The train that is the nation’s economic recovery has slowed noticeably, unable to generate enough jobs in the last two months to keep pace with population growth, much less reduce the vast numbers of unemployed Americans.
The United States added just 83,000 private sector jobs in June, according to the monthly statistical snapshot released by the Labor Department. The unemployment rate declined to 9.5 percent, from 9.7 percent in May. But that was a largely illusory decline, as 652,000 Americans left the work force.
Over all, the nation lost 125,000 jobs in June, but those losses came as temporary federal Census workers headed for the exits.
With the economy slowing — housing sales plummeted, while earnings and hours worked ticked downward last month — the stakes grow larger, economically and politically. The next few monthly unemployment reports will unfold during the run-up to the midterm Congressional elections this fall. Incumbents feel particularly precarious, and major economic decisions about financial reform, unemployment benefits, and aid to states still sit on their desks.
Think maybe now the Democrats will finally get it? Guess again. (h/t The Other McCain)
Quote:
“Now, let me say that unemployment insurance, we talk about it as a safety net and the rest — this is one of the biggest stimuluses [sic] to our economy. Economists will tell you, this money is spent quickly. It injects demand into the economy and it’s job-creating. It creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name because, again, it is money that is needed for families to survive, and it is spent. So it has a double benefit — it helps those who have lost their jobs, but it also is a job-creator and so, uh, for that reason — for those two reasons at least — it should be passed, and I’m optimistic that it will.” – Nancy Pelosi, July 1, 2010
Imagine sitting in Washington’s Verizon Center, listening blissfully to Carole King and James Taylor, thanks to a fast-thinking friend who managed to score four floor seats. For 50-somethings, it’s a nice place to be. Then, as the concert is winding down, four pages of poll tables of a just-released survey pop up in your BlackBerry. They are jaw-dropping numbers, not inconsistent with what you had been thinking — if anything more a confirmation of it. But the dramatic nature of the numbers brings the real world of politics crashing through what had been a most mellow evening.
The numbers were from the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, conducted June 17-21 among 1,000 adults by pollsters Peter Hart (a Democrat) and Bill McInturff (a Republican). Among the registered voters in the survey, Republicans led by 2 points on the generic congressional ballot test, 45 percent to 43 percent. This may not sound like a lot, given that Democrats now hold 59 percent of House seats. When this same poll was taken in June 2008, however, Democrats led by 19 points, 52 percent to 33 percent.
That drop-off should be enough to sober Democrats up, but the next set of data was even more chilling. First, keep in mind that all registered voters don’t vote even in presidential years, and that in midterm elections the turnout is about one-third less. In an attempt to ascertain who really is most likely to vote, pollsters asked registered voters, on a scale of 1 to 10, how interested they were in the November elections. Those who said either 9 or 10 added up to just over half of the registered voters, coming in at 51 percent.
Hart and McInturff then looked at the change among the most-interested voters from the same survey in 2008. Although 2010 is a “down-shifting” election, from a high-turnout presidential year to a lower-turnout midterm year, one group was more interested in November than it was in 2008: those who had voted for Republican John McCain for president. And the groups that showed the largest decline in interest? Those who voted for Barack Obama — liberals, African-Americans, self-described Democrats, moderates, those living in either the Northeast or West, and younger voters 18 to 34 years of age. These are the “Holy Mackerel” numbers.
Keep in mind that the GOP has gotten its behind handed to it for two straight elections. That has given the Democrats a huge cushion. We’d need to take 39 seats to take over the House. Can this be done? Yes. Will it be done? I want to say “yes,” but I have to tell you, not every factor is leaning in our favor. For example, the GOP is behind in the money game. There will undoubtedly be seats we could win in November that will be left on the table because the money’s not there for advertising. I’d also add that there’s very little that I’ve seen from the people in charge of the Republican Party in DC that gives me confidence that they can mastermind a perfect victory strategy to take advantage of their limited resources.
Not only that; but right about this moment, the G.O.P. has a complete dolt as a chairman. I mean, the man is basically handing the Democratic Party its talking points and really, really needs to go. How are the Republicans supposed to win elections like that?
It annoys me that neo-conservative Kristol now sees fit to grandstand on this Steele gaffe, which actually isn’t as bad as it seems, see below, after having not paid attention to so much else. Point being, suddenly it’s his favorite ox being gored, so he takes the pulpit.
The reality of racial relations in America is clearly in black and white – but not in ways most people realize, says the author of a brand-new book on the subject that’s scorching the airwaves, blogosphere and best-selling categories.
Racial confusion, tension and division are the outgrowths of conditions foisted on the country to keep blacks “obedient,” whites “silent” and “political control” secure, says Erik Rush.
Released Tuesday by WND Books, Rush’s “Negrophilia: From Slave Block to Pedestal – America’s Racial Obsession” already has claimed No. 1 spots on Amazon categories covering African-Americans, Discrimination & Racism and Interpersonal Relations.
The author will appear on Sean Hannity’s Fox News Channel show at 9 p.m. Eastern Time and on “Fox & Friends” at 6:20 a.m. Thursday.
Tuesday, Sean Hannity exclusively interviewed Rush – the first person to introduce the nation to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the nature of the sermons taught in President Obama’s 20-year church of choice.
I haven’t seen the clip, so I am giving it to you cold, as I am getting it here:
The Story:
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele was caught on video at a fundraiser in Connecticut on Thursday raising doubts about the war in Afghanistan.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) pushed out the video, which shows Steele saying that the war is of “Obama’s choosing” and that it is nearly impossible to win a land war in the Central Asian country.
“Keep in mind again, federal candidates, this was a war of Obama’s choosing. This was not something that the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in,” he said. “But it was the president who was trying to be cute by half by building a script demonizing Iraq, while saying the battle really should be in Afghanistan. Well, if he is such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that’s the one thing you don’t do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan?”
Democrats pounced on the statement, saying it was Steele’s latest gaffe in a long line of misstatements.
“This clip puts him at odds with about 100 percent of the Republican Party,” DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse said
You are, I know, a patriot. So I ask you to consider, over this July 4 weekend, doing an act of service for the country you love: Resign as chairman of the Republican party.
Your tenure has of course been marked by gaffes and embarrassments, but I for one have never paid much attention to them, and have never thought they would matter much to the success of the causes and principles we share. But now you have said, about the war in Afghanistan, speaking as RNC chairman at an RNC event, “Keep in mind again, federal candidates, this was a war of Obama’s choosing. This was not something that the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.” And, “if [Obama] is such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that’s the one thing you don’t do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan?”
Needless to say, the war in Afghanistan was not “a war of Obama’s choosing.” It has been prosecuted by the United States under Presidents Bush and Obama. Republicans have consistently supported the effort. Indeed, as the DNC Communications Director (of all people) has said, your statement “puts [you] at odds with about 100 percent of the Republican Party.”
And not on a trivial matter. At a time when Gen. Petraeus has just taken over command, when Republicans in Congress are pushing for a clean war funding resolution, when Republicans around the country are doing their best to rally their fellow citizens behind the mission, your comment is more than an embarrassment. It’s an affront, both to the honor of the Republican party and to the commitment of the soldiers fighting to accomplish the mission they’ve been asked to take on by our elected leaders.
Unconfirmed report, there was fax sent to Weekly Standard offices from the GOP Headquarters that read:
Dear Bill Kristol,
F*** You Honkey Jew-Boy…
I got this bitch and ain’t a damn thing you can do about it cracker!
Signed,
Michael Steele
Wow. Just….Wow….
Update: Okay, first off, the crack above about the Fax, is a joke. I’m posting this before some idiot media person sees this and runs with it. Second of all. I watched the Steele clip; and admittedly, he does have a point about Afghanistan, because historically other countries HAVE tried to fight there and had to pull out. However, this goes against the Bush doctrine and the talking points of the G.O.P.; not to mention the talking points of the Wilsonian Conservative crowd, like Bill Kristol and Co. So, yeah. ouch. Steele is going to get nailed on this one hard. Also, he was quite DUMB for saying that Afghanistan was Obama choice war or whatever. It was actually Bush’s war, that Obama inherited. So, Kristol saying he should resign is quite spot on, as he is making the G.O.P. look like a group of dolts at this point. Between Steele, John Boehner and Lindsey Graham, the G.O.P. has a big image problem on its hands.
The RNC said that Steele did not say the troops should not be in Afghanistan, instead that he was calling for a better war strategy.
“The chairman clearly supports our troops but believes that success of the war effort in Afghanistan requires the ongoing support of the American people,” RNC Communications Director Doug Heye said. “The responsibility for building and maintaining that strategy falls squarely on the shoulders of the president. Like so many Americans, Chairman Steele wants to hear an explanation from President Obama on what his strategy is for winning the war in Afghanistan. The Petraeus hearings were an opportunity – a missed opportunity – to do that. Instead, all we hear from the president is criticism of his predecessor for doing exactly the same thing.”
“There is no question that America must win the war on terror,” Steele said. “During the 2008 Presidential campaign, Barack Obama made clear his belief that we should not fight in Iraq, but instead concentrate on Afghanistan. Now, as President, he has indeed shifted his focus to this region. That means this is his strategy. And, for the sake of the security of the free world, our country must give our troops the support necessary to win this war.
Two grand ironies to this clusterfark. One: It’s high-larious to see the idiots at the DNC turning super-hawk on Steele for wanting to “walk away from the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban without finishing the job” and for daring to “undermine the morale of our troops when what they need is our support and encouragement.” After year upon year of screeching at Bush over every setback in Iraq, with Democrats as prominent as Harry Reid declaring the war lost, the sheer balls needed to call him out in those terms are astounding. And am I mistaken or aren’t there an awful lot of liberals who oppose the war and might not care to have the DNC describing them in those same terms? Good work, hypocrites: You’ve done your job of distracting attention today from our pitiful president’s pitiful economy. Make sure to bookmark their statement too, because we’ll be revisiting it — repeatedly — next year when The One inevitably gives his order to start a massive drawdown.
Two: This is actually a rare case of Steele saying something stupid that arguably — I stress, arguably — makes the public better disposed to the GOP. Hawks may hate it, but (a) 58 percent of the public supports Obama’s withdrawal timeline next year and (b) prominent conservatives are growing bolder about speaking up against the war. George Will has been against it forever, of course, and just this morning Byron York hint-hinted that it’s time to go; in Congress, Ron Paul (of course) and Jason Chaffetz are big-name Republicans who oppose continuing the mission. It’ll be awfully interesting to see who else comes out of the woodwork in December, when the Pentagon conducts its review of operations, and then again next July, when Obama has to decide on his next step.
I hate to admit it; but when AllahPundit is on point; he is really on point Amazing how Democrats can turn on a dime. It almost gives a man whiplash.
I guess I should have titled this, “Michael Steele channels his inner Ron Paul.” 😯 😮
I have heard Michael Steele’s comments regarding Afghanistan and the President.
I have read the RNC’s statement on the matter.
The RNC statement is indecipherable in the context of what Michael Steele actually said.
The war in Afghanistan is not a war of Barack Obama’s choosing. It is a war of Al Qaeda and the Taliban’s choosing. We responded.
Michael Steele must resign. He has lost all moral authority to lead the GOP.
Update #4: This here is the reason why Conservatives and Republicans are so steamed over this. This from Democrats.com:
A number of Democrats and “liberal” pundits are smugly attacking GOP chairman Michael Steele for telling the “inconvenient truth” about Afghanistan:
“Keep in mind again, [GOP] federal candidates, this was a war of Obama’s choosing. This is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.”…
“It was the president who was trying to be cute by half by flipping the script demonizing Iraq, while saying the battle really should be in Afghanistan. Well, if he’s such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that’s the one thing you don’t do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right, because everyone who has tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed. And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan without committing more troops…”
Steele is exactly right.
[..]
The cheapest form of counter-terrorism is drone missile strikes, where targeting relies on cameras in the drones. Unfortunately those cameras often mistake wedding parties for terrorist gatherings, resulting in bloody massacres that undermine Afghan and allied support for the pointless U.S. occupation.
The next step up in counter-terrorism is “special forces” – boots on the ground – who theoretically collect human intelligence from locals so their targeting of terrorists is more precise, resulting in fewer wedding party massacres.
The problem with “boots on the ground” is the heads and hearts attached to them, which die when hit with bullets, which in turn produce casualty reports in U.S. newspapers, which undermines U.S. public support for the pointless U.S. occupation.
Apart from “counter-terrorism,” the “other way to engage” in Afghanistan is through regional diplomacy. That means working out a deal among all interested parties so all the fighting stops.
The inconvenient truth for the U.S. is that we simply cannot afford $100 billion per year forever in a futile effort to “stop the Taliban’s momentum.” Sooner or later we will need to find “other ways to engage,” as Michael Steele said.
So Michael Steele is right. And the sooner we begin a serious discussion of those “other ways to engage,” the sooner we will find a way to bring our troops safely home and end the pointless, disasatrous, unaffordable occupation of Afghanistan.
Steel is giving the Democrats their talking points and very sadly agreeing with them as well. He needs to go.
George W. Bush was no FDR, but Barack Obama could be.
That’s the verdict of 238 of the nation’s leading presidential scholars, who – for a fifth time – rated Franklin Delano Roosevelt the best president ever in the latest Siena College Research Institute poll.
In office for barely two years, Obama entered the survey in the 15th position – two spots behind Bill Clinton and three spots ahead of Ronald Reagan.
Obama got high marks for intelligence, ability to communicate and imagination, but his score was dragged down by his relative lack of experience and family background.
“Most of the presidents came from elite backgrounds, and he certainly did not,” said professor Douglas Lonnstrom, who crunched the numbers. “He grew up without a father.”
By contrast, Bush’s dad was our 41st president, George H.W. Bush, who came in 22nd in the poll.
And yet, the scholars rated Dubya a dud as a president, ranking him in the bottom five at 39th place.
That’s a steep drop from 23rd place, which is where Bush ranked when he entered the survey after his first year in office.
First of all, you are pathetic…big fat grown unemployed guy living with Mommy and you used to be a blue-dog Demo.? Anytime you have to identify yourself in the past with the word “dog” is pretty sad. I won’t come back here…drippy writing..mispelled words…(Afghan) and a guy unemployed since 2005 with nothing better to do…Oh god..go volunteer somewhere.
Well….Well…Well…. Looks like my writings have angered some on the far liberal left side of the fence. Mrs. “Evelyn”s IP address traces to no other than:
C:\>tracert 72.197.234.143
Tracing route to ip72-197-234-143.sd.sd.cox.net [72.197.234.143]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 2 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.2.1
2 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.1.1
3 7 ms 9 ms 7 ms 73.38.228.1
4 9 ms 9 ms 10 ms ge-2-30-ur02.southgate.mi.michigan.comcast.net [68.85.49.193]
5 8 ms 9 ms 10 ms te-9-2-ur02.woodhaven.mi.michigan.comcast.net [68.87.190.181]
6 10 ms 10 ms 9 ms te-9-2-ur02.rockwood.mi.michigan.comcast.net [68.87.190.177]
7 9 ms 7 ms 11 ms te-9-2-ur02.monroe.mi.michigan.comcast.net [68.87.190.173]
8 13 ms 13 ms 14 ms te-0-4-0-2-ar01.taylor.mi.michigan.comcast.net [68.87.190.169]
9 25 ms 23 ms 25 ms pos-2-8-0-0-cr01.mclean.va.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.90.105]
10 26 ms 26 ms 25 ms pos-0-5-0-0-pe01.ashburn.va.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.87.14]
11 27 ms 25 ms 23 ms ashbbprj02-ae1.312.rd.as.cox.net [68.105.31.201]
12 101 ms 102 ms 100 ms 68.1.1.251
13 103 ms 126 ms 102 ms 68.6.8.163
14 105 ms 103 ms 105 ms pwy1hbrc01-gex0324.sd.sd.cox.net [68.6.8.93]
15 105 ms 104 ms 105 ms pwy1cmtk02-gex0300.sd.sd.cox.net [68.6.11.81]
16 118 ms 111 ms 109 ms ip72-197-234-143.sd.sd.cox.net [72.197.234.143]
Trace complete.
C:\>
South Dakota.
You know what pisses people off like Evelyn here? It is because I am quite real; because I am not some liberal or Conservative elitist blogging from the poolside of my million dollar mansion. It is because I screw with the narrative of the far liberal left in this Country. Because I refuse to accept the socialism and group think of the liberal establishment. Because I happen to believe that the reason Michigan’s economy is so damned screwed up, not to mention that of the entire United States; is because of the stupid social engineering of the United States and yes, of Michigan too — by the Democratic Party.
So, to “Evelyn Jones” and to the rest of the liberal twits who happen to pass by here and not like what they see or read. I got one thing to say to you:
From Orange County News: “Irvine real-estate guy Damon Dunn [pictured far left] beat Laguna Niguel dentist/birther lawyer Orly Taitz [pictured left] by a margin of roughly three-to-one in this month’s primary election to determine the Republican candidate for Secretary of State. But though the election is finished, Taitz has persisted in insisting that Dunn is as ineligible for office as she thinks Barack Obama to be. She has taking her beef with Dunn to an Orange County courtroom.
More: “As we’ve addressed in the past, Taitz’s accusations against Dunn center around the fact that he registered more than 10 years ago as a Democrat in Florida. California election law says that you can’t run in a party primary if you were a member of another party within a year of filing. She also alleges in her complaint that Dunn falsified the signatures of supporters and willfully omitted information about his past registration on official documents. But Dunn’s Florida registration expired in 2005, and Dunn’s lawyers argue that even if it didn’t, Dunn would be fine because of the way the law treats out-of-state parties.”
Given the time frame the Obama administration’s grand strategy imposes, and given the capabilities of the Taliban, it is difficult to see how it will all work out. But the ultimate question is about the American obsession with Afghanistan. For 30 years, the United States has been involved in a country that is virtually inaccessible for the United States. Washington has allied itself with radical Islamists, fought against radical Islamists or tried to negotiate with radical Islamists. What the United States has never tried to do is impose a political solution through the direct application of American force. This is a new and radically different phase of America’s Afghan obsession. The questions are whether it will work and whether it is even worth it.
But of course, The DOJ is going to slime the guy who blew the whistle on Obama sacking of the Black Panther case. Roger L. Simon of Pajama’s Media has more: (H/T to InstaPundit)
Call it Panthergate, call it what you will. The Department of Justice (or its minions) is already attempting to slime its whistleblower J. Christian Adams — the attorney who recently resigned from the Department over its abandonment of the New Black Panther case.Now Adams has struck back, telling Pajamas Media that the DOJ’s smears were a “blatant lie.”
Adams appeared on Megyn Kelly’s Fox News show to tell his story Tuesday, following which a “source familiar with the case” came forward, trying to tarnish the lawyer’s reputation. Pajamas Media was informed by a Fox producer:
The person said that any story should include the fact that Adams only left DOJ after being put into a job he disliked, and that he has long been an advocate of conservative views. Source also says Adams’ claims are “willfully inaccurate.”
This battle had been brewing for several days since Adams — using the Panther case as an example — asserted in the Washington Times, and then in more detail in Pajamas Media, that institutionalized bias had infiltrated Eric Holder’s Justice Department. Civil rights complaints would only be pursued when initiated by people of color against white people.
When it was the other way around, the complaints, even when well-substantiated as with the New Black Panthers, would disappear in a bureaucratic morass.
I’d head over and read this one; as it is very interesting. The Presidential Administration will stop at nothing to keep from the truth being exposed about it. I would honestly say that President Barack Obama is slowly becoming the Richard Nixon of the Democratic Party.
WASHINGTON – More than 1.3 million laid-off workers won’t get their unemployment benefits reinstated before Congress goes on a weeklong break for Independence Day.
And hundreds of thousands more will lose their benefits in the coming weeks.
The House voted 270-153 Thursday to extend jobless benefits for people who have been laid off for long stretches, but the gesture was made futile by the Senate’s inability to pass the bill. For the third time in as many weeks, Republicans in the Senate successfully filibustered a similar measure Wednesday night before senators adjourned for vacation.
A little more than 1.3 million people have already lost benefits since the last extension ran out at the end of May, according to the Labor Department. By the end of the week, the number will jump to 1.7 million. By the end of July, it would top 3 million.
“It is hard to understand how anybody can come to this floor and say, for 1.7 million people and their families, this is not an emergency,” said Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. “There is no excuse for voting no.”
The bill would extend unemployment payments for up to a total of 99 weeks, for people whose state-paid benefits have run out. The benefits would be available through the end of November, at a cost of $33.9 billion. The money would have been borrowed, adding to the budget deficit.
This is political grandstanding of the worst kind. The Republicans have repeatedly said that they would extend unemployment benefits if the Democrats would strip out all the other things they have larded up the bill with. That is to say, the Republicans have said they would vote for a stand-alone unemployment extension.
But the Democrats refuse present such a bill because they think they can score political points by claiming that the GOP opposes extending benefits for those out of work.
As for me; I have no pity for those people who have been on the Government dole and are now losing the dole. Why? Because when I became unemployed back in 2005. I was not eligible for unemployment, at all. Why? Because I quit my job. The job was making me physically sick and I could not take it anymore and I quit. So, that automatically disqualifies me from getting any benefits. (Looking back on it, I MIGHT have been able to collect… But, at the time, I thought I had another job lined up. Needless to say, that never happened…)
So, since 2005; I have been having to basically live off my folks and making whatever little this blog brings in for cash. Which really is not much at all, when you get right down to it. But I do much enjoy writing about politics and the idiotic Democrats! 😉 You think the Government would push aside its rules and regulations for this white boy? Yeah Right! Now maybe if I was some sort of an oppressed minority or something. But, I am just another evil white man and the Government hasn’t established a fund for the evil poor white man yet.
You would think that the condition that the Country is in that the Democrats would just say, “Okay, Unemployment Benefits only.” But, no, they would rather grandstand an issue, all just to try secure votes come November. Which to be truly honest, is not going to guarantee the Democrats anything at all. Heck, if I were a Republican or a Democrat right now; I would be very worried, because there is a good deal of anti-incumbent sentiment in American right now.
This, in a long list of issues, is why I will never, ever vote Democratic Party again, ever.
We had to take some tough steps to pull the country out of the freefall we faced when I took office. Back then, the economy was shrinking faster than it had in decades. Today, it’s growing again. Back then, we were losing an average of 750,000 jobs a month. Today, we’ve added private sector jobs for five months in a row.
So now the economy is headed in the right direction.
The Goodyear meets the asphalt reality of the situation on the ground:
UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA
In the week ending June 26, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 472,000, an increase of 13,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 459,000. The 4-week moving average was 466,500, an increase of 3,250 from the previous week’s revised average of 463,250.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.6 percent for the week ending June 19, unchanged from the prior week’s revised rate of 3.6 percent.
The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending June 19 was 4,616,000, an increase of 43,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 4,573,000. The 4-week moving average was 4,567,500, a decrease of 25,250 from the preceding week’s revised average of 4,592,750.
The fiscal year-to-date average of seasonally adjusted weekly insured unemployment, which corresponds to the appropriated AWIU trigger, was 5.077 million.
UNADJUSTED DATA
The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 438,305 in the week ending June 26, an increase of 14,867 from the previous week. There were 559,857 initial claims in the comparable week in 2009.
The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.4 percent during the week ending June 19, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 4,311,264, an increase of 3,471 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 4.5 percent and the volume was 6,078,254.
Extended benefits were available in Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin during the week ending June 12.
Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 2,083 in the week ending June 19, a decrease of 64 from the prior week. There were 2,381 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 118 from the preceding week.
There were 18,082 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending June 12, an increase of 245 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 34,334, a decrease of 2,589 from the prior week.
States reported 4,515,499 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending June 12, a decrease of 217,513 from the prior week. There were 2,503,379 claimants in the comparable week in 2009. EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity.
Not me, they don’t. Eat shit and die, “Blue Commie Texan.” Everything you toss at us, we toss back from here on in. Don’t like it? I hate it for ya, you fuckin’ punk. Cry me a river, why don’tcha.
Christopher Hitchens is being treated for cancer, forcing the D.C. writer to cut short his latest book tour. In a statement released through his publisher Twelve, the British-born provocateur, 61, said that he has “been advised by my physician that I must undergo a course of chemotherapy on my esophagus. This advice seems persuasive to me.” The notorious chainsmoker announced in 2008 he had given up tobacco — driven, he said, by “fear.” (His wife Carol Blue told us then he “wants to live — live to see his political enemies defeated.”) But he was still sneaking a smoke or two when our colleague Manuel Roig-Franzia interviewed him last month.
I’ve never met him — this is as close as I’ve come — but between enjoying his work, supporting many of his positions (on foreign policy, at least), and of course feeling a little atheist kinship, it’s like I’ve known him for years. This is hard news to take.
Indeed.Irregardless of his personal religious beliefs; which are his own damned business. He is fighter against Islamic-Fascism and a stalwart defender of western culture.
Because Zo seems to think that making bigoted comments about white people in his videos is acceptable.
click here to watchUpdate: Looks like the black bigot took his video down. Looks like he doesn’t like being exposed. Now, I know PJ media takes it’s videos down. But, this one, looks fishy to me.
At the 0.25 mark is what I am referring to.
Generalization of the White Race is what I am referring to.
Alponzo Rachel – Just another racist black man, like the rest of ’em!
Now, for a second, turn the tables. If *I* would have made a video; and some black man had went to the Afghan theater and went looking for Osama Bin Laden — and I had made a racial generalization; something to the effect of “And he took his bag of Cheetos and grape kool-aid over there with him…” I would be have been condemned as a racist from one end of this Blogosphere to the other.
However, because Zo is black, it is perfectly fine. He gets a free pass, because he is black and this dude is the white guy and it’s perfectly fine to mock white people right?
WRONG!
Racial Generalizations are just damned wrong. I also chided this idiot over his supposed “Christianity”; which I find to absolutely vomit provoking at best. I mean, referring the Saving Blood of Jesus Christ the Messiah of the World, of the Jew and Gentile alike, as a damned Sauce?!?!?! I’m sorry, that’s just straight up heresy and sacrilegious.
So, as far as I concerned; I am officially done with Alfonzo Rachel; to me, and this my opinion, he is nothing more than just another bigoted black man against White people. He does try and disguise it well, but it seems to have slipped out, under the guise of “Humor”. Sorry, but this is one white man, who is not fooled one bit.
It comes after US commanders and the British army chief of staff, Gen David Richards, suggested that it might be useful to talk to the Taliban.
The Taliban statement is uncompromising, almost contemptuous.
They believe they are winning the war, and cannot see why they should help Nato by talking to them.
They assume, perhaps wrongly, that the Americans are in disarray after the sacking of the Nato commander Gen Stanley McChrystal last week, and regard any suggestion that they should enter negotiations with them as a sign of Nato’s own weakness.
You know the sick and sad part? They are winning the war. Because it is quite obvious the the United States does not have a damned clue as to how to fight that war over there. You just do not negotiate with terrorists; you kill them. But that is pretty hard to do; when you have a Government over there that is just corrupt as the Taliban themselves. Our President is not helping that either. Best thing that this Government can do, at this point; is to basically withdraw and protect our own. We had the chance to do, what we want to do now, in 2003 — and we blew it. Thanks George W. Bush; you damned idiot. 😡
Actually, I, like most conservatives, do not advocate groupthink or demand people rigidly stick to the “company line.” We actually have a simpler request: We just want people who are billed as Republicans and conservatives to actually be on the same side we are. The editorial pages in the newspapers slant liberal. The columnists slant liberal. Even the news in the newspapers slants liberal. Hell, even the TV shows and movies slant liberal. So finally, after all that, you run across a “conservative” in the mainstream media giving an opinion and guess what? He’s been given a platform to speak because he agrees with the liberals. That’s what people like David Frum get paid to do, I’m sick of it, and I’m not doing anything else to reward people like him, including allowing them to get into the Blogads Conservative Hive.
Former oil clean-up worker Candi Warren says she signed up to make a difference, but soon found out the work of cleaning the beaches was all cosmetic. That’s what she was told, she says.
Warren says she knew that when crews worked during the day, the tide and surf buried oil overnight. But they were forbidden to dig it up. She quit in disgust three weeks ago despite the $18 per hour pay.
She said she was told to only clean the surface of the sand, that this is all cosmetic. She was on a crew at Gulf State Park where tourists go. She says it has priority so as to make it look like the beaches are clean.
Warren says she believes money is being wasted on the crews and says “At some point the real clean-up will have to begin, but I’m afraid the money will be gone.”
She used a shovel and dug down six, eight, maybe twelve inches into the sand to show us the layers of oil close to the shoreline.
Unreal. Obama think he can actually hoodwink America. He thought wrong. A free press will bring you down every time.
Edwards stayed for two hours, leaving around midnight. He drank white wine and light beer, according to multiple attendees. After a while, Edwards made his way to the dance floor. “He was kind of uncomfortably dancing,” Jentgen says. “He was just happy to be with people who weren’t going to judge him.” Edwards cut loose, dancing to everything from salsa to Wreckx-n-Effect’s 1992 rap hit “Rump Shaker.” via After The Fall | The New Republic
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) wanted to fly 10 lawmakers down to the Gulf of Mexico to see the damage caused by BP’s gigantic oil spill first hand.
House Democrats said no.
Scalise’s trip was rejected for a variety of bureaucratic and logistical reasons, but it has also opened a new vein of partisan squabbling over who should be allowed to arrange a trip to view the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Republicans want to be able to take trips using their office spending allowance. But Democrats have heard from the Department of Homeland Security, which has asked that Congress organize trips through committees of jurisdiction, to avoid having to cater to a ton of individual lawmakers in a disaster zone, Democratic aides say. GOP leaders say they’ve heard nothing of this.
The squabbling over who gets to travel to the Gulf on whose dime is the latest sign that congressional oversight of the oil spill oversight from Capitol Hill has been bogged down by partisanship. Congress has held upwards of 20 hearings on the disaster, often duplicative ones each week, as lawmakers struggle to grasp and fully realize the scope of BP’s giant oil spill.
Scalise, who has already been to the Gulf on another codel, wants to organize a trip so lawmakers can fully grasp the impact before they vote on oil drilling regulations. And he doesn’t want to do it through a committee, because the members don’t fit neatly into specific panels — they stretch across committee, and even partisan, lines.
About two weeks ago, Scalise requested to be able to use his Members Representational Allowance – a fund typically reserved for office expenses and travel back to the district – to go to the Gulf with a group of about 10 other lawmakers.
He sought permission from the House Administration committee, which regulates office account spending and would have to approve the trip. After a few weeks, Scalise was ping-ponged between several committees. Eventually, John Lawrence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) chief of staff, told Scalise’s chief that “it was unlikely that the request would be granted” by the House Administration Committee.
Republicans, however, say Rep. Bob Brady (D-Pa.), who chairs the committee, has approved at least a dozen such trips in 2009 alone – something Democrats don’t deny.
“Unless there is some extraordinary reason to prohibit this trip – which has yet to be communicated to us – this is an unacceptable departure from past practices,” said Rep, Dan Lungren of California, the top Republican on the administration committee. “This is an educational trip for members using their own representational budgets to see, first-hand, the devastating impact of the Gulf spill. Our travel regulations permit this type of travel in support of our official representational duties, and unfortunately, this disaster is already having environmental and economical implications for the entire country – not just those districts represented by Members sitting on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.”
Now could you just imagine, like JammieWearingFool said, if the Republicans had done this to the Democrats after Katrina?
