Let’s put this financial mess into a little perspective.

After all, when you go to the doctor and his diagnosis is a life-threatening one, you need to hear the truth. Right between the eyes. Then you can consider your options. But sugar coating things doesn’t help very much.

People who have lost their jobs and those who may be next aren’t going to find it very easy finding new ones.

Those who have looked down their noses at the “lazy poor people” who should just go out and get a job better hope that the job-cutting axe doesn’t fall on them. But if it does, it will change their perspective on life real quickly.

Yesterday, during News Talk Online on Paltalk.com, I mentioned that some people are supplementing their nutrition with cat food. I was accused of taking that line out of some socialist playbook. But the sad truth is, there are people in the United States, my fellow Americans, who actually are buying pet food for human consumption.

The New York Daily News today reports about a man from New York state who worked in a mine. He was laid off, but was recruited by a Montana mining company to re-locate there for a job. So, not wanting to be one of those “lazy poor people” he packed up and drove 2,000 miles and reported for work.

His first day on the job finished, he returned to his new home, only to get a message on his cellphone. He was being laid off again.

Take Sam Gallup’s experience. Put it in your mind. Now increase it by one million. Or two million. Or three million.

Imagine the drain on our economy if, say, General Motors folds. And one, two or three million people, GM employees, suppliers, the people who transport the vehicles, the folks who work at the car dealerships – you get the idea – find themselves out of work.

Not only will they be out of work, but like Gallup, they will find it difficult to get other jobs.

There is good reason the Dow keeps nose diving on word that Congress is reticent to approve a GM bailout package. It’s ture that unlike the Wall Street bailout there must be actual oversight. A way to ensure that improvements and efficiencies are made to make it more likely that, as with the Chrysler bailout decades ago, there will be a return on the taxpayer’s investment. But letting GM fail is lunacy. It’s the proverbial cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s self.

The CEOs of the Big Three are correct when they say if one falls so may the other two. The auto manufacturers share suppliers. If GM were to close shop, so too will some of their suppliers. Making it impossible for Ford and Chrysler to keep their lines running.

Imagine the ripple effect in the economy. Imagine the increasing numbers of people, whose jobs are not even remotely related to the auto industry, who will be getting pink slips.

Now, imagine looking in the mirror in the morning and seeing Sam Gallup’s face staring back at you. Just imagine.

Spillar

You’re a teenager or young adult who finds herself in the unfortunate position of being pregnant and unwed. You go to a pregnancy counseling center for help. Only to find that you’re in an anti-abortion clinic that encourages you to keep the baby.

Federal dollars fund these centers. But should they? And will funding, under a pro-choice Obama administration, continue?

Joining us on News Talk Online on Tuesday November 18 to discuss this issue will be Katherine Spillar and Nicolette Tomaszewski.

Spillar, executive editor of Ms Magazine has been overseeing coverage of anti-abortion groups that target women’s reproductive health clinics such as Planned Parenthood. She is also executive vice president of the Feminist Majority Foundation where she has coordinated field operations in three statewide campaigns for women’s rights.

Tomaszewski is a woman who was pressured by a a local crisis pregnancy center in Tennessee where she was warned of horrible side effects of abortion by a volunteer who, she says, was not a medical professional. She says she was also told that, if she were to have an abortion, she likely would suffer side effects because the physicians employed in abortion clinics were from the “bottom of the barrel.” She was not actually pregnant when she went in for counseling, but wanted to experience for herself the treatment she would receive after a pregnant friend, looking for an abortion, told her she was discouraged when she went to the clinic.

Spillar says many crisis pregnancy centers, like this one near Tomaszewski’s college campus, masquerade as women’s health clinics often luring young women by offering free pregnancy tests. In reality, an FMF study reported on by Ms concludes that the vast majority of CPCs are not medical facilities.

To talk to Spillar and Tomaszewski on at 5 PM Tuesday November 18 CLICK HERE. There is no charge.

Paltalk is the largest multimedia interactive program on the Internet with more than 4 million unique users.

News Talk Online is also syndicated by CRN Digital Talk Radio to an additional 12 million households.

Path to prosperity?

Layoffs continue across the United States and many people suddenly out-of-work are wondering how they will provide for themselves and their families.

Author Paul Facella believes an entry-level position in a low-paying job, such as working at a McDonald’s, can actually lead people back to a life of financial solvency.

That’s the premise of Facella’s book, Everything I Know About Business I Learned at McDonald’s. Facella will join me on Monday December 15 to discuss his concept of individual bottom up economics on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com.

Facella’s book is, in large measure, based on his own experiences. He first walked into a Mickey D’s as an employee, working behind the counter, when he was 16-years-old. He says in his book that McDonald’s has produced more millionaires from within its ranks than any company in history.

Facella’s 34-year career saw him promoted to counterman to grill cook to regional vice president. The book explores, with interviews from entry-level employees to founder Ray Kroc how a fast food restaurant’s corporate culture encourages workers to succeed in business.

He parlayed the lessons learned at McDonald’s to now operate a successful New York consulting firm.

He believes the concepts he learned at McDonald’s can be applied to any business enterprise.

To talk to Facella on at 5 PM December 15 CLICK HERE. There is no charge.

Paltalk is the largest multimedia interactive program on the Internet with more than 4 million unique users.

News Talk Online is also syndicated by CRN Digital Talk Radio to an additional 12 million households.
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Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/iirraa/235471342/

Next secretary of state?

Perhaps she sees her presidential hopes now dashed forever. Perhaps she’d consider the appointment.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, who the Obama campaign didn’t even vet as a possible running mate, is now, according to the Associated Press, being considered by the transition team as the president-elect’s secretary of state.

The selection of Clinton would certainly put a mark on the new president’s foreign policy goals. Like her husband, the former president, Clinton’s face is well recognized on the international diplomatic scene. She would come into the job as a known quantity. She already has relationships with many world leaders.

It’s interesting that her name has leaked out because, during the campaign, Obama managed to keep a tight lid on things. This could be a precursor to how this administration might not be so very much different from others once it takes office. Beltway media leaks are the rule, rather than the exception these days.

Two other former Democratic presidential candidates, John Kerry and Bill Richardson, are among those whose names have also been mentioned as possible choices for secretary of state.

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Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brentdanley/2174928201/

Crossing one’s fingers with regard to the Middle East is a good thing to do, says former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Murphy, who had a long foreign service career in the Middle East and continues to have a keen interest in peace there.

Murphy is hopeful positive comments about the incoming Obama administration’s prospects for positively influencing the peace process from both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas will translate into true opportunity.

During an interview on News Talk Online on Paltalk, Murphy was critical of the past two administrations for doing little, until their twilight hours, to move along the peace process. He says the Bush administration was particularly unfocused because of distractions caused by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Asked about missed opportunities by the Palestinians, Murphy suggested that the situation is exceedingly complex. But he downplayed Palestinian rhetoric, including the Palestinian Authority’s charter, which calls for the destruction of Israel.

Those strong words, he believes, were meant to “rally support among Palestinians.”

“I didn’t find that desire among the Palestinians to wipe Israel out,” he said.

But when challenged about the realities of terrorist attacks during the Intifada, Murphy acknowledged that the words had the poisonous affect of creating suicide bombers.

Murphy says, however, that Hamas, negotiating through the Egyptians, has agreed to a cease fire that has held.

“I think,” he concludes, “there are grounds for optimism.”

Murphy, however, doesn’t believe the United States will go it alone in the search for peace in the Middle East, but will likely work with other nations which also hope for an end to the conflict.

Sarah Palin is back in Alaska, telling anyone with a microphone who will listen that the John McCain campaign staffers who are leaking information about how she was a rock around the neck of the campaign “jerks.”

And she implored the very news media she attacked as being unfriendly toward her during the campaign to do its job and out those who are making the statements.

Two conflicting observations about all this.

First, she has a point. Anonymous sources are difficult to respond to, and should only be used sparingly and when all else fails. It’s not particularly fair to confront Palin with the accusations without giving her opportunity to confront the source. Perhaps there are mitigating circumstances surrounding the character of the source or his or her relationship with Palin that might color her response.

On the other hand, it’s disconcerting to me that these stories of Palin not knowing that the United States, Canada and Mexico make up NAFTA and that she didn’t know that Africa was a continent and incorrectly thought South Africa was a part of the “country” of Africa (like South Carolina or the south of France?) were not reported until after the election.

The Fox News Channel, which has been on the forefront of breaking this story, acknowledged in its reporting that they knew of these allegations before the election, but that the still unnamed sources swore them to secrecy until it was over.

Reporters on this one should have been more aggressive in verifying the allegations and getting them out to their readers, listeners and viewers before the election was held. The failure to do so makes them appear to be tools of the McCain campaign.

New scanners at airports which permit security officers to virtually strip search passengers are raising concerns among many in the flying public.

Budgettravel.com senior editor Sean O’Neill was my guest on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com to discuss the scanners. He says they were put into place as an alternative to patting down passengers in several airports because tests have shown that TSA personnel have missed contraband during those one-on-one searches.

Some people find both the pat-downs and the scanners intrusive, including a Muslim woman who called the show who believed both to be affront to the modesty dictated by her religion.

Murphy

Of all the problems, domestic and foreign, that face President-elect Obama, none is more perennially critical than the quest for peace in the Middle East.

Joining us to talk about the prospects for a solution to that quagmire on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com Monday November 10 will be former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Murphy.

Murphy spent 34 years as a career foreign service officer. After service in the U.S. Army he joined the foreign service of the State Department and from 1955-68 served in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

In 1971, President Nixon nominated him as ambassador to Mauritania and in 1974 he became ambassador to Syria. He then served as ambassador to the Philippines and Saudi Arabia. From 1983-1989 he served as assistant secretary of state under President Reagan. During that period he was. particularly active in the Israeli-Arab peace process.

Murphy has received the president’s Distinguished Service Award three times and the State Department’s Superior Honor Award twice. In 1985 he was named career ambassador, a title held by only five officers serving at any given time.

Retiring from government service in 1989, Murphy joined the Council on Foreign Relations in New York as senior fellow for the Middle East and has continued to visit that region several times a year.

Murphy is a frequent commentator for NPR, CNN, BBC and FOX News. He has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, The International Herald Tribune and the Christian Science Monitor. He is a trustee of the American University of Beirut, on the Board of the Near East Foundation and former chairman of the Middle East Institute in Washington.

To talk to Murphy at 5 PM New York time Monday November 10 CLICK HERE. There is no charge.

Paltalk is the largest multimedia interactive program on the Internet with more than 4 million unique users.

News Talk Online is also syndicated by CRN Digital Talk Radio to an additional 12 million households.

New body scanning technology slowly being introduced into airports in the United States and elsewhere in the world is causing some to raise concerns of privacy. And once again the issue of how to balance security and civil liberties is being raised.

Publications such as Germany’s Der Spiegel have published photographs depicting what security officers see as people pass through the scanners. Virtually everyone I’ve shown those pictures to say the scanners, which clearly show genitalia and even details of a person’s buttocks is way too intrusive.

In the United States, the technology, which basically is tantamount to virtual body searches, is being employed at airports in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Miami and elsewhere.

Reporter Sean O’Neill, who has reported about the full-body scanners for Newsweek’s Budget Travel site will be my guest on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com tomorrow, November 7.

O’Neill’s article questions if the TSA is violating the privacy rights of those who go through the scanners.

O’Neill reports that Germany has banned the scanners because of privacy concerns. But the TSA argues that they aren’t invasive at all. Here in the United States, the American Civil Liberties Union opposes their use.

On its Evolution of Security website, the TSA says the millimeter wave devices produce a, “three-dimensional image of the body, with facial features blurred for privacy” which is displayed on a remote monitor for analysis.

“The image,” the TSA says, “is not saved – once it’s off the screen it’s gone forever.”

To talk to O’Neill about the virtual strip searches at 5 PM New York time tomorrow, Friday November 7 CLICK HERE. There is no charge.

Paltalk is the largest multimedia interactive program on the Internet with more than 4 million unique users.

News Talk Online is also syndicated by CRN Digital Talk Radio to an additional 12 million households.

In this era of fractured partisan politics it was heartening to hear a Republican and a Democratic strategist agree over why the John McCain presidential campaign failed.

Democrat Hank Sheinkopf and Republican Steve Goldberg both believe McCain lacked a simple, direct message to present to the American people. While Barack Obama was clear, concise and consistent.

Both agree that McCain allowed the party to dictate how he conducted himself and that hurt him in the long run. The race, Goldberg suggests, might have been closer had McCain been permitted to be himself.

The two were my guests today on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com.

Goldberg says McCain failed to define himself. Sheinkopf said Obama told the truth to the American people, while McCain, he believes, “didn’t want to tell the truth.”

Veracity, they agreed, is what a voting public, dissatisfied with the current administration and even more discontented over the performance of Congress, sought.

Both believe Obama faces immense obstacles. But both believe that and failing he has in delivering promises can be attributed for a long time to the state of the nation when President Bush left office.

All he has to do, says Sheinkopf, is be successful in several key areas to be considered an effective president.