or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
February 22, 2009
New Tomdispatch
Tough Times in Troubled Towns
America's Municipal Meltdowns
By Nick TurseWhen Barack Obama traveled to Elkhart, Indiana, to push his $800 billion economic recovery package two weeks ago, he made the former "RV capital of the world" a poster-child for the current economic crisis. Over the last year, as the British paper The Independent reported, "Practically the entire [recreational vehicle] industry has disappeared," leaving thousands of RV workers in Elkhart and the surrounding area out of work. As Daily Show host Jon Stewart summed the situation up: "Imagine your main industry combines the slowdown of the auto market with the plunging values in the housing sector." Unfortunately, the pain in Elkhart is no joke, and it only grew worse recently when local manufacturers Keystone RV Co. and Jayco Inc. announced more than 500 additional job cuts.
In a speech at Elkhart's town hall, Obama caught the town's plight dramatically: "[This] area has lost jobs faster than anywhere else in the United States of America, with an unemployment rate of over 15 percent when it was 4.7 percent just last year… We're talking about people who have lost their livelihood and don't know what will take its place… That's what those numbers and statistics mean. That is the true measure of this economic crisis."
Elkhart, as it happens, is but one of countless towns and small cities across the U.S. that have proven particularly vulnerable to tough times simply because their economies relied on just a few major employers, or a single industry, or even a single company that has gone under or cut back drastically. Places like Elkhart are feeling the pain in ways most of the country isn't -- yet; and even worse, from the out-of-work to local officials, no one knows how to stop the bleeding.
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at February 22, 2009 10:46 PM*now watching*
The recalibration of American society's standard of living back to within its means.
Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst.
Posted by: tim at February 23, 2009 02:01 PMFrom Mark Souder's (R-Indiana) website under "Energy/Gas Prices":
"Perhaps our biggest problem is the growing trend of nations (Venezuela, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, for example) themselves owning their own oil reserves and controlling all extraction and refining operations. Indeed, in 2006, 65 percent of all oil reserves worldwide are controlled by state-owned oil companies, compared to only one percent in 1960. It is these government-owned enterprises that are most likely to manipulate our markets."
Not that this is directly related to the linked article but really what can Elkhart expect if they continually elect such people as Souder?
I'm not necessarily blaming the individual voters of Elkhart (since I have my very own jingoistic deliberately clueless Republican representative) but how in hell are we going to get out of this mess when crap like this is being sold to (and apparently lapped up by) the voters?
Where is the anti-war movement?
Posted by: Rosemary Molloy at February 23, 2009 05:25 PM
