Blue And Red State Unemployment Rates

The unemployment rate in so-called Blue States are still extremely high in America. These are states that President Obama won by a large margin in last year Presidential election. The unemployment rates in blue states are 20% higher than red states that Sen. McCain won in last year Presidential election. The unemployment rate nationally is 8.9% but if the number don't start improving soon the Democratic Party may face the prospect of 2010 mid-term election losses in both Governor and congressional races. The Republican and Democratic Party are vying at 40% to 39% for leadership in the Rasmussen conducted generic poll. Rasmussen says that Democratic support has dropped for a high of 50% and Republican support has risen from a low of 34%. Democrats began the year with a seven point lead over Republicans for the first several weeks of 2009 Rasmussen Said, that began to slip and the Republicans actually took a two point lead in the middle of March. Since then, the range has been dead even to a four point lead for Democrats until the Republicans regained the lead. The key to the mid-term elections is the President approval rating matters more than economy and Congress itself in determining the outcome of mid-term election results. The President will need to have a 65% approval rating to avoid losing ground in Congress in the 2010 mid-term elections. President Obama average approval rating is 60% the same a President Jimmy Carter at the same time in history. There is a big risk that states that voted for President Obama might be disappointed by his economic results so far. The state of Michigan has been hit hard by the failures of Chrysler and General Motors failure despite spending billions of taxpayers dollars. The state of California is on the the verge of economic collapse and has a 11% unemployment rate in March and April and Governor has threatened to fire 5,000 state workers to reduce expenses is face of a 21 billion dollar shortfall. This is why today in a forum Treasury Secretary Geithner was reducing expectations when it comes to a economic recovery. Geinther said that unemployment rate will not drop and the economic recovery will not be felt by the Average American for a long period of time.

Gov. Palin Vetos Stimulus Money

Governor Palin on Thursday became the first and only Governor to turn down federal stimulus money for energy efficiency, a move that Federal Administrators called disappointing for the state with some of the country highest energy costs. In announcing, the veto of the 28.6 million funds. Palin said she would not accept money to the adoption of building codes by local governments. Alaskans have a long history of independence and opposing many mandates from Washington D.C.. Palin said in announcing the veto. Gov.Palin had earlier accepted 900 million dollars in other federal stimulus funds. The Governor believes that building codes should be made by local and state governments. Democrat state legislators had urged Gov. Palin to accept the stimulus money, because they were close to the federal mandates. Sen. Begich a Democrat said, that nearly a third of the requests sent to his state office from local communities and nonprofits were related to energy reduction. With the highest energy prices in the nation it is disappointing that our Governor, is turning down Federal stimulus funds that could help out families and our communities reduce there energy bills. Begich said. The Democrats and some Republican will possibly override the Governor Palin veto. The state legislator needs three quarters of to override the veto. Finally, Gov. Palin said that there was not a lot of support for for the Federal government to coerce Alaska communities to adopt building codes.

Gitmo Terror Release Program

The Democratic Party and liberal blogs laughed at conservatives when they complained about releasing GITMO prisoners to there country of orgin. The Pentagon reported that 61 detainees returned to the terror battlefield after being released. The so-called liberal National security experts in the media said that this would never happen. The liberal newspaper the New York Times received information that 1 in 7 GITMO detainees released by the Bush Administration returned to the battlefield. The actual number of detainees is 74. The report was held back because the Pentagon does not want to upset President Obama who wants to close down the Guantanamo Bay Prison. The New York Times says, the 74 prisoners released from Guantanamo returned to terrorism which is almost a 15%percent. The report was released by a administration official who was sympathetic to to it's findings who said any delay would creating unnecessary conspiracy theories about the holdup. The Administration official who released the report said if we did not release the report that the media would have said that we are protecting the Obama administration. And if we let it go, then everybody would be saying that we are undermining the Obama administration. Among the 74 prisoners released that are engaged in terrorism again, only 29 prisoners have been identified by name by the Pentagon, including 16 named for time in the report. The Pentagon said the the remaining 45 could not be named because of national security and intelligence gathering concerns.