Women, Clothes and What the Bible says

first i am sure it is a hard thing for a christian women to figure out as she is growing up how short or how tight she well wear her clothes

she has society saying to wear clothes as short and tight as possable and she has her girlfriends telling her if she wants the attention of guys she has to look more attractive then the other women around her and she has her own internal struggle with wanting to look sexy

then she also hopfully wants to look respectful keeping in mind she is a christian women.

www.girlsgonewise.com

What Not to Wear

Mary Kassian | May 17, 2011

In 1 Timothy 2:9, the Lord provides three guidelines that help Christian women figure out what and what not to wear: “She adorns herself with respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control.” Let’s examine these three guidelines to help us ensure that our looks are in good order, properly arranged, and ready to display Christ.

Is It Becoming or Unbecoming?

Kosmio is the descriptive form of the Greek noun kosmos (to put in order, trim, adorn, or decorate), which is related to our English word cosmos—the universe. The Greeks regarded the universe to be an ordered, integrated, harmonious whole. Kosmos is the opposite of chaos. So when Paul told women that their adornment should be kosmio, he meant that like the universe, all the parts should be harmoniously arranged with the other parts. It should be “becoming”—that is, appropriate or fitting. Given the context, I believe Paul was implying that our adornment ought to be becoming on a number of different levels.

First and foremost, your clothing ought to be becoming, fitting to, and consistent with your character as a child of God. But it also ought to be becoming to your body type, becoming to your femininity, becoming to your husband, becoming to the other clothes you are wearing, and becoming to the occasion and place you intend to wear it. There’s a tremendous amount of guidance in that small word, becoming. It challenges you to evaluate your clothes, shoes, purses, makeup, and hair from multiple angles as part of the harmonious, integrated whole of your life—to line up the seen with the unseen and the temporal with the eternal. It challenges you to bring a cosmic perspective to bear on your everyday decisions.

I like the word Paul chose. It has enormous implications. Kosmio means that a Christian woman’s “look” ought to be consistently put together, inside and out. This challenges those who put an undue emphasis on external appearance as well as those who neglect their personal appearance. It’s a corrective to women who dress extravagantly. It’s a corrective to those who dress seductively. But it’s also a corrective to those who think that “holy” means frumpy, ugly, unfeminine, and out of style. Becoming indicates that running around in baggy jeans and T-shirts all the time is just as inappropriate as being obsessed with stylish clothing. It means that a woman’s appearance ought to be put together nicely. It ought to be pleasant and attractive—on the inside and the outside.

Is It Decent or Indecent?

The second word, aidous, is based on the Greek term for shame and disgrace. The word is a blend of modesty and humility. When I think about a word picture that personifies this concept, I think of approaching God with eyes that are downcast.

It involves a sense of deficiency, inferiority, or unworthiness. It suggests shame, but also a corresponding sense of reverence and honor toward rightful authority. It’s the opposite of insolence, imprudence, disrespect, or audacity. Downcast eyes are the opposite of defiant eyes.

So does dressing with your eyes downcast mean that you are self-conscious? No. It means that your clothing tells the truth about the gospel. Your clothing shows the world that Jesus covers your shame and makes you decent. Your clothes cover your nakedness as the clothing of Christ covers your sin.

Dressing “with eyes downcast” means that you choose clothes that are decent in His eyes . . . not clothes that are provocative, seductive, and that honor nakedness. When you dress decently, you recognize that God ordained clothes to cover, and not draw attention to, your naked skin. You cover up out of respect for Him, the gospel, your Christian brothers—and out of respect for who He made you to be. Decency means you agree with the Lord about the true purpose of clothing and set aside your self-interest to dress in a way that exalts Christ.

So in that dressing room trying on that skirt, take time to sit, bend, and stretch in front of that mirror, and ask yourself, Is this skirt decent? Does it do what it should do? Does it properly cover me up? Does it showcase my underlying nakedness—or exalt the gospel of Christ?

Is It Moderate or Excessive?

The final thing to ask yourself about clothing is whether it is moderate or excessive. Paul uses the Greek word sophrosunes. It means “of a sound mind; curbing one’s desires and impulses, self-controlled, temperate.” The word indicates that our adornment should be reasonable and not crazy. We ought to rein in our impulses and avoid extremes in fashion, hairstyles, and makeup. We also ought to avoid spending crazy amounts of money or stuffing our closets full of crazy quantities of clothing. We ought to govern our wardrobe choices with a sense of moderation, simplicity, and self-control. If the outfit is crazy extreme, crazy expensive, or if it’s crazy for you to be buying another one, then you ought to pass it up.

Understanding the purpose of clothing and asking yourself the three questions, Is it becoming? Is it decent? and Is it moderate? will help you figure out how to dress. And don’t forget to include your “Helper” in the process. The Holy Spirit is an invaluable source of assistance when it comes to figuring out whether or not your appearance glorifies God. If your heart is right and you seek His guidance, He will be your personal wardrobe consultant and teach you what and what not to wear.

Emails raise fresh questions on Obama energy loan

www.reuters.com

Emails raise fresh questions on Obama energy loan

By Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON | Sat Oct 8, 2011 2:36am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Obama administration appointee at the Energy Department pressed White House analysts to sign off on a $535 million loan to Solyndra even though his wife worked for the failed solar panel maker's law firm, according to internal emails made public on Friday.

The revelation adds new drama to a political battle over the administration's backing for Solyndra, which has filed for bankruptcy and has been raided by the FBI. The newly disclosed emails reveal "a disturbingly close relationship" between the White House, campaign donors and wealthy investors relating to Solyndra, a senior congressional Republican said.

Later on in the article

The White House, which has aggressively defended decisions made on the loan guarantee, turned over the emails on Friday to the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, which has been probing the loan for the past eight months.

"The paper trail released by the White House portrays a disturbingly close relationship between President Obama's West Wing inner circle, campaign donors, and wealthy investors that spawned the Solyndra mess," Representatives Fred Upton, the panel's chairman, and Cliff Stearns, the head of the investigation, said in a statement.

The emails show Spinner discussed the pending final decision often with Solyndra officials, Energy Department colleagues, and the White House budget office, the New York Times said.

Later on in the article

 "Ultimately, DOE's determination that the restructuring was legal was made by career lawyers in the loan program based on a careful analysis of the statute," an Energy Department spokesman said.

 .........................

even though they could find no legal wrong doing this is a great example of how this get so messed up

Newsweek editor Tina Brown on Pres Obama

By Scott Whitlock, foxnews.com
September 28, 2011

During an appearance on "Morning Joe," Tuesday, Newsweek editor Tina Brown made an off-hand remark about Barack Obama, conceding that the politician "wasn't ready" to be President.
Brown has previously attacked Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives for daring to oppose the Obama
While discussing whether New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will
change his mind and run for President, the former New Yorker editor
blurted, "Actually, I just hope he doesn't, because in the end, you
know, his tremendous misgivings, maybe he is right. I mean, We had
this with Obama. He wasn't ready, it turns out, really."

My Fellow Americans

WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT TO TURN ON THE TV AND HEAR ANY U.S. PRESIDENT,

DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN, GIVE THE FOLLOWING SPEECH?

'My Fellow Americans:

As you all know, the defeat of the Iraq regime has been completed.

Since Congress does not want to spend any more money on this war our mission in Iraq is complete.

This morning I gave the order for a complete removal of all American forces from Iraq.

This action will be complete within 30 days.

It is now time to begin the reckoning.

Before me, I have two lists.
One list contains the names of countries which have stood by our side during the Iraq conflict.
This list is short.

 The United Kingdom , Spain , Bulgaria , Australia , and Poland are some of the countries listed there.

The other list contains every one not on the first list.
Most of the world's nations are on that list.

My press secretary will be distributing copies of both lists later this evening.

Let me start by saying that effective immediately,
foreign aid to those nations on List 2 ceases indefinitely.

The money saved during the first year alone will pretty much pay for the costs of the Iraqi war.

THEN EVERY YEAR THEREAFTER It'll GO TO OUR SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM

SO IT WONT GO BROKE IN 20 YEARS.

The American people are no longer going to pour money into third

world Hell holes and watch those government leaders grow fat on

corruption.

Need help with a famine?
Wrestling with an epidemic? Call France ...

In the future, together with Congress, I will work to redirect this

money toward solving the vexing social problems we still have at

home.

On that note, a word to terrorist organizations.. Screw with us

and we will hunt you down and eliminate you and all your friends

from the face of the earth.

Thirsting for a gutsy country to terrorize? Try France or maybe China .

I am ordering the immediate severing of diplomatic relations with France and Russia.

Thanks for all your help, comrades. We are retiring from

NATO as well.

I have instructed the Mayor of New York City to begin towing
the many UN diplomatic vehicles located in Manhattan
with more than two unpaid parking tickets to sites where those vehicles will be stripped, shredded and crushed.
I don't care about whatever treaty pertains to this.
You creeps have tens of thousands of unpaid tickets.

Pay those tickets tomorrow or watch your precious
Benze and Beamers and limos be turned over to some of the finest chop shops in the world.

 I love New York.

A special note to our neighbors: Canada is on List 2. Since we are

 likely to be seeing a lot more of each other, you folks might want

 to try not ticking us off for a change.

Mexico is also on List 2.

Its president and his entire corrupt government really need an attitude adjustment.
I will have a couple thousand extra tanks and infantry divisions sitting around.
Guess where I am going to put 'em?
Yep, border security.
Oh, by the way, the United States is abrogating the NAFTA treaty

 - starting now.

We are tired of the one-way highway.
Immediately, we'll be drilling for oil in Alaska which will take care of this country's oil needs for decades to come.
If you're an environmentalist who opposes this decision,
I refer you to List 2 above:
pick a country and move there.

It is time for America to focus on its own welfare and its own citizens.
Some will accuse us of isolationism. I answer them by saying, 'darn tootin.'

Nearly a century of trying to help folks live a decent life around

 the world has only earned us the undying enmity of just about

everyone on the planet. It is time to eliminate hunger in America ..

It is time to eliminate homelessness in America .

To the nations on List 1, a final thought. Thank you guys.

We owe you and we won't forget.

To the nations on List 2, a final thought: You might want to learn to speak Arabic.

God bless America ...

Female Beauty Matters

www.girlsgonewise.com

Female Beauty Matters

Mary Kassian | May 28, 2011

Recently, several bloggers tackled a highly sensitive and debated topic— the need for women to attend to their beauty and appearance. I published a post, extracted from my  Girls Gone Wise book, which examined some Scriptural directives for women on what and what not to wear. I came under fire for focusing on such mundane matters rather than really important stuff—like comforting the sick and war-torn.

I admit it. The topic of woman’s appearance is trivial compared to the war on the other side of the world – but given the reality of our culture, it’s a battle that hits much closer to home.

The Debate about Female Beauty

Tim Challies, a popular Christian blogger, published his thoughts on women “letting themselves go.” While he was careful to stress that “the beauty the Bible commends is the beauty of character more than a beauty of appearance,” he suggested that inner and outer beauty are actually inexorably connected, and concluded that women need to make the effort to remain beautiful to their husbands.

Another blogger, Rachel Held Evans, was disappointed by Challies’ refrain that “outer beauty reflects inner beauty” and that “a good wife will keep up appearances for her husband choosing an attractive sweater instead of the stained Mickey Mouse t-shirt.” She argued that

The Bible never demands that women be beautiful nor does it justify a man’s infidelity because his wife “let herself go.” If anything, it presents a fairly consistent picture of beauty as a passing pleasure. Challies and company are free to teach that women should stay beautiful for their husbands, but I wish they would stop referring to this teaching as “biblical” when it is not.

The discussion surrounding this issue was intense. Challies’ and Evans’ posts attracted several hundred comments. When Mark Driscoll mentioned my “What Not to Wear” post on twitter, Girls Gone Wise got flooded with so many visits that it temporarily downed the site. Incidentally, Driscoll took a whole lot of flak, a few years ago, when he offered to take one for the guys, by decrying pastor’s wives for “letting themselves go.”

A Sensitive Issue for both Sexes

Woman’s appearance is a sensitive issue, because from a man’s perspective, a wife’s effort to be beautiful for her husband speaks of her care and respect for him, and communicates her desire to be sexually attractive and available for him. Making a reasonable effort to care for and beautify herself is a demonstration of her devotion. In his view, a lack of effort in this regard demonstrates a lack of concern for him. Bottom line – whether we like it our not, it’s important to our guys. Challies points out:

In all of these things, a woman ought to understand (and believe) that what a man finds (or ought to find) beautiful in his wife is more about care and respect and effort and availability than it is about figure and proportion. In too many cases a woman who lets herself go is simply symbolizing that she has let her marriage go. Conversely, care for herself shows her care for her husband, respect for him, love for him.

It’s even a touchier subject for women, because as Evans points out, “many are so burdened by the impossible standards imposed by our culture that they feel as though their efforts will never be enough.” Like Evans, I have never in my life met a woman who did not want to be beautiful for her husband.

When it comes to beauty, women react against the burden of expectation, the fear that they will fall short of the desired standard, the inevitability of decay, and the resentment that the script is different for men than women. A woman wants to be loved and accepted as she is. From a wife’s perspective, a husband’s attraction to/desire for beauty can magnify her feelings of personal inadequacy and insecurity, and she may fear that his love/acceptance depends on her ability to measure up.

Approaching the Discussion from a Different Angle

So who is right—Challies or Evans? Was Driscoll entirely off base in suggesting that it might negatively affect a pastor if his wife lets herself go? Or were his critics misguided in insisting that a woman’s lack of attention to her appearance should in no way impact her husband’s propensity to stray?

The stalemate in the discussion often boils down to the fact that women resent the fact that men are so attracted to beauty, while men resent the fact that women don’t make the effort to properly attend to it. So how do we resolve the impasse? In my opinion, we can’t hope to make sense of the question until we view woman’s beauty and beautification through the lens of the biblical typology of gender, and the eternal, cosmic meaning of sexuality.

Beauty has a Cosmic Meaning

Psalm 45 is a song celebrating the marriage of a Hebrew king to a foreign princess. But it’s also a messianic prophecy pointing to the relationship between Christ the King and His Church-Bride. The Psalmist notes that the king “desires her beauty”, and that the princess, in turn, makes herself beautiful—“all-glorious”— for him.

Scripture uses this imagery to illustrate how we are to make ourselves beautiful for our King. The Lord wants us to clothe ourselves in fine, spotless garments of righteousness—in holy character and holy deeds. (Rev. 19:7—8) He wants us to be beautiful, and through Jesus, we are!  The great story of the gospel is that God gives us the opportunity to clothe ourselves in the beauty of Christ. He provides the beauty- and we don’t need to work or strive to measure up, nor do we need fear that we will fail to meet the standard.

So what does all this have to do with our discussion about female appearance? It has a great deal to do with it. We live—as C.S. Lewis coined it—in the “shadow lands.” The earthly, physical realities of our lives are but shadows—copies—of true and heavenly realities (e.g. Heb. 8:5; 9:24-25). The physical and temporal exist to point us to the spiritual and eternal. And nowhere is this more the case than in the relationship between male and female.

Human sexuality is a parable —a testimony to the character of God and to His spectacular plan of redemption through Jesus. This spiritual truth is so magnificent that God chose to put it on display permanently. Everywhere. Men were created to reflect the strength, love and self-sacrifice of Christ. Women were created to reflect the grace and beauty of the Bride He redeemed.

I believe that men are “wired” to be attracted to beauty in women because our Heavenly Bridegroom desires the beauty of His Bride. And I believe that deep down, every woman wants to feel beautiful and desired. This is the way that God has created us as male and female—and the illustration points to something far bigger than ourselves.

Beauty is More Than a Passing Pleasure

Many scorn beauty as “a passing pleasure.” They think that the illusive, fragile, fading, temporary, and wrinkle-and-stretch-mark-prone nature of female beauty indicates that men (and women) should just “get over it” and focus on more important things.

Beauty is indeed a passing pleasure. But I think there’s a deeper meaning here that we dare not trivialize. The symbolic importance of beauty/beautification is not unlike the symbolic importance of marriage. Woman’s beauty, and all the broken, distorted ideas about it, will not so much pass, as give way—in the end—to that to which beauty points. There will be no marriage in heaven because the shadow will give way to the reality. Likewise, the illusive, fading, temporary beauty of women will one day give way to the breathtaking, spectacular, eternal beauty of the Bride of Christ.

The gospel doesn’t negate man’s desire to enjoy beauty and woman’s desire to be beautiful, but it does shift the focus of our attention beyond the symbol to that to which it points. When we consider the jaw-dropping picture painted by Scripture, it would seem that our Lord finds our desire for beauty not too strong, but too weak. We get all wrapped up with the earthly and the superficial and temporal, while the supernatural and eternal is offered us. Like an ignorant tourist who spreads out his towel under the picture of the umbrella on the sign, because he does not know that the sign points to the beach. We are far too easily pleased. (Again, a favorite C. S. Lewis thought)

Embracing Beauty

Followers of Christ know that the symbol is not even fractionally as important as the reality. But they understand that it is not totally unimportant either.

So girls, let’s give the guys a break. Let’s stop condemning them for feeling attracted to beauty and wanting us to make a reasonable and sustained effort in that department. And guys… give us a break. Please understand how very personal and painful this issue can be for women. It’s very difficult to stay engaged in fighting a battle we know we are destined to lose. The beauty of our youth will inevitably fade. And most of us don’t have a hope of even remotely resembling the airbrushed model on the cover of the magazine.

And let’s always remember that the whole issue of female beauty is merely a signpost. It’s reminder to all of us—male and female—that the King desires our beauty, and that we ought to carefully attend to our character, and to making ourselves spiritually beautiful for that great destination wedding on the other shore.

In my opinion, the answer to the conundrum surrounding the discussion about female beauty is not to diminish or deny its importance, but to exalt and embrace the all-surpassing beauty to which it points.

Loving Your Man as God Loves You

This is true for either the husband or the wife in a perfect world they both would do this for each other

http://m.crosswalk.com

Loving Your Man as God Loves You

Author Cindi McMenamin

Note: This is the second article in a two-part series on transforming your marriage. Part I: What Speaks Love to Your Husband?

I was once a wife who was quick to point out my husband’s faults. Quick to let him know when he was falling short of my expectations. Quick to let him know when he wasn’t loving me as God does.

You can’t really blame me, can you? There isn’t a wife on earth who doesn’t want her husband to lover her unconditionally – as God does. But when I turned it around and started trying to love my husband as God loves me, that’s when things began to change in our marriage. I began focusing less on his faults and more on my own… and my own need for God’s grace in my life.

My husband and I were talking the other day about how there would be far less marriages struggling today if just one partner in every marriage practiced the Bible’s definition of love. Now, can you imagine what marriages would look like if both partners practiced unconditional, sacrificial and persevering love?  There would be no strife, no stress, no bitterness, no built-up baggage. There would be no devastation or divorce. There would be two people, giving up their rights to themselves so they can serve one another. There would be a perfect picture in our love toward each other of God’s love toward us.

Maybe your husband doesn’t seem like the man he once was. Yet you are still with him. That is persevering love. That is love that says “I made a promise… now I’m keeping it.” God did the same with you and me. Take a look at His never failing, unending, persevering love for you and see if you can’t try modeling this to your husband:

1. He has promised He will never leave you. Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5)

Can you say this to your husband, and truly mean it as God means it toward you?

2. He is always thinking only the best about you. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. (Psalm 139:17-18)

Can you say that your mind is always filled with only good thoughts about your husband?

3. He is gentle toward you when you’re broken. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”  (Psalm 147:3)

Are you gentle toward your husband even when he is angry or unlovable – which is how he often responds when he’s hurt?

4. He promises nothing will ever come between the two of you. (Nothing) will be able to separate us from the love of God... (Romans 8:39)

Are there any conditions or exceptions in your mind when it comes to loving your husband?  Is there something in the back of your mind that he could do that would end it for the two of you? God holds none of those reservations about you. He has promised nothing – that includes nothing you can do – will ever come between you and God. Can you say the same to your husband?  

5. He delights in you, quiets you with His love, and sings over you. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)

Can you delight in your husband and rejoice over him, simply because of who he is – one who is loved by his heavenly father and by you? Think about the joy and comfort you have, knowing God feels that way about you. Now what would it add to your husband’s life if he knew you truly delighted in him?

6. He loved you so much He was willing to die so He wouldn’t have to live without you. For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

I once heard it said: don’t marry someone you believe you can live with. Marry someone you know you can’t live without. Have you cemented your love for your husband so deeply that you are convinced you would not want to live without him? In many ways, that’s how God felt toward you. He found a way so that the two of you would never have to be separated.

7. He loved you in spite of yourself and still does.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

Would you show sacrificial love to your husband even if he didn’t deserve it? Even if he had turned his back on you?

Scripture tells us: “This is the kind of love we are talking about – not that we  once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God. My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other.” (First John 4:10-11, The Message).

Now, from what you’ve seen about God’s persevering love for you, can you love your husband:

·       Even when he’s annoying you?

·       Even when he’s inconsiderate?

·       Even when he’s clearly ‘unlovable’?

·       Even when he’s clearly wrong and unrepentant?

Because we are not like God who never grows weary, we must know how to renew love for our husbands. We simply can’t wait for the feelings to be there. I’m so glad God doesn’t depend on His feelings for us. He has determined to love us, regardless. We must love our husbands that way, too. Because the world will take it out of us. Pain will take it out of us. The everyday stuff of life will take it out of us. But thanks be to God that He can replenish it in us.

In Isaiah 40:28-31, you have encouragement about this God who can fill you up with love for your husband: 

Do you not now? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

·       He will not grow tired or weary and his understanding no one can fathom.

·       He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

·       Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;

·       But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

·       They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

How do you renew that love you once had for your husband? How do you get back that delight in him when he – or something in this life  – has taken it out of you? By waiting on the Lord for His strength to love your husband through you and by going back to what first drew the two of you together.

Sometimes the easiest way to fall back in love with your man is to remember what first drew you to him. Next time you’re tempted to start listing what your husband is doing wrong, I encourage you to start listing what you love about him. It’s what God would do, if He were in your shoes. By remembering what your husband does right, it will not only turn your heart back toward him, but it will be an outward sign to others that you love your man as God has loved you.

Cindi McMenamin is a national speaker and the author of several books including When Women Walk Alone, Women on the Edge, and When A Woman Inspires Her Husband (from which this article is an excerpt). She and her husband, Hugh, have also co-authored the book When Couples Walk Together. For resources and free articles of encouragement to strengthen your soul or your marriage, see her website: www.StrengthForTheSoul.com.

Obama doesn't expect another recession

http://www.latimes.com/

By Kim GeigerWashington Bureau

August 21, 2011, 8:02 p.m.

Reporting from Washington—

President Obama insisted the U.S. was not in danger of falling into another recession, but acknowledged in a televised interview aired Sunday that his reelection would hinge on the economy.

In the interview with CBS News taped last week — after a Gallup poll found that just 26% of respondents approved of the way the president is handling the economy — Obama said: "I'm the president of the United States, and when people aren't happy with what's happening in Washington … I'm going to be impacted just like Congress is. And you know, I completely understand that and we expected that."

He blamed voters' frustration and the recent stock market turmoil on an economy that's "not growing fast enough."

As Obama toured the rural Midwest by bus last week, he seemed to be in campaign mode, daring Republicans to block his upcoming jobs package and calling on voters to "send a message to folks in Washington." He pledged to send the jobs proposal to Congress and to campaign against lawmakers if they refused to pass it.

But in the CBS interview, the president acknowledged that voters could blame everyone in Washington — including him.

"And for me to argue, 'Look, we've actually made the right decisions, things would have been much worse had we not made those decisions,' that's not that satisfying if you don't have a job right now," he said. He added that he expected "to be judged a year from now on whether or not things have continued to get better."

Economic growth has been weak and the unemployment rate has been above 9% for months. In July, California's rate rose to 12%, the second-highest in the nation behind Nevada.

Obama attributed August's stock market roller coaster to "a lot of head winds" from world events — the debt crisis in Europe, the earthquake in Japan and the increase in gas prices caused by the protests in the Middle East last spring. The Dow Jones industrial average is down 6.6% for the year.

"I don't think we're in danger of another recession, but we are in danger of not having a recovery that's fast enough to deal with what is a genuine unemployment crisis for a whole lot of folks out there," he said. "And that's why we need to be doing more."

Echoing the hopeful message that served him well during the 2008 campaign, Obama insisted that Washington is not as broken as voters may think.

"There have been times when Congress was just as dysfunctional; there have been times where the country was full of vitriol in its politics," he said. "So this isn't unique in our time."

He criticized Republicans for recent "brinkmanship" over raising the nation's debt ceiling but said he "absolutely can do business with them."

Obama said he would push Democrats to find "common ground and compromise."

"And if that's happening on both sides, there's no reason why we can't solve problems," he said.

kim.geiger@latimes.com

Immigration Update August 18, 2011

  I our immigration is sytem is broke and it has to be probably scraped and redone
what i dont understand is when did a person that enterd our country illegaly stoped being a illegal person and become a simple immigrant i dont understand. if we find a illegal then lets just put them on a bus and shipem back to there our dang country
 
http://m.whitehouse.gov/

The White House Blog

Immigration Update: Maximizing Public Safety and Better Focusing Resources

August 18, 2011 at 02:00 PM EDT

President Obama is deeply committed to fixing our immigration laws and has been aggressively searching for partners in Congress who are willing to work with him to pass a new law. As he focuses on building a new 21st century immigration system that meets our nation’s economic and security needs, the President has a responsibility to enforce the existing laws in a smart and effective manner. This means making decisions that best focus the resources that Congress gives the Executive Branch to do this work. There are more than 10 million people who are in the U.S. illegally; it’s clear that we can’t deport such a large number. So the Administration has developed a strategy to make sure we use those resources in a way that puts public safety and national security first. If you were running a law enforcement agency anywhere in the world, you would target those who pose the greatest harm before those who do not. Our immigration enforcement work is focused the same way.  

Under the President’s direction, for the first time ever the Department of Homeland Security has prioritized the removal of people who have been convicted of crimes in the United States.  And they have succeeded; in 2010 DHS removed 79,000 more people who had been convicted of a crime compared to 2008.  Today, they announced that they are strengthening their ability to target criminals even further by making sure they are not focusing our resources on deporting people who are low priorities for deportation. This includes individuals such as young people who were brought to this country as small children, and who know no other home. It also includes individuals such as military veterans and the spouses of active-duty military personnel. It makes no sense to spend our enforcement resources on these low-priority cases when they could be used with more impact on others, including individuals who have been convicted of serious crimes.

So DHS, along with the Department of Justice, will be reviewing the current deportation caseload to clear out low-priority cases on a case-by-case basis and make more room to deport people who have been convicted of crimes or pose a security risk. And they will take steps to keep low-priority cases out of the deportation pipeline in the first place. They will be applying common sense guidelines to make these decisions, like a person’s ties and contributions to the community, their family relationships and military service record. In the end, this means more immigration enforcement pressure where it counts the most, and less where it doesn’t – that’s the smartest way to follow the law while we stay focused on working with the Congress to fix it.

Fast and Furious office change

New ATF Head: ‘We’ve Got to Hit Reset’ on Investigative Moves in Wake of Fast and Furious

By Mike Levine  Published October 05, 2011| FoxNews.com

Hoping to chart a new path forward in the wake of the controversial "Fast and Furious" investigation, the newly assigned head of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Wednesday that "everything is under review" in the way of investigative practices and processes at the agency.

Later on in the article

The new ATF head announced nearly a dozen personnel changes within ATF leadership, including two associated with "Fast and Furious." Mark Chait, a top-ranking official in ATF's Office of Field Operations since May 2009, will become the head of the ATF's Baltimore field office. William Hoover, ATF's deputy director since 2009 whom Jones called "the point" on "Fast and Furious," will become head of the ATF's Washington field office.

Well let me get this straight they are just moving people around from one office to another and saying they are fixing the problem

All they did was to move Mark Chait from the head field office to a field office in Baltimore to let him run the same bad operations there and William Hover was moved from one office to another as well

This is Washington DC at its finest just reshuffling the deck and calling it a new deck of cards

profound budgetary and economic challenges

www.politico.com  By SEUNG MIN KIM | 8/24/11 9:40 AM EDT Updated: 8/24/11 3:08 PM EDT

The Congressional Budget Office painted a dreary economic picture Wednesday in a new report that warns of “profound budgetary and economic challenges” ahead.

The national unemployment rate — now at 9.1 percent — isn’t expected to drop below 8 percent until 2014, according to the report on the country’s budget and economic outlook.

This year’s budget deficit is estimated at $1.3 trillion — the third-largest in the past 65 years. And growth is projected to remain “well below the economy’s potential.” The CBO predicts that real GDP will rise 2.3 percent this year and 2.7 percent next year.

“Although economic output began to expand again two years ago, the pace of the recovery has been slow, and the economy remains in a severe slump,” according to the report. “Recent turmoil in financial markets in the United States and overseas threatens to prolong the slump.”

House Speaker John Boehner called the outlook “underwhelming” and blamed President Barack Obama. The jobless rate in 2012 is expected to be 8.7 percent, according to the CBO.