"The current jobs crisis is in part a reflection of the misplacedpriorities of previous administrations, which let America'smanufacturing sector decline vis-a-vis our services economy. As aresult, manufacturing industries now represent just 11.5 percent of GDP;the number of people working in manufacturing accounts for only 8.7percent of the jobs in the country; and we have run an average tradedeficit in manufactured goods of more than $500 billion over the pastfive years, all of which contributed to the huge buildup of US debt inrecent years.

"This almost complete neglect of our manufacturing base relative to ourservice sector represents the height of irresponsibility, becausecompared with those in manufacturing, service jobs pay below medianwages, do very little to help America's balance of trade, have a muchsmaller multiplier effect on other parts of the economy and mostly justmove incomes around the country.

"Regrettably, however, some in the Obama administration have extendedthis neglect by essentially taking the position that a job is a job,whether it is in the manufacturing or service sector.

"And it is just as wrong for them to assume that new jobs associated withexported services will make up for past and future manufacturing joblosses, because high-quality service jobs are often dependent on astrong manufacturing sector and thus do not readily substitute for goodmanufacturing jobs.

"Even if the administration does not understand and accept these basicrealities, America's main trade competitors certainly do. Germany, Japanand South Korea are doing everything possible to preserve theirmanufacturing bases during this economic downturn. And China, whichaccounts for 60 percent of the US trade deficit in manufactured goods,is aggressively accelerating its efforts to grow its manufacturingsector."

Jeffrey St. Clair at Counterpunch writes about Obama's used "green" team retreads who are not really green.

"Itall started with the man in the hat, Ken Salazar, Obama’s odd pick tohead the Department of Interior. Odd because Salazar was largelydetested in his own state, Colorado, by environmentalists for hisrepellent coziness with oil barons, the big ranchers and the waterhogs. Odd because Salazar was close friends with the disgraced AlbertoGonzalez, the torturer’s consigliere. Odd because Salazar backed manyof the Bush administration’s most rapacious assaults on the environmentand environmental laws. Odder still because Salazar, in his newposition as guardian of endangered species, had as a senator repeatedlyadvocated the weakening of the Endangered Species Act.

"Over atthe Agriculture Department Obama made a similarly cynical pick when hechose former Iowa governor Tom Vilsak to head the agency that overseesthe national forests. Vilsak resides to the right of Salazar and notjust in the sitting arrangement at Cabinet meetings. He is apost-Harken Iowa Democrat, which means he’s essentially a Republicanwho believes in evolution six days a week. (He leaves such Midwesternheresies at the door on Sundays.) Think Earl Butz—minus the racistsense of humor (as far as we know).

"Vilsakis a creature of industrial agriculture, a brusque advocate for thecorporate titans that have laid waste the farmbelt: Monsanto, ArcherDaniels Midland and Cargill. As administrations come and go, thesecompanies only tighten their stranglehold, poisoning the prairies,spreading their clones and frankencrops, sucking up the Oglallaaquifer, scalping topsoil and driving the small farmers under. It couldhave been different. Obama might have opted for change by selecting WesJackson of the Land Institute, food historian Michael Pollan or RogerJohnson, president of the National Farmers Union. Instead he opted forthe old guard, a man with a test tube in one hand and Stihl chainsaw inthe other.

William Greider weighs in with an article in The Nation via Alternet about Obama's false financial reform being nothing more than smooth talk and fuzzy plans:

"The most disturbing thing about Barack Obama's call for financialreform was the way in which the president falsified our predicament. Hetried to make it sound as though everyone was implicated in thefinancial breakdown and therefore no one was really to blame. "Aculture of irresponsibility took root from Wall Street to Washington toMain Street," Obama explained. "And a regulatory system basicallycrafted in the wake of a 20th century economic crisis -- the GreatDepression -- was overwhelmed by the speed, scope and sophistication ofa 21st century global economy."

"That is not what happened, to putit charitably. Unlike some other presidents, Obama is much toointelligent not to know this. The regulatory system was not overwhelmedby historic forces. It was systematically gutted and dismantled by thegovernment in Washington at the behest of the banking interests. IfObama wants details, he can consult his economic advisors --Summers-Geithner -- who participated directly as accomplices inunwinding the prudential rules and regulations. Cheers were led by theFederal Reserve with heavy lifting by both political parties.