AP: Americans are finally getting some relief from high gas and food prices.
Wholesale food prices fell last month by the most in nearly a year, and gas prices keep dropping after peaking in May. A separate survey suggests CEOs are feeling more optimistic and will hire more in the second half of this year. It amounted to welcome news after a rough patch that has stoked worries the economic recovery is slowing…
Food prices at the wholesale level fell 1.4 percent, the Labor Department said. It was the largest drop since last June….
…Gas prices at the wholesale level rose in May by the smallest amount in eight months. At the pump, they’re coming down. On Tuesday, the national average was $3.70 a gallon, according to AAA. Gas has fallen steadily since the national average almost hit $4 a gallon in early May….
…There were some encouraging signs that hiring could pick up in the second half of the year. The Business Roundtable, which represents CEOs for the 200 biggest U.S. companies, said 51 percent of chief executives plan to step up hiring in the second half of the year.
Last quarter, the figure was 52 percent said they planned to hire more over the following six months, the highest since the trade group began polling its members in 2002.
…ManpowerGroup, one of the nation’s largest staffing companies, said the proportion of businesses that plan to hire in the next three months is higher than at any time since the end of 2008, during the recession.
Full article here
Thank you Dotser – as she put it, “I see there must have been infiltrators at the AP who allowed a positive economic story to get through the conservative guards there” 😉
The Obama Diary 
I DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE SIGNS BECAUSE THE GOOD LORD IS IN CONTROL AND THE PRESIDENT IS DOING HIS ULTIMATE BEST!
THIS WEEKEND IS THE NATIONAL DAY OF SERVICE AND WE OBAMA KIDS ARE GOING TO BE OUT IN MASS REGISTERING VOTERS AND SIGNING PEOPLE ‘IN’ FOR 2012….HOPE EVERYONE IS OUT THERE DOING SOMETHING! IT WILL BE AN AWESOME DAY!
I LOVE THE PEOPLE CONTACT…AND I LOVE TALKING ABOUT OUR PRESIDENT!
GOP will try and claim that the hiring is because they held firm on the spending cuts by using the debt ceiling as hostage. Admin and Dems should make crystal clear that they supported cutting spending but not how the GOP wanted to do it – tax cuts to billionaires and attacking medicare.
I’m not sure how they’re going to do that considering no final agreement on anything has been reached and more than likely 90% of those cuts are going to be what the President wanted anyway.
HOUSE PROGRESSIVES PLAN BIG SUMMER TOUR TO WREST THE JOBS DEBATE FROM GOP:
Republicans have pulled off a neat trick since taking over the House back in January — they’ve repeatedly attacked President Obama on the languishing job market while shifting government focus away from job creation and toward the deficit and debt.
Now, the House Progressive Caucus is planning to turn the government’s attention back toward eliminating unemployment. Starting Wednesday, caucus members will fan out across the country on a summer tour that will attempt to push the focus away from spending reduction and toward using government resources to create jobs.
“The media and the right wing and, of course, some Democrats have been talking about intangibles like the debt ceiling or the job picture,” Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) told TPM in an interview previewing the announcement. “We wanted to do a tour that really talks about what matters to people.”
(INCLUDES VIDEO AD)
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/06/house-progressives-plan-to-wrest-jobs-question-from-gop.php
THEY INTERVIEWED A DEM. YESTERDAY WHO IS GOING ON THE TOUR…I AM CONCERNED BECAUSE HE CRITICIZED THE PRESIDENT FOR NOT PUTTING AN INSTANT FIX ON THE ECONOMY…WHAT A SHLUPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!! THERE ARE NO INSTANT FIXES. I AM CONCERNED ABOUT THEIR MOUTHS ON THIS TOUR!
I share your concern Sue. Democrats have perfected the art of the circular firing squad. It really amazes me how they expect President Obama do everything. I mean what took them so long to decide they needed to wrestle the narrative from the GOP? The Dems need to get off the arses and distinguish themselves from the GOP. They are on the right side of the issue. They have a story to tell so tell it already.
And another thing about the tour and educating and informing constituents ……….You know that the Republican majority in the House works two weeks and then they are off one week so that they can supposedly meet with constituents. Well what have the Democrats been doing on their week off. It is really frustrating to see this lackluster response to Republican obstruction so far. I hope the tour gets the job done but I won’t hold my breath.
BTW: I saw a poll yesterday on BWD that said there is an alarming number of Americans who don’t know who the Speaker of the House is. Too many of them probably think Nancy Pelosi is still speaker. Unbelievable.
UNFORTUNATELY….YOU ARE RIGHT ON! PLAIN AND SIMPLE…THERE ARE MANY DEMS. OUT THERE CONCERNED ABOUT THEIR OWN PAYCHECKS READY TO JUMP OVERBOARD IF IT SUITS THEIR OWN FUTURE! THAT’S WHAT IT GETS DOWN TO…LOYALTY….EXAMPLE…EVAN BAYH AND HIS OWN FINANCIAL CONCERNS!
EXAMPLE OF YOUR LAST LINE: THE MIDTERMS AND VOTERS COHERSED TO VOTE OUT OF FEAR AND ANGER….COMMON SENSE THINKING WAS NOT AN OPTION!
I’m always rather amazed at Congress people who attack the President for not “doing something”… these are Congress people with as much power to ‘make things happen’- particularly when it comes to creating jobs- as any President- and yet they continue to carry on as if their hands are tied.. and all it amounts to.. is passing the buck. Trying to put it on the President while avoiding doing something and being bold enough to create some bills on their own. Its BS.. and frankly it they’re so powerless they ought to give up their paycheck and we’ll just do away with Congress then.
Grijalva has been one of those ‘progressives’ who has attacked the President on multiple fronts – he has written diaries at dkos.
Maybe we need to make some calls today to tell them their message better not be about slamming President Obama.
I listened to Stephanie Miller this morning, and she was talking to the Exec Director of NetRoots. He was going on about how the conference is going to be about how we can do things for ourselves instead of focusing on winning elections, and how disappointed everyone is. Well, it’s an election year…. and the Republicans aren’t forgetting about winning elections! They’re completely focused on winning elections. And what are the netrooters so disappointed about? What have they done themselves to bring about change, other than heckling the President? These people get on my last nerve.
I am convinced that the problem with the PL is that they thought they were getting a puppet to do THEIR bidding in the White House. Unfortunately for them, President Obama is president for ALLA AMERICANS even the ones that didn’t vote for him. He said as much the night he was elected. So because President Obama is going about the difficult business of governing and trying to get things done, the PL poutrage grows and grows because he is not doing things to their exact specifications. As far as I am concerned they are becoming more and more IRRELEVANT. And they know it. I expect there will be a considerable amount of Obama bashing at the netroots conference.
Why on earth would anyone claiming to be a “progressive” actively work to defeat President Obama? We already know the consequences of not voting in the 2010 midterms. Obstructionism on steroids. The PL completely ignores all of the major accomplishments of the Obama administration. You would think he has been sitting on his thumbs for the past three years. But when the PL is criticizing PBO as much as the Tea Party than you know we have completed our decent down the rabbit hole.
(Sorry about the rant, but Democrats criticizing President Obama gets me riled up big time)
Good rant – I share your frustration!
Yep theo they are disgusting. I do believe that there are very few of them.. and that most of we democrats will be out in force, very much focused on elections and the netroots can have their little meet in minneapolis and cry about the President not being their puppet. I will bet that they have even fewer folks attending this year than ever before.
I heard Keith Ellison on Stephanie Miller this morning talking about this. They will defeat the purpose if they don’t give PBO credit for what he has done. This meme about PBO not talking about jobs and doing enough is such a lie. They don’t realize that he has to govern on a whole lot of things.
Yep they ought to be building on what the President and VP Biden have already been creating, what they’ve put in motion for over two years.. and if they use this little ‘tour’ as a way to undermine the President- then they damned well better hear from us.
Yes, I’m going to call Keith Ellison’s office today. I didn’t like how he was talking about the road trip – the intent is good, but their methods seem to be all about blaming the President.
He made a good point about the media not wanting to broadcast anything that liberals are doing. This is true. But, I don’t know why members of Congress are fighting on the terms that are dictated by Republicans and their corporate masters. The Sunday shows are the only political shows but the network news don’t have all the airwaves. Current TV should be widely visited by Democrats, Progressives, and Liberals – whatever they want to call themselves. It should be 24 marketing, like they’re doing for Keith Olbermann’s new show. They should have made Current TV “THE” place that liberals go to get their news and discuss issues and propose suggestions. I don’t think it’s too late. If they made an effort to promote this channel, there would be millions of people watching. And they should do it before Keith Olbermann turns it into a raving “bash Obama” station, which he is most likely to do. And they should spice it up a little, and make the liberal shows a bit more polished – they don’t have to look like hippy stations with low budget lighting etc. You can do a lot with an IPAD these days… We don’t have to play by Republican rules.
I totally agree with you Theo. I know David Schuster will be joining. I know I can’t wait for KO to start his show. Others who have been kicked off MSNBC should all go to current TV. It would be so nice if it was the liberal voice channel comparable to Faux news. I have a feeling that KO will will have some good ideas on how they run things there. I have been reading his website.
THESE CRAZY DEMS. WHO THINK THEY CAN DO A BETTER JOB NEED TO WALK IN HIS SHOES! THEY ARE MORE HARMFUL THAN GOOD IF THIS IS WHAT THEY ARE GOING TO BE DOING OUT ON THE ROAD! GEESH…WHAT A CLUSTER MUCK!
PUT IT THIS WAY…WHEN TIMES ARE TOUGH YOU CAN CERTAINLY TELL WHO YOUR FRIENDS ARE!
THIS IS WHY IT IS SO DARNED IMPORTANT FOR GRA SSROOTS TO INFILTRATE ALL HIGH TRAFFIC AREAS AND DELIVER THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT ALL OF OUR PRESIDENT’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS. HANDS ON WITH THE PEOPLE IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT AND SHOWING COMPASSION IS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT. I AM STERN ON WANTING A QUESTIONNAIRE FOR PEOPLE TO FILL OUT ON THE SPOT ABOUT THEIR NEEDS AND CONCERNS. THIS WAY IT CAN BE HAND DELIVERED TO THE CAMPAIGN AND WILL PROVE TO BE EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. THERE ARE MANY VOTERS OUT THERE WHO DON’T OR CAN’T AFFORD COMPUTERS AND SINCE THE REPUBLICAN MEDIA IS NOT GOING TO GET OUR PRESIDENT OUT THERE…WE MUST!!!!!!!!! AND WE MUST GET THEM THE CORRECT RETURN IN INFORMATION AS WELL!
THIS HAS TO BE DONE! OUR MISTAKE IN THE MIDTERMS WAS RELYING ON PHONE CALLS….WE CAN’T DO THAT…PEOPLE WILL TELL YOU ANYTHING TO GET YOU OFF THE PHONE. PHONE CALLS ARE GREAT TO GET OUR GRASSROOTS SOLDIERS BACK ON LINE AGAIN…BUT…THE VOTERS NEED THE HANDS ON TRUTH OR WE WILL FAIL. THE PRESIDENT CANNOT DO IT ALONE!
THE ALSO NEED TO KNOW THE PRESIDENT CARES…THAT’S WHERE WE NEED TO SHOW OUR LOVE TO THEM. OUR TEAM IN 2008 WAS AWESOME…THERE ISN’T ANYONE WE DIDN’T HUG AND HOLD ONTO AND TAKE TIME FOR….THEY DON’T FORGET THAT WHEN THEY GO TO THE POLLS! IT’S ‘HUMANITY’ FROM THE HEART AT WORK! I PREDICTED THE MIDTERMS AND NOONE WOULD LISTEN!
UNFORTUNATELY I WAS ALSO SICK DURING THE MIDTERMS AND HAD SURGERY SO I COULDN’T HELP EITHER WHICH STILL MAKES ME MAD AT MYSELF TODAY!
Please don’t be mad at yourself, Sue. Your health is the most important thing. It’s the people that were healthy who decided to sit out the election, because they were disappointed with President Obama that resulted in the loss in the midterms.
THANK YOU SJ FOR YOUR SENTIMENT….BLESSINGS!…:)
I also share your concern about the Congressional Progressive Caucus going on tour this summer. I pray that their intention isn’t to criticize the President .
We should make as much noise with the as the teabaggers did with their reps. When we make noise, they jump…..they want votes!