushing them aside for whatever reason. I don't understand what the problem with a chapter 11 bankruptcy is which will give the Big 3 the opportunity to restructure their business model and become much more efficient. All of this comes despite the fact that the Big 3 have said that this is simply a bridge loan and that more funds will be needed next year when the new administration comes into office. The government is handing money left and right; maybe we should all ask to have our bills paid. Everyone has to live on a budget and so should businesses.

Workers at plant in Chicago sit-in/protest

A group of upset workers (about 200 of them) are staging a sit in at their now shut-down factory after they were all abruptly laid-off and refused severence and vacation pay. The Company owners said they were forced to close the doors when profits dropped from 6.9 million annually to 2.9 million annually. These workers have come to symbolize the struggle that millions of laid off Americans are experiencing and even the president-elect Barack Obama has shown support for what they are trying to do. Company reps have rejected several opportunities to comment, and really only said that they have no control or money to meet the demands of the employees because their financing was cut off by Bank of America, who finances their business activities. If I have it right, each employee is asking for $3,500.00 and some benefits be paid to them. It's very unfortunate that so many employees be laid-off right before Christmas; most of the employees that worked at this plant made approximately $30,000 annually. This is another sad story to add to the gloom of 2008 in American history.

More corruption in Chicago

Governor Blagojevich of Illinois was placed under arrest about two days ago for various criminial accusations including fraud, soliciting bribes, etc for trying to sell the senate seat that was left vacant after President-elect Barack Obama won the presidential election in November. This guy is finished; I've been listening to some of the wire taps that the media has been releasing and its very bad. This guy is definately going to prison no matter what kind of deal he is offered by the FBI; its just a matter of time before heads start rolling cause Blogojevich is almost certainly going to talk. One of the notable names being mentioned right now is Jesse Jackson Jr. Throughout the presidential campaign, we heard about the corrupt political machine that was at work in Chicago and now we (outsiders) are finally getting to see what every one was talking about. Apparently, the former Illinois Governor is also sitting in prison for criminal actions he committed while in office. Looks like he's going to have company.

Unemployment is pretty high these days

Unemployment is now at 6.7%, up from the once much lower 4.7% we enjoyed last year. That means that another 1.9 million Americans have lost their jobs since last year bringing us to grand total of 10.3 million out of work. This does not mean that we are nearing the great depression as some news stations might subtly hint at (MSNBC), where unemployment was at an astonishing 25%, but it does mean that we are looking at a pretty long recession. Before the the new report was released this month from the BLS, some economists had predicted that we may begin to see some small growth in our economy as early as next year. Now, economists from Moody's are suggesting that we might have to wait until the Spring of 2010 before we see a rebound, and when unemployment may hit 10%. I'm very curious to see what the new incoming administration will do to remedy this situation. I don't see how President-elect Obama would still want to raise taxes (capital gains, payroll, etc.) in this kind of environment. That leaves GOV with less money for handouts, and I'm very anxious to see which programs he decides to keep and which of his programs he cuts out.

OJ sentenced...

OJ Simpson received a sentence of 9-33 years in prison, 9 being the minimum before he can parol out. I watched the sentencing hearing and saw OJ almost crying, with his voice cracking as he was apologizing; the judge didn't care too much for that and called him ignorant and pathetic. The Judge, Jackie Glass made it a point to say that this sentence had absolutely nothing to do with anything else that might have taken place in OJ's past, but I don't buy it. I think that although this might not be payback, there was absolutely no way he would receive any kind of a break; try finding a juror that thinks OJ was an honest and decent man going in to the trial. So about 18 years after he should have been sentenced to at least life in prison, OJ finally sits behind bars, on lesser, but still very serious charges. It's about time.

Oil Prices...Down again

Oil hit a low of $40.83 per barrel, which puts it down about 72% from less than 5 months ago when it was sitting at about $147 per barrel. At every gas station regular unleaded gas is well under $2 per gallon; in most places its about $1.79. Who would have thought this would happen so soon. The last time I remember paying such low prices, I was still a Junior in highschool. Now, the talk is that gas prices could dip down to a $1 per gallon, where just five months ago, it was fear that it might hit $5 or more per gallon. What does this mean? The bad thing is that this is definately a sign that our economy is very weak; the last time oil was near $1 was in 2001, 3 months after the terrorist attacks in NY. The good thing is that these cheap oil prices may be just what we need to help the economy turn around.