This diary was originally titled "Two Items, Unrelated: A Situational Synopsis and a Product Recall" but appeared to be dropping like a lead balloon; there's two elements to it, and one may have health implications for folks taking certain off-the-shelf products, so I retitled it to try and get more attention.
The "situational synopsis" developed from a post that I made in a discussion with someone else on-site, and subsequently posted as an Open Thread. It gives a general outline of the overall outlook for the nation based on the legacy of the Bush Administration and previous GOP majority "governance" through the current point of the Obama Administration and Democratic majorities in Congress.
The "product recall" is a reprint of what I just posted over on ePluribus Media and pertains to the recent expanded recall of Johnson & Johnson / McNeil Consumer Products items. It also provides a link to the McNeil website where you can check to see if you have any of the lot numbers for products affected by the recall.
More after the jump.
Part I: Situational Synopsis and Assessment
Please read the following -- it's my take on the current situation faced by the Obama Administration and the Democratic majorities in Congress, based on a response pertaining to what I thought of as an over-generalization of the term "reckless spending" in a prior conversation:
Situational Synopsis: Obama's first term
The following is the bulk of a comment I put into a conversation elsewhere on dKos; I'd like any opinions from folks re: whether it appears to be a decent/accurate assessment of the current factors facing the nation, the Obama Administration and the Democrats at this time. It's a little long, but not too bad...get some coffee, and then please add your thoughts:
You're presuming "reckless spending" given type and consistency.
Under Bush/Cheney and the GOP majorities, "reckless spending" gutted national infrastructure and effectively pissed away money like a firehose streaming water into a hurricane. The spending worked hand-in-glove with multiple policies and deregulations that caused much more problems, including increasing the wealth disparity and eliminating a large swath of the middle class.
The GOP and BushCo knew that the economy was going to tank by the end of Bush's term, but they miscalculated: they thought they could prevent it from showing ~before~ Bush got out of office so they could place the blame on the incoming Democratic Administration (by 2004, the GOP realized that they wouldn't likely retain the WH after Bush's term).
When Obama came into office, he was faced with what was essentially a no-brainer: either hunker down and work within the severely limited confines of financial collapse that BushCo left him, which would mean do literally nothing that cost any additional money and follow the rough rut that the BushCo debacle had effectively carved, or start spending the stimulus and redirecting it, adding and adjusting to it with additional programs and increasing debt temporarily in order to create "working capital"...
He chose the latter. He didn't have to try hard to make that choice, either, as the economy was on a downward spiral that required at least some degree of action along the lines he took to avoid complete global collapse.
That also means, unfortunately, spending some money in ways and amounts that he didn't necessarily want to, but had to in order to quell certain potential panic reactions.
Now he's working to walk back the cat, instituting or announcing more financial regulation and program reform while working to implement a healthcare plan that extends coverage to more Americans while also BRINGING DOWN the deficit -- a twofer in terms of fiscal and social responsibility.
He's already working to get control of what was "reckless" under Bush and what he was forced into padding, and that's far more than BushCo ever did...and they left one helluva mess. They did a lot of it on purpose, to ensure that the incoming Administration would have so much to repair, that they wouldn't likely be able to accomplish much. And the GOP knew that it could screech that the new President was taking on too much too fast, when in reality I think Obama took on the top 3 to 5 items and is concentrating on the top 3 after triaging the wide-ranging debacle that was his predecessor's legacy.
As Obama progresses, he's also adjusting / correcting / redirecting funds, programs and policies to rebuild and support our national infrastructure -- necessary for effective progress in a variety of areas, and likely to also help increase/improve economic and job issues at the same time.
I concluded by mentioning that the habit of teabaggers and GOP shills to lump all spending together as "reckless" and ignoring the particulars of what was left to this administration and what it has to deal with to simply stabilize the situation was effective just an exercise in intellectually dishonesty.
...what do you think? Accurate or fair assessment of what was left by BushCo, initially addressed by the Obama Administration and depicting roughly where we're at now?
Part II: Product Recall
Here's the full content plus first comment, as printed on ePluribus Media:
Johnson & Johnson, McNeil Consumer Healthcare -- Product Recall
Hat-tip to EmersonHost of DelphiForums for the heads-up.
The following Johnson & Johnson products have had a voluntary recall issued. Click the image to get to the McNeil Consumer Healthcare page for more information pertaining to specific lots involved in the recall.
The recall hasn't received a whole lot of attention, likely due to the relatively low impact and usually mild effects -- nobody's melted, mutated, spontaneously combusted or turned into a flesh-eating zombie -- but do check and be sure that if you use these products, you aren't using one of the affected lots.
You never know if you or your loved ones might be the one-in-a-bajillion-chance user who'll suddenly start glowing, levitating and reciting nursery rhymes in a dead alien language from a once thriving inter-galactic civilization previously bent on total universal conquest and the redefinition of Tic-Tacs as ambrosia.
This is a public service of someone who hasn't had enough coffee and needs to get out a little more...
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Comment
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Special hat-tip to Anne Marie Helmenstein, PhD
Dr. Helmenstein posts Anne Marie's Chemistry Blog on About.com, and first posted about the recall Tuesday December 29, 2009 and then again on Saturday January 16, 2010. It was the latter instance that EmersonHost pointed to in the initial heads-up that launched this notice for our readers.
Neither Dr. Helmenstein nor EmersonHost have any idea where I came up with my somewhat farfetched and descriptive examples of potential symptoms gone awry.
I'd appreciate any feedback on the first part, and ask that folks simply share the information contained in the second part. Thank you.