Stephen Colbert cannot be on the South Carolina ballot. Therefore he will run as Herman Cain. 9-9-9
What else is new? Mitt has money problems and cheating on your wife if you are Newt is the new virtue where righteous indignation can rear its ugly head.
Did anyone attend the Gainesville District Town Hall Meeting last night? The paper said over 100 residents attended in a picture’s caption, but no report on the actual TH.
Reviews?
Must have been Pete’s fan club. Any pictures of annointed one?
An observation:
Of the three Republicans still with a real chance at the nomination
(Ron Paul, like him or not, has a strong core of support but won’t be nominated),
two are Catholic and one is Mormom. One of them will oppose
our first Afro-American President.
For most of American history, all of them would have been denied the Presidency
because of their race or religion. The nation has moved forward.
That is an excellent point, Steve. Thanks for bringing it up. Just out of curiosity, what religion is Ron Paul?
@Moon-howler
You’ve got mail. 🙄
That mail sure contained some ugly rat bastards. @ lafayette
@Moon-howler
Lafayette is sending you pictures of politicians? 😉
yes @ Cargo. re Lafayette
He’s a Baptist.
@Steve Thomas, Ron Paul must be a lonely man then. well now he must be lonely.
@Moon-howler
I think he’s a lonely man anyways, due to his positions on the issues. He’s an island unto himself in this regard.
I may not agree with everything Ron Paul believes, but I like the guy, at least he doesn’t seem bought out and is consistent!
Did anyone else watch “morning joe” today? I thought Joe was gonna have a heart attack he was laughing so hard at times during his interview with Colbert!
http://www.bluevirginia.us/diary/5802/are-we-better-off-today-than-we-were-three-years-ago-uh-yeah
Interesting info. (Number #3 is a cold hard fact, easily checked.
My children’s college education was financed by the Reagan boom,
now I’m hoping Obama will do the same for my retirement funds).
Can’t believe Perry dropped out even after the endorsement he got from Sherriff Joe go Arizona! I guess the anti-illegal immigrant Sherriff don’t mean jack squat, bwahaha!
good link Steve R, thanks for posting it.
So…are the jobless claims dropping because more and more people just not looking for work anymore? Statistics show that the actual rate is running 11-15%.
3 million jobs are gone.
@Cargo
What statistic? More propaganda?
The U-6 rate of unemployment by the Bureau of labor statistics: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm
(use the link to get the dates correct. They are not showing up correctly.)
U-1 Persons unemployed 15 weeks or longer, as a percent of the civilian labor force
Dec. Nov
2010 2011
5.4 4.9 4.8 5.6 5.3 5.3 5.1 5.0 5.0
U-2 Job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs, as a percent of the civilian labor force
5.9 4.7 5.0 5.8 5.3 5.2 5.1 4.9 4.9
U-3 Total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force (official unemployment rate)
9.1 8.2 8.3 9.4 9.1 9.0 8.9 8.7 8.5
U-4 Total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers
9.9 8.9 8.8 10.1 9.6 9.6 9.5 9.3 9.1
U-5 Total unemployed, plus discouraged workers, plus all other persons marginally attached to the labor force, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force
10.7 9.7 9.8 10.9 10.6 10.5 10.4 10.2 10.0
U-6 Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force
16.6 15.0 15.2 16.6 16.2 16.4 16.0 15.6 15.2
NOTE: Persons marginally attached to the labor force are those who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the past 12 months. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, have given a job-market related reason for not currently looking for work. Persons employed part time for economic reasons are those who want and are available for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-time schedule. Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.
Here it is in graph form. The graph is perfect for showing what is actually going on with employment from 2000-2011
http://portalseven.com/employment/unemployment_rate_u6.jsp
And here’s a great site for seeing the info from 1995 to present.
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts
It also figures things like the inflation rate using past formulas. Apparently, if we figure our current rate using the formula from 1990…we’re at 6% and over 10% using 1980’s.
I am so lost on your employment figures. @ Cargo
What I do see is a downward trend now. Several questions.
1. Are you surprised judging from the depth of the recession?
2. Do you think John McCain would have done a better job at fixing the economy?
3. Could anyone have done a better job of fixing the economy?
Those questions don’t really have answers.
Finally, some snow that counts.
Have you noticed that GOP candidates pay homage to President Reagan
in almost every other sentence, but will go weeks without mentioning the
last GOP President, George W. Bush (or,for that matter, his father)?
@Steve R. Why yes I have noticed that and for the life of me, I do not understand why. I don’t hear them singing the praises of Gerald Ford or Richard Nixon either. I guess Reagan was the hero of the last half century? Entire century?
There is a downward trend. I mean, the economy WILL recover no matter how much Obama’s policies screw with it. But a 1.5% growth is horrible. And using the 8.5% unemployment rate does not count the millions of people that have stopped looking for work. We now have structural unemployment. Business either adapts or dies. So, we do have some growth.
As for mentioning Bush….Bush was not a transformative President with speeches that one could quote. Speaking was not……his forte.
To answer Moon’s questions.
1) I am not surprised that Obama’s policies have resulted in slow growth. Reagan’s recession was worse and it was over in 2 years.
2) McCain….don’t know. But, I guess…yes. His goals were not to raise energy costs nor was he a crony capitalist (that we know of) He is not a Chicago politician.
3) Not on yes, but Hell yes. Over-reliance on Keynesian economics and printing money to give it to campaign donors results in the situation we have now.
Example: Killing the Canadian pipeline also restricts the flow of oil from North Dakota. They have to rely on trains to move 25%. Warren Buffet owns that train company.
But I will be fair. I blame Congress too. And Bush for signing crap from the Congress.
Read to the end and read the ethanol part.
http://costonscomplaint.blogspot.com/2012/01/is-george-soros-responsible-for-ending.html
Woohoo, Congress let the ethanol subsidy die. We also ended the Brazillion ethanol tariff die. What we needed to do was get rid of ethanol in our gas.
@Cargo, you are not an economist and neither am I. Read what you want in to that statement…oh why leave anything to chance,…neither one of us know enough to debate macro-economics and I am not interested in a cut and paste session. What I do know is that Reagan’s recession wasn’t just Reagan’s. It’s roots were back in the 70’s starting with critical fuel shortages. It was a progressive recession of sorts. I am not sure that what Reagan did or did not do really changed much as far as the recession.
I also don’t think we are in a position to say one recession is worse than the other. Fuel, banking and inflation seemed to be the problem then. Now we have high energy costs, banking, housing. Both of course had high unemployment. I remember buying the house I live in now for some huge interest rate. I can also remember standing in gas lines on odd or even days back in the 70’s. I can certainly remember unemployment hitting our house more than once during that time period. My husband was in sales and that is sector that gets nailed during recessions.
The Canadian pipeline wasn’t killed. It can be resubmitted with some environmental changes and rerouting. Killing is permanent.
Bottom line, to say Reagan’s recession was over in 2 years is a gross oversimplification of something that was much longer than 2 years. I will say this….Reagan made Republicans feel better than Obama made Democrats feel. As for everyone else…juries out. Lots of people hated Reagan, including those who voted for him. Than again, he did raise taxes.
Cargo, Censored keeps asking a fence question. No answer yet, not to nag…..
The housing bubble, it the housing crisis – with little recovery, houses still underwater – is what is dragging the economy more than anything else. People are not spending while their house is under water. They cannot refinance a high mortgage to take advantage of today’s historically low rates. Fix the underwater mess – and you will fix the economy. The banks cannot just refinance a loan, because of the all the CDO nonsense, no one really knows who owns the mortgage, or how it was sliced and diced.
@Pat, many people also don’t have the wiggle room to refinance and take advantage of the low interest rate because their house lost so much in value. Some of the houses near me lost 60-65% of their value during the crash.
@Moon-howler
I answered it at #35 on the Newt Thread
When are the Repub candidates going to tell us the cost and exactly how they’re going to finance their fence to end illegal immigration? Will it straddle the Canadian border as well? How about the airports? OOOOH – I’m thinking there’s an element of xenophobia here. Why are Hispanics being targetted?
How about when we have an actual plan to look over? Maybe they can put it in the next budget the Democrats put out….oh, that’s right. Democrats don’t write budgets. The fence is destined for the southern border because that is where the majority of illegal aliens cross into the country. Hispanics are “targeted” because they make up the majority of illegal immigrants. Simple
It add to the above, a Canadian fence is not necessary because the the amount of illegal aliens coming across that border, the smuggling, etc, is miniscule compared to the southern border.
@cargo, how will it be financed? Feel free to speak generically.
It seems that Newt has won South Carolina. Have the good people of South Carolina given the nod to womanizing and racially offensive remarks?
President Obama must think it is a belated birthday present!!!!!
@Moon-howler
Don’t know. Depends upon who’s running the show and what the plan is. First we plan it, THEN we structure the finance. Perhaps we can tax a few millionaires. That’s always good for a few billion.
As for Newt womanizing, its not like it was a surprise…and Clinton won re-election. But what racially offensive remarks?
Obama is truly a uniter. Canada is going to partner with China if we don’t approve the pipeline.
First, we find out that Canada is going to partner with China.
Now, I’ve found out that China is getting the oil from Brazil, that Obama said we’re getting and that he lent Brazil 300 billion dollars for.
So….lets see. China got the contracts from Iraq, Brazil, Nigeria, and now Canada. We lost those. China’s drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. We have a moratorium. China is building coal plants every week. We’re trying to shut ours down. China is the source for our light bulbs that contain mercury. We’ve banned inexpensive, ecologically safe light bulbs. We “lend” billions of dollars to failed “green” energy scams. China laughs at Kyoto, etc. We have a 1.5% growth rate, if that. China, even with lessened demand is growing at 6-8%. We’re cutting our military. China is growing theirs. Instead of sanctions, China INCREASED their oil imports from Iran by 30%.
We’re in the very best of hands.
About that fence cost… estimates put a total cost between 21-30 billion dollars.
Easy to finance that. Repeal Obama Care and use the savings. Heck, if we can spend that first Stimulus….they could have built three fences.
I am happy Newt won. There have been three primaries anf three different winners. This will be a long, drawn-out fight. That is good.
Also Gov McDonnel had been stumping for Romney in SC. McDonnel wants to be the VP. I can now understand why he will not allow anyone else to be on the Repugs ballot in March. You Virginia Republicans are really getting screwed over by the state party’s decision not to allow Newt on the Virginia ballot. I would be ticked if I were you.
I really don’t think McDonnell is calling the shots about the VA primary ballot. The rules were out there. Some folks chose to follow the rules and some didn’t. Romney and Paul are on. Newt should have followed the rules. He had from July til November to challenge the rules.
Drill Drill Drill – it will not affect the price of Gas or Oil. There is currently no shortage of Crude Oil supplies – and the price is set on a Global Market – the highest bidder will get the Oil. The Keystone Pipeline is really to get more Oil to the Texas refineries for export.
There is already a pipeline from Hardisty to Steele City – why not just build a second pipeline next to the existing one?? The proposed pipeline is to be built using a thinner steel wall, and a higher pumping pressure – is that not a concern that needs to be validated?
What is the big deal to route the pipeline around the fresh water aquifer that feeds drinking water to eight states (20% of the US irrigated farmland and millions of people). The first stage of the pipeline avoided the aquifer. Why is the Republican Nebraska Governor opposed to the pipeline? If Obama had approved the pipeline, he would also be attacked for making it a political decision.
Who benefits from this pipeline?? A company such as Flint Hill Resources maybe – a Koch Industries company – http://www.fhr.com/about/default.aspx – too much of a conspiracy theory here? Koch Industries has companies that are extracting from the Tar Sands in Alberta and they have a refinery in Minnesota that can process the heavy crude. Am I on the edge that the Republicans are so for the pipeline because of the Koch Brothers influence?
Should the pipeline be built – yes, probably, but it has become much more of a political football than it should be – which is why the Republicans tied the Keystone project together with the Payroll tax debate – for political spin.
What the US should really be doing, is investing into our own Natural Gas supply – get Natural Gas vehicles, enhance distribution, generate demand, etc. That would be an energy changer that can really work. Why is the US so dependent on the one fuel source (oil)??
Thanks for that informative contribution, Pat!
Westgate child rapist has been caught. His dirty work was done at a friend’s home in Gainesville. Hopefully this POS, if convicted, will be in prison for the rest of his life.
There is no lower pond scum than someone who would do that to a 4 year old child.
Name: Albert Michael Harryman of King George Drive I wonder we will see this horrible story reported anywhere else?
King George drive is a long Westgate Street. It starts up near Stonewall Middle and ends down closer to the ball fields near Ben Lomond Park and Splash Down. This POS’s address appears to be closer to Splash Down. There needs to be a special hell just for child rapists.
Gabby Giffords to resign from Congress to work on her continued recovery.
Its been a rough day on me between Papa Joe and Gabby’s information ad announcing her resignation.
MH, got some good news for you – I think you are a holder of Apple stock and products.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Last year, it earned over $400,000 in profit per employee, more than Goldman Sachs, Exxon Mobil or Google.
of course to do that it meant..
Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only option. One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.
A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.
“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”
All this tells me I need to buy more Apple products!!!!
I have a few shares stock outright and of course some in mutual funds and a few products.
Let’s look at why China is able to pull that off. They have not been involved in capitalism all that long. Their workers don’t make anything even comparable to American wages. Hunger accomplishs a lot. Their child labor laws are also not up to our standards.
So I have mixed emotions about their success in China. Do I want to pay twice as much and wait three times as long for product? No. There are no easy answers.
The good news is, my other penchant is jewelry. My favorite designer makes all in America. I quit the one who sends product out to China.
Marin, that was a totally awesome article. Thank you for posting the link. It left me both exhilarated and horribly depressed. Asia is hungry. America isn’t. They want their political leaders to fix something that I don’t think can be fixed. Furthermore, we have been warned of this phenomena for decades.
Schools and our immigration system are not reflective of business needs either. I fear I dont have the foresight to even offer a suggestion.
I do know American workers will not work for $17 a day. I am not even sure when they would have. We are 100 years ahead of Asia and yet, we will soon be 100 years behind them. Shudder.
The economy? It’s still Bush’s fault
Posted by Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake at 06:30 AM ET, 01/18/2012
A majority of Americans believe that former President George W. Bush is more responsible than President Obama for the current economic problems in the country, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Fifty-four percent of respondents said that Bush was more to blame while 29 percent put the blame on Obama; 9 percent said both men deserved blame while 6 percent said neither did. Among registered voters, the numbers are almost identical; 54 percent blame Bush, while 30 percent blame Obama.
Independents, widely considered the most critical voting bloc this fall, continue to blame Bush far more than Obama for the economic troubles. Fifty-seven percent of unaffiliated voters put the blame on the former Republican president, while 25 percent believe the blame rests more with Obama.
Heck, even one in five Republicans say Bush is more responsible than Obama for the state of the economy!
The economic blame game numbers are somewhat remarkable given that Obama is in the third year of his presidency, a tenure defined by the continued economic distress in the country.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/the-economy-its-still-bushs-fault/2012/01/17/gIQAE7Dy6P_blog.html
Sorry cargo, but the American people aren’t fooled by your BS statistics.
It’s easy to be speedy and flexible when your employees are de facto prisoners. That isn’t capitalism, it’s slavery.
Free markets are fine until firms begin to exploit totalitarian governments like China’s to provide slave labor. Apple and others who are engaged in this (and I use this term very loosely) “business” practice need their products hit with a fat f*^king tariff upon import. Globalization made this sort of thing legal and regular, but we are under no obligation to provide tariff free access to the domestic market for companies who see this as a good idea, nor should we.
@Cato,
Aren’t most doing it? Not saying it is a good practice. I just don’t know what to do about it.
On the other hand, companies will do what they have to do to make the most profit. If it were legal, how many companies would hire 12 year olds at a dollar an hour? Probably more than we would like to think.
My BS statistics?
You did go to the link, right? You did read it, right? Because those were copied from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
So, lets take a look at your poll. Oh, that’s right…YOUR link to a BS hit piece doesn’t provide a link to the poll. They just report some “results.” To a Washington Post/ABC poll, whose viewers/readers all tend to be….wait for it….. Democrats or liberals.
And you missed this little bit: (Interestingly, just 15 percent of respondents in the Post-ABC poll said they were better off now than at the start of the Obama presidency, while 30 percent said they were not as well off and 54 percent said they were in about the same shape. So while Bush may have started it, people by and large think it has gotten worse under Obama.)
Gotten worse under Obama. Yeeeeah…… you forgot to cut/paste THAT little tidbit. Remember…read the WHOLE article.
Of course the same people that voted for Obama, a majority, may believe that Bush is at fault. Its not like the press says anything negative about Obama. The press’s narrative during Bush, during 5% unemployment was, “A recession is coming! This is the worst economy in 50 years.” Now…oh…we going to have unicorns prancing in the streets any day now, just as soon as President Obama deigns to turn his laser like focus on jobs…….any day now……its almost here……
All Washington Post readers aren’t liberals or Democrats.
@Cargo
@Cargosquid
People can believe that they are worse off now during Obama’s administration and still not think it’s his fault that they are. They’re capable of seeing that the big problems started with Bush and his refusal to fund two wars. Only an idiot would expect those deficits to be made up instantly by a change of administrations.
@Moon-howler
But a majority are.
This idiotic blaming of “refusal to fund two wars” is not the cause of our current problems. The deficit, until the Democrats took over Congress, was SHRINKING. No one expects a deficit to be made up overnight. What we do expect, when a President says REPEATEDLY, that he’s going to cut spending and lower the deficit AND the debt, that he not spend ADDITIONAL TRILLIONS of dollars. We expect that a President that claims a “laser like focus on jobs” will actually work to bring back jobs.
If you are still blaming Bush for an “unfunded” war, how are you satisfied with Obama’s continued UNFUNDED spending. We don’t have trillions. We’re not even borrowing trillions. WE ARE PRINTING TRILLIONS. Stop being so blind. Its been THREE years. When are you going to hold this President responsible for ANYTHING?
Too good to pass up
“In a speech, Ron Paul described himself to the crowd as ‘dangerous.’ Yeah, then one of his handlers fed him some warm milk through an eye dropper and he fell asleep in a shoebox.” –Conan O’Brien
“President Obama met with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in the Oval Office yesterday. And after they left, Obama checked the White House to make sure Sasha and Malia were still there.” –Jimmy Fallon
“The State Department issued a new travel warning yesterday, urging U.S. citizens to avoid Syria. Yeah, it was part of a new set of warnings called, ‘Things you were probably doing already.’” –Jimmy Fallon
“Researchers found a frog in new guinea that is so tiny, they believe it’s the smallest vertebrate on the planet. It has the tiniest backbone of any living creature, except members of Congress.” –Jay Leno
“President Obama will be going to Disney World where he’ll unveil his new plan to create jobs. And what better place for the president to talk about his jobs plan than Fantasyland?” –Jay Leno
“Obama doesn’t pay admission to Disney World. He just charges it to the China section of Epcot.” –Jimmy Fallon
Rick Perry from Monday’s debate: “South Carolina is at war with this federal government and with this administration.”
Jon Stewart: “War against the government led by South Carolina! That always has good ending, right?”
Mitt Romney on MSNBC: “If we coordinate (with a super PAC) in any way whatsoever, we go to the big house.”
Jon Stewart: “Which one of your big houses do you go to: the beach house or the ski chalet?”
“A new poll says 84% of Americans disapprove of Congress’ job. The other 16% weren’t aware Congress was doing one.” –Jay Leno
I would rather discuss the problems that exist rather than assigning blame. What good does assigning blame to anyone do?
I don’t see how the deficit could have possibly been shrinking under the Bush administration. Too many programs. Too many wars. Tax cuts.
Cargo, are you ever going to stop trying to denigrate Obama on anything? You continually blame him for whatever is going on. Do you think if we disagree with him we would print it here? Hell you are all over it!
I am getting ready to be defensive over Mitt Romney also. Steve used to defend him. I hope he still does.
Just read this at World Net Daily /through Washington Times:
That crazy woman, Taitz, is representing a group of Georgians in a case against Obama
to establish that he is NOT able to run for president, since he isn’t an American. Court date is 26 January. – And here I thought she had disappeared for good!
@marinm
This is a very interesting article. And as Cato has pointed out – We would not allow slave labor like this to exist in the US – having all the employees living in dormitories – and you think marriott or college dorm – but it is far from what an American would expect – http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20060623_1.htm – It is not conducive to a family living arrangement.
Pat,
Agreed with Cato. On my FB I went into a less subtle prose and called out people that ‘fight for the middle class’ but buy and support Apple products.
Just got an alert that the SCOTUS ruled against GPS without a warrant (WOOHOO!!! a win for us!) and also told people to shut their pie holes over Justice Kagan (agreed). I haven’t looked at the details of either yet.
@marin, I can’t think of a cell phone manufacturer that doesn’t send the product overseas or manufacturing. Pretty much the same thing exists for cameras and TVS, Lord knows what else.
What class do you fight for? Don’t you consider yourself a part of the middle class? I defend the middle class all over the place. I don’t think I am selling out my own class if I buy any electronic equipment. (or make money off of technology stocks)
I don’t fight for a class. I fight to liberty and freedom. That’s universal across all ‘classes’. We all enjoy it’s benefits.
With respect, I do. I think that if you knowingly supply money to a vendor that you know of uses sweatshop labor or questionable business practices that you in fact support it.
I don’t have that big of an issue as I don’t see a problem with sweatshops. This case does make me uneasy because the Chinese govt is subsudizing the Foxconn but anytime you deal with anything with the Chinese you have to assume that the govt is somehow involved. Now, my unease is quelled by my consumerism which drives me to buy the least expensive product I can for the value (dollar).
Huntsman was right on one thing – we all better learn Mandarin cause we’re gonna be a fiefdom of China.
Here’s some interesting news.
The TSA detains, perhaps illegally, a US Senator.
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/01/23/rand-paul-detained-by-tsa/
He’s being detained, not arrested. There’s a difference, I believe.
@marinm
I think many people think that the middle class is the one being screwed. I try to protect the middle class from being screwed. I figure the upper classes can fend for themselves. The lower classes already get a big chunk of our respective pie.
I always thought Huntsa was a very viable candidate.
It is impossible to exist without using something involved in a sweatshop unless you mae your clothing out of animal hide and have no modern technology.
@punchak
No, not arrested. But Senators cannot be detained while enroute to a Congressional session. One of the Constitutional protections.
Oops.
Rule of law is only for when we are dealing with Mexicans? @Cargo
Why would a senator hold up things to prove a point?