The House was busy making 250% sure that "In God We Trust" is still the national motto when President Obama yesterday dedicated Fort Monroe as his first national monument under the Antiquities Act powers.
"This is one of the most important and powerful historic places in America, the spot where slavery began and also, two and a half centuries later, received its deathblow," said Adam Goodheart, author of "1861: The Civil War Awakening." "It is the Plymouth Rock of African-American culture. I am thrilled it will be preserved and honored."
Slaves were able to find safe haven at what was then called Fortress Monroe 150 years ago, during the Civil War, when it was controlled by Union forces. Historian Blair L.M. Kelley remarked upon it in theGrio:
"I'd say it's crucial to the process of remembering American history from the whole cloth...It's a site that allows Americans to recall both the terrible shift toward slavery, and then African American resistance at one site. This enriches our memory of who we are as a nation, both how far we have come and that we can never forget."
Sounds like a worthy candidate for the nation's newest monument. So what about this, exactly, could House Speaker John Boehner's office find so funny? The notion that jobs could be created from designating a former Army fort as a national monument. Speaker Boehner's office laughed about the notion that it'd create even one job:
“The practical effect is to tell Americans they’ve fully exhausted ways for the president to act without engaging Congress,” Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said. “It tanks on the straight face test to suggest this action is going to put Americans back to work.”
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“It tanks on the straight face test to suggest this action is going to put Americans back to work.”
But hey, we spent the day making sure our motto is secure. And that will totally create jobs.
Next question.....
How about legislation that says: In order for every so-called "job creator" to continue to receive the Bush tax cuts, every dollar not paid to Uncle Sam MUST be proven to be being spent in SALARY to another individual. The tax cuts would become deduction only. A deduction dollar for dollar for salary, period.
I wonder why "In God We Trust" is so popular with the GOP?
Wow.
The National Library of Medicine says that God is a really big thing with people that need medication to stop the voices in their head.
They just don't get it, do they? I live in Pennsylvania's version of Republicanland and even here I'm hearing lifelong Republicans complaining about their congressman, who is of course incandescent bulb savior Glen Thompson. A lot of 60+ folks heard murmuring, how was it we were able to do all of the things we expect government to do 40 years ago and can't do it now? It isn't like we don't know what to do to solve our problems, as a society we appear to have no will to do it. Perhaps the lasting impact of the grass roots Occupy movement is in beginning to reawaken that will.
Hopefully those who complain will use their votes to make their feelings known.
Chances are though they will continue to vote party line and we will remain in our mess.
The motto should be: In God we trust, in congress we don't.
This is unbelievable. Anyoone who votes republican next year must explain to me WHY?????????
I always thought our national motto was, "E Pluribus Unum" (Out of many, one).
too socialistic, too humane, too logical
In 1782 E Pluribus Unum was adopted, by Act of Congress, as our national motto. It was a non-secular statement for our new country, and was printed on our money, starting in 1795. In 1956, during the Cold War with the Soviet Union, President Eisenhower signed In God We Trust into law as our modern motto. The Soviet Union was the first state to try to eliminate religion and to replace it with atheism, as its ideological goal.
I'm torn. If Boehner decides to go sober, will that cause a net job loss as DC bars shutter, or a job gain from all the rehab clinic staff needed?
Is there a silencer for cameras? Really, there are times when the clammer of the clickers makes it impossible to hear what President Obama is saying. This happens all the time with these videos and it's terribly annoying.
BTW I think this new national monument is great.
At least they can take pictures there, not like in Wisconsin.
The fact that this is now a designated "historical site" means that it's now under the jurisdiction of the Park Service which will have to have "employees" (jobs) working to make sure that the place is taken care of (cleaned, possibly "tour guide", etc.)!! Maybe if Boehner releases the bottle he'll start understanding basic econ 101!!
But, but, but...those are government jobs! They're not real jobs that pay real money to real people! Government can't create jobs! Fox News said so. Nyah!
(That was sarcasm, people. With extra froth.)
Why bother using logic, Jim. It has evaded you this long. Lets drink to that!
They do get it, you know, they're just determined to hold the status quo.
Oh they know. They also know that the only chance they have next year is for the economy to remain in the crapper.
I just hope that voters see the truth when they step into the booth.
So, when the Koch brothers claim to produce over a 1000 jobs (without mentioning the tens of thousands they got rid of at the same time), conservatives applaud. When President Obama designates a historic fort as a national monument (creating long term jobs for maintenance, refurbishment, management, etc.), the action is derided as not being as effective as reaffirming our National Motto, and making sure it's still illegal for the Federal Government to promote abortions. Am I missing a pertinent fact, here?!
Does anyone expect that any of the current crop of Republithugs would EVER say anything positive about Pres Obama? I think these Republithugs are going to have a big surprise come the 2012 elections. 99% outvotes 1%, no matter how much money the 1% has.
The main question is does the attention span of the voting portion of the 99% outlast and overcome the stupidity of the 1% enablers.
WED NOV 02, 2011 AT 09:38 AM PDT
Quinnipiac poll: President Obama gains ground
Pilotshark: while the Quinnipiac poll is a pleasant lift of good news (and it's fun to say "Quinnipiac"), do be careful flinging around poll numbers as actual hard facts. They aren't. There is only one poll that counts, dear hearts and gentle people, and that is the one we all participate in on the first Tuesday of November, 2012.
smiling i only use that as a bit of brightness, and to show that its not all bad. and that the Teapubliecants ploys are not working!
as you are correct Nov. 2012.
smiling it also going to be nice to know President Obama will not be a Lame duck until 2016.
I sincerely doubt that we'll ever have a Fort Boehner as a National Monument. Thank you, President Obama, for officially commemorating the enduring historical importance of Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia. Now it will be restored, rather than torn down.
Here,here! The designating of Fort Monroe as a National Monument is wonderful and it will create jobs!
We might, if Mama Boehner had the foresight to keep the pillows.
Another stirring example of how the party of no works....well, that is no unless of course you are a multinational corporation or multimillionaire. Its time to start cutting social programs, but I suggest we start with this group of overpaid, overcompensated idiots. But hey, that's class warfare, but granny and that single mom down the street are fair game, right?
So Bonehead, laughs and says that the President has run out of ways to circumvent Congress and create jobs by himself.
Yo Bonehead, your remarks only show that the REPUBLICANS aren't creating any jobs.
and NOT trying as well!
Let's see.... an information center will need to be built, and staffed - oh yes, and first it will need to be designed. So that's at least 3 jobs right there. Then someone, or several someones, will need to maintain it, so that's at least 1 more job, maybe more.
Sure, the designing and building jobs are temporary, but the site staff aren't. I think that yes, this project will create jobs.
Affirming the nation's motto? That's what doesn't survive the straight face test.
Don't forget the Environmental Impact study that will need to be done before the new visitor center can be built.
don't forget people will visit...
meaning more people will be sleeping and eating and shopping there.
m/hotels will get more business..
restaurants will get more business...
small shops will get more business..
higher demand equals more jobs...
In God we trust
Herman Cain
People have to make their theories about "who is paying her." Well, The National Restaurant Association WAS paying her until she left her job, for reasons we only partially know the details of.
So what did the National Restaurant Association know and when did it know it?
And its an Association, is that anything like a Union? Must be a communist plot by the Restaurants or something.
Thanks, President Obama along with other Hampton and Virginia officials who have gotten the special designation for Fort Monroe.
Come see where the Monitor and Merrimac fought during the Civil War as Lincoln did. Come see where President Jeff Davis of the CSA was imprisoned. Come see where African-Americans found freedom from slavery. Ft Monroe and Hampton! Also, there's nearby Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown... all on the Peninsula of Virginia!
And a big ass outlet mall!
When did they change the name from "Fortress"? When it was decommissioned? Was a cool place to work especially having to drive across a drawbridge to get in.
Put your tourist dollars to work in Virginia!
which kind of means there will be more then just one or two jobs created.
Unfortunately, Virginia is also the home of Eric Cantor. Let's get him "un" elected!!!
I noticed his office hasn't released a statement.
Boehner is not stupid. He sees the opinion polls about Congress, the Republicans, the Tea Party and OWS. He cannot move the radical right to do anything so he is tossing out anything to make the House look busy. Boehner is more afraid of his own party and the Tea Party than the voters on a national scale so he is not going to move any controversial legislation for a vote. But that cautious course is going to cost the Republicans in the elections and he knows it. If the Republicans lose the House, he will get blamed and lose his job as spokesperson for the Republicans in the House. No matter which course of action he takes, he will be in trouble. Doing nothing is going be the same result, but Boehner is hoping for a miracle in the 2012 elections. At this point, it does not look like any miracle is in the works.
Maybe they think God will help them now?
Response to Herman Cain,
dear boehner (the 'eh' is silent, right?)
please create jobs! oh wait - that really isn't what your job is, now is it? america needs it's government to actually represent america. if you want to vote on keeping the slogan 'in god we trust', go ahead. meanwhile, our president signed in keeping an area of our history monumental - by being a part of creating a fort that was closed down into an educational tourist attraction.
eh...maybe it's not so silent after all.
insert a little more work and a little less jealous inferiority complex...please.
love, carrie
Well, I'm sure policing a woman's womb will create MILLIONS of jobs.
K so I'm confused here: we're mad that the President took a measure to create jobs because the amount of jobs he'd be creating are a pin-drop in the overall bucket of unemployment. OK I can understand saying "I would like to see more jobs created than just this one job site- it's a start, but we've got a long ways to go." If that was the case- and if Boehner's camp is acknowledging that the President had to do this as a means of avoiding the Congress- then isn't Boehner's own press secretary admitting openly that Boehner and the rest of Congress have prevented jobs from being created? Or did I miss something?
think you pretty much hit the nail head.
Hell NO on JOBS (we lie), I got 98% of what i wanted ( for the 2%), 350000 jobs lost due to just the House SO BE IT!
Some people are not sophisticated enough to get the point. But independent voters know that the Republicans have done nothing on jobs and obstructed Obama. These are the people who will decide the election.
Yup.
Republicans are doing everything they can to prevent job growth and blaming the president.
Bohner is even crying because an African American is in the white house.
Mr. 98% of what I wanted.
Greetings! Rachel
The republicans are just made because the President of these United States has style and does the presidency in a cool manner. Re-elect President Obama and the democrats.
Peace be unto you!
Marquest Burton
The last thing the 14 million jobless in this country need is a ranting lecture from John Boehner. Americans are fed up with Republican intransigence, arrogance, stupidity and partisanship. This "party of no" has known all along that their agenda of cut, cut, cut is designed to kill as many jobs as possible and utterly wreck the American economy. It's all part of their plan to sabotage the country and defeat Obama by any means they can devise. Their entire play so far has been to blame Obama for everything, bemoan the destruction of our country in the most vile and violent rhetoric imaginable, and duck any responsibility for their own record or to offer their own proposals. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
Headline from Think Progress that seems to be good on face value. Just maybe OWS is starting to work ever so slowly but working. so at this time have to give kudos and shut outs to the 40 Republicans.
40 House Republicans Sign Letter Saying They’re Open To Tax Increases