Bringing The Pain, Part 5

(Part 1 including the setup is here, Part 2 is here, Part 3 is here, and Part 4 is here.)

Missouri

For anyone out there who thinks our glorious system of private insurance and our “ownership society” overall is so great, I would ask that you read the story of this lady who lost her job and had been unemployed for over three years, fighting like hell to obtain extensions of her unemployment (she was originally told that she only qualified for 26 weeks) and coverage for her health care costs. I wish her all the best, and I only wish I could do more (and here is another unemployment story).

In response, Repug State Senator Jim Lembke said that 99 weeks of unemployment benefits is “too much” and “enough is enough” here (like to see him have to file a claim for himself one day). Subsequent to this, the state unemployment rate hit 9.9 percent in April (here). Based on this, though, it looks like Dem Senator Claire McCaskill and Repug Senator Roy Blunt (shocking in the latter case) are at least trying to find out what's going on with customs enforcement, which, due to its apparent laxity, is costing jobs.

Montana

Conversely, this tells us that the “treasure state” is one of the ten best places to receive unemployment. This also tells us that the state’s unemployment rate was 7.7 percent in July (not great, but not bad either).

As far as industries doing well in the state, this tells us that biotech appears to be growing, but even though Dem Governor Brian Schweitzer said last year that “Montana is energy country,” the billion-dollar initiative noted here is expected to yield only 59 jobs.

On the federal government side, Dem Senator Jon Tester introduced the Hiring Heroes Act to fight veterans’ unemployment here. His same-party counterpart Max Baucus introduced a year-long unemployment benefits extension here last November (and as noted here, Baucus also had a chuckle over “Diaper Dave” Vitter crying poor mouth on that same subject).

Nebraska

This tells us that the state’s unemployment rate in July was 4.1 percent (not sure if that was the lowest rate in the country or not, but it’s pretty close). When it comes to jobs, this tells us that the state’s two senators, Repug Mike Johanns and “Democrat” Ben Nelson, expressed concern about the Keystone XL pipeline running through their state en route to Texas, but this tells us that the state’s governor, Dave Heineman, didn’t offer an alternative to rerouting the pipeline or call in the state legislature on the matter either.

And speaking of Nelson, he’s running for re-election next year against a Repug named John Bruning, who compared welfare recipients to raccoons here (yes, I know that doesn’t relate directly to jobs…not much else to report on other than the fact that work appears to be plentiful, which is great, but outside of Omaha, I don’t have a lot of information on what to do in the state after they “roll up the sidewalks” at night, if you know what I mean).

Update 9/7/11: More on the proposed pipeline here...

Nevada

(I know we don’t have losing Repug U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle to kick round any more, but when it comes to employment, I still thought it was worth it to revisit this “golden oldie,” saying the unemployed were “spoiled”…ha ha, wingnut.)

This tells us that the state’s unemployment rate in June was 12.4 percent (ouch…amazing that Harry Reid was returned to the Senate last year with a number like that, but again, thanks to Angle and those zany teabaggers). Oh, and Dean Heller, the Repug appointed to fill out the Senate term of John Ensign, once said here that unemployment benefits were creating “hobos” (of course, he’s probably getting his talking points on this from the leader of his party, as noted here).

In addition, this tells us that “skilled” jobs frequently go unfilled in the state (guess it’s too “socialist” of a thought to invest in job training), and this tells us that teen unemployment in the state is 34.2 percent (wow – another HUGE story going thoroughly unreported is how much this wretched recession is creating what will probably be a permanent underclass of workers stuck in low-paying jobs…and the people responsible for turning our economy into a casino and thus causing this still can come and go as they please without wearing orange jump suits).

New Hampshire

As noted here, the state’s rate in July was 5.2 percent, below the national average of course. Also, this tells us how Dem U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen stood up for extending unemployment benefits, and this tells us how Shaheen and Repug Senator Kelly Ayotte are trying to get funding to staff a prison in the North Country (kind of sad when that’s actually a growth industry).

Also, based on this performance, it looks like Repug U.S. House Rep Charlie Bass knows his talking points on creating jobs, particularly green ones, but he doesn’t know much of anything else, making Annie Kuster a more viable alternative for residents of NH-2 come election time next year. And when it comes to Repug stupidity on jobs and the unemployed, I give you this from state representative Carol McGuire, who said that the state’s workers are “not worth the minimum wage” here (like to see her try to live on it, in a world where I was in charge and every day would be the first day of spring, as the song goes).

New Jersey

Based on this, it looks like Governor Bully is “staking his reputation on job creation.” Really? So, how it going?

Well…

How's this job creation faring so far? Poorly. According to the Federal Bureau of Labor statistics, seasonally adjusted NJ unemployment is now at 9.5%, unchanged from that of 12 months ago. The NJ Department of Labor reports in the last 12 months total NJ non-farming employment decreased by 16,300 jobs with a large decrease of 36,200 jobs in government employment. The largest asset of many New Jerseyans and one vulnerable to unemployment is housing. According to RealtyTrak, there are currently 60,430 New Jersey foreclosure properties. During the current year there have been 12,072 new foreclosure filings, but only 4,327 foreclosure sales. Without data specifically for NJ, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices show that nationally home prices are back to their summer 2003 levels. Not a pretty picture.

And to portray the human cost of job loss, this tells us of a Rutgers study telling us that “unemployment is killing people” (sounds like required reading for the geniuses from both sides of the aisle, but especially the Repugs, in Washington). In addition, this tells us that the state is not projected to reach pre-recession employment levels until 2016.

On the positive side, this tells us that the state banned job ads that discriminate against the unemployed (shouldn’t be necessary, but it is, sadly). Also, Dem U.S. House Reps Frank Pallone and the great Rush Holt worked with U.S. Senators Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez to secure about $3 million in funding to keep the New Jersey Technical Center at Fort Monmouth open here.

So what has the “loyal opposition” done in response? This tells us that every U.S. House rep on the other side voted to privatize Medicare, with AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka telling us here that privatization is a bad idea for a few reasons, one of which being that it will do nothing to create jobs.

Update 9/28/11: I realize Governor Bully isn't so much at fault here as are the heartless zombies who cheered people losing their jobs (even though it's part of the lore of The Sainted Ronnie R), but I still thought I should note it anyway.

Update 8/8/14: And this is pretty damn disgusting too.

New Mexico

Like the state of Maine, it looks like this one is also dealing with the consequences of electing a teabagger as governor.

As noted here, Susana Martinez overstepped her authority when she fired two members and the executive director of Public Employee Labor Relations Board, as ruled by the state supreme court. She also vetoed a business tax increase that the state’s businesses actually lobbied for to shore up the state’s unemployment compensation fund here.

This tells us that the state’s unemployment rate was 6.7 percent in July. And as noted here, Dem U.S. Senator Tom Udall is scheduled to begin a “jobs tour” soon of the southern part of the state.

Also, as noted here, Udall said the following with two fellow Senators, Dem Jeff Merkley and Repug Rand Paul (file this under “blind squirrel finding the nut” in the latter case)…

We have urgent needs at home: high unemployment and a flood of foreclosures, a record deficit and a debt that is over $14 trillion and growing. We are spending $10 billion a month in Afghanistan. We need to change course.

Let’s not forget the fact that precious resources that can be used to rebuild this country are being diverted for fool’s errands in the name of oil (still, after all this time!).

And from here (in May, closer to home)…

The Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of New Mexico has new data that shows the state's unemployment rate may not return to pre-recession numbers for another six years.

"We are 49th among the states in terms of job growth. We've been at the bottom of the pack," explained Lee Reynis with UNM's Bureau of Business and Economic Research. It's taking longer for New Mexico to pull out of the recession, compared to other states. "We are lagging. We are lagging seriously," Reynis added.

There are many reasons to blame, but two big ones stand out. First, government hiring is slow because of funding crunches. Second, construction took a major hit as well. So men are expected to feel the impact more than women.

"The construction industry, we simply do not think will come back. They lost over 15,000 jobs," explained Reynis.

Lawrence Garland is a perfect example. He's been looking for a construction job for a year.

"My problem is that I'm pretty specialized and so it's even more difficult," said job seeker Lawrence Garland.

But it's not all bad news. Retail, manufacturing and leisure and hospitality industries are growing. We learned customer care provider “Sitel” is now hiring 120 positions to support its satellite TV and hotel chain clients. We spread the word and hopefully the hope.

"I think I may have a chance at getting a job. I hope," (job seeker Ronald) Desvigne said.

I hope so too – so much for the “land of enchantment.”

I’ll plan to continue this next week.

Update 9/10/11: And speaking of Martinez...

Thursday Stuff

Hopefully back to posting tomorrow...

I could take or leave most of this from America's Finest News Source, but "Steve Hoyer" really delivers at the end (Also, is it monumentally petty and stupid that Boehner denied Obama the right to speak to the nation while a bunch of pretenders were busy tripping over themselves trying to fellate the memory of The Sainted Ronnie R next week? Yes, but seriously, what else can this president expect from this bunch? Once more, take a bow, all you numbskulls who voted these meat sacks into power once more)...


Obama Begs U.S. Not To Embarrass Him In Front Of French (Season 1: Ep 8 on IFC)

...and up until now "Lies of the Beautiful People" was probably my song of the year, but I think this just beat it.

Wednesday Stuff

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...and there were times when I got angry over Chuck Hagel, wondering why the hell he didn't tell off his own party more often, but at least he's basically doing that now (though of course he approved of the "catfood commission" - you can't have everything I guess - here)...



...and U.S. House Repug Randy Hultgren of Illinois talks a good game here, but let's see him actually sponsor legislation to overturn that horrific Citizens United ruling by Hangin' Judge JR and The Supremes; don't hold your breath (here)...also, don't wake our sleeping corporate media which refuses to cover this type of town hall push-back, or at least not provide any coverage I can see - rock-a-bye-baby...



...and if it's OK by you, I thought I'd give "mellow" the night off.

Tuesday Stuff

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I give you "Billo: The Opera" (here, for real - words truly fail)...



...and I heard this on the radio today while driving, and it was all I could do not to pull over and listen; it's the title track of a brand new album from Glen Campbell, who is suffering from Alzheimer's but was still able to perform this number written by Paul Westerberg, along with other tracks - typical soaring orchestration to accompany Campbell's still-somehow-after-all-these-years pristine vocals...no video, but you don't need it for this - hacked just a tad at the end.

Tuesday Mashup (8/30/11)

Oh noes! It looks like our community organizer pre-zee-dint wants to “mobilize” all those lazy, spiritually deprived (or whatever that clown Stuart Varney said) poor people to launch his Marxist socialist revolution at long last!

That’s what Fix Noise would have us believe anyway. However, when you actually read the linked story, what you find is this…

…oops, well whaddaya know? Fix Noise pulled the linked story and I can’t find it anywhere. C’est dommage!

Well, I found another story about the “poverty tour” conducted by Tavis Smiley (one of the people who interviewed President Obama in the original Fix Noise piece) and Dr. Cornel West in which the “m” word is used as follows…

Both Tavis Smiley and Cornel West have recently drawn flack from some within African-American communities because they criticized President Obama as not addressing poverty during his policy speeches and debates. While this may appear justified in light of recent conciliatory gestures to Republicans in Congress, Obama, to his credit, has fought consistently to extend unemployment benefits, to fund public health clinics, and to promote better nutrition for the schoolchildren of impoverished families.

Billed as a Town Hall Meeting to air general community grievances, the event took place at the St. Andrew AME Church, located in poverty-stricken southwest Memphis.

It opened with a call to prayer that foreshadowed the night’s topic with reference to the “hard-hearted” policies of past months, the result of tea-party Republican candidates’ election to Congress. In characterizing the recent debt-ceiling deal, Tavis Smiley listed the negative impact of: no extensions this time for unemployment benefits, no calls for new revenues, and no closing of tax loopholes for corporations. He reported that the initial consideration of cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security were put on the table not by Majority leader Boehner, but by President Obama himself.

In short, he said, the deal was all “cuts-cuts-cuts,” with a questionable resolution by a 12-member Super-Congress that would supposedly determine, in draconian fashion, what Congress could not. According to Smiley, as a result of the debt-ceiling deal, things are about to get worse for many Americans.

Addressing a near standing-room-only audience, the speakers were not there, however, to criticize President Obama’s performance, but to uplift, in the old Southern religious tradition, and to mobilize poor communities, those hit hardest by the current global economic crisis.

So basically, one person’s scary-sounding “mobilization” is another person’s standing up for basic human rights.

And on the subject of “mobilization”…well, it looks like Obama’s predecessor had a thing or two to say about it in a wholly other context (here, from 2007)…

Acting on the good advice of Senator Joe Lieberman and other key members of Congress, we will form a new, bipartisan working group that will help us come together across party lines to win the war on terror. This group will meet regularly with me and my administration; it will help strengthen our relationship with Congress. We can begin by working together to increase the size of the active Army and Marine Corps, so that America has the Armed Forces we need for the 21st century. We also need to examine ways to mobilize talented American civilians to deploy overseas, where they can help build democratic institutions in communities and nations recovering from war and tyranny.

Of course, had Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History decided to focus those efforts at home instead, we might all be in a whole other, better place right now.

And one more thing – speaking of Fix Noise “opinion” as opposed to Fix Noise “news,” I thought this was curious (so I guess they’ll be no editorials on the climate crisis, among other topics).

Next, I give you more effete, well-kept, Ivory tower punditry from Larry Kudlow on Hurricane Irene here…

Yes, the economic blow from Irene is noticeable, but it’s temporary. In fact, what makes this economic setback even less worrisome is that it occurred over a weekend. You really didn’t even lose two days of economic activity.

Restaurants, retailers, baseball games and Broadway shows all shut down, but only for a short bit. And actually, there was a lot of consumer buying in the days leading up to Irene. People went to Home Depot and Lowe’s to find stuff to board up their windows with. They went to Costco for food. And they went to Wal-Mart and Dollar General for all sorts of things.

There are times when it’s really hard to communicate my utter disgust with the wingnutosphere on their utterly and completely wrong “reporting” on an issue that has turned some people’s lives upside down in as catastrophic a manner as we can imagine. This is one of those times.

As noted here...

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont awoke Monday to the aftermath of the storm that was Hurricane Irene with communities cut off, almost 50,000 customers without power, hundreds of roads closed, at least two deaths and the loss of a dozen bridges.

Gov. Peter Shumlin called it the worst flooding in the state in a century.

"We prepared for the worst and we got the worst in central and southern Vermont," Shumlin said Monday. "We have extraordinary infrastructure damage."

Vermont Transportation Secretary Brian Searles said a half-dozen state-owned bridges and at least that many local spans were "gone."

"Some of this can't be assessed because the water is still very high," he said. "Some will call for fixes that will take a while. We're going to need a lot of temporary bridges."

Shumlin was touring the state in a National Guard helicopter with U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy.

"We haven't seen flooding like this, certainly since the early part of the 1900s. The areas that got flooding are in really tough shape," Shumlin said.

Historically, a flood from 1927 is considered to be Vermont's greatest natural disaster.

Instead of belaboring the point that Kudlow is an utterly soulless corporate media shill, which is obvious, I’ll instead just link here and encourage one and all to provide whatever support you can to Irene’s victims (yes, it could have been worse, but let’s express gratitude that it wasn’t).

Continuing, I give you the latest from Repug U.S. House Rep Vern Buchanan of Florida here…

One important action Congress should take when it returns in September is to pass a package of free-trade agreements that will generate thousands of jobs in Florida and elsewhere.

The Obama Administration estimates that as many as 250,000 new American jobs could be created, if we adopt pending agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.

Unfortunately, these trade deals have been languishing in Congress for years, frozen by gridlock and partisan squabbling.

(I wish the Obama-ites were a little quicker to embrace dumb stuff that, like, you know, creates jobs, instead of parroting Repug talking points.)

It should also be noted how much Buchanan and his pals just love these crappy trade deals as long as they don’t contain trade adjustment assistance for workers in this country who come up short, as noted here (a lot of workers by my last count… what say you on this, by the way, Mikey the Beloved, as if I need to ask?).

And as noted here…

The extraordinarily high trade deficit is the direct result of America’s failed trade policies. For years, agreement like the North American Free Trade Agreement, and trade regimes such as the World Trade Organization have stifled the country’s competitiveness, allowed for millions of jobs to be offshored and gutted the nation’s manufacturing base.

That much is evident in how the trade deficit is structured. On the year, the nation actually held a surplus of $148.7 billion in trade in services. The problem, however, lies in the fact that America’s deficit in goods was much, much larger - $646.5 billion, in fact.

The trade deficit accounted for 3.4 percent of the nation’s total gross domestic product. If Republicans were serious about cutting into the budget deficit and paying down the national debt, an excellent way to start would be by reducing the nation’s trade deficit.

America’s failed trade policies are responsible for more than half of the current national debt of $13 trillion.

America has not held a trade surplus with the rest of the world since 1975. In the years since, the nation has run an overall deficit of $7.5 trillion.

(I seem to recall our former U.S. House Rep Patrick Murphy telling us this over and over during the campaign last year, by the way. What a shame more people didn’t listen.)

This stuff isn’t surprising from Buchanan, though – as noted here, it looks like he benefitted from a disproportionately high percentage of “undervotes” in his last election (I mean, we are talking about Florida here, so…)

…while reporting on state certification of election results in Florida's 13th Congressional District in favor of Republican candidate Vern Buchanan, (CNN’s John) King stated that Democratic candidate Christine Jennings "is suing for a new election. She says thousands of voting machines in Sarasota County did not work properly."

But King failed to note the actual evidence Jennings has cited in claiming that the machines "did not work properly." Ballots filed on electronic machines in Sarasota County contained a much higher percentage of undervotes -- no recorded choice for congressional representative -- than did absentee ballots in Sarasota County or ballots in other counties. The Miami Herald reported on November 9 that the Sarasota undervote was "nearly 12 percent," "the undervote rate for absentee ballots, cast on paper for fill-in-the-blank Optiscan machines, was about 3 percent in Sarasota," and the surrounding counties had "an undervote rate of less than 3 percent." As the weblog TPM Muckraker noted, a review in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune concluded that "[i]f the missing votes had broken for Jennings by the same percentage as the counted votes in Sarasota County, the Democrat would have won the race by about 600 votes instead of losing by 368."

And as noted here..

Though Rep. Vern Buchanan has yet to publicly comment on a watchdog group’s efforts to launch an FBI investigation into his past congressional campaigns, he has found time to sell his $4.49 million yacht, The Entrepreneur. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is now using that yacht sale to highlight the allegations surrounding the Florida congressman.

On Wednesday, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (aka CREW) sent a letter to the FBI, asking that the Bureau launch a thorough investigation into Buchanan, R-Sarasota. Buchanan has long been dogged by rumors of campaign fraud and the release of a sworn deposition by one of his former business partners, Sam Kazran, further highlights the alleged improprieties.

No wonder these clowns fought so hard for tax cuts on behalf of yacht owners (here – yes, I know it’s Texas and not Florida, but “birds of a feather” I always say).

Finally, it looks as if our beloved commonwealth is getting closer to enacting its own wretched voter ID law, as noted here (the Repugs bring us yet another “solution” in search of a problem)…

Rather than tell a poll worker your name, House lawmakers have passed a bill that would require voters to show a government-issued photo ID along with their name and address.

The bill will be taken up as early as next month when the state senate reconvenes.

“I’m very concerned about it,” said Madeline Rawley of Doylestown, a member of the Coalition for Voting Integrity. “You’re putting up barriers that make it difficult for seniors, the disabled and young people.”

Daryl Metcalfe of Butler County, chairman of the House State Government Committee sponsored House Bill 934, co-sponsored by Bucks County Republicans Paul Clymer and Scott Petri.

Modeled after Indiana’s photo identification law, Metcalfe’s legislation would amend the Pennsylvania’s election code to require voters to present valid photo ID before voting. Current law requires identification for voters who appear to vote in an election district for the first time.

Well, at least we can’t say we weren’t warned – as noted here, Metcalfe was making noises about this last March even though his “expert” from The Heritage Foundation couldn’t find any actual instances of voter fraud. Also, Metcalfe introduced an Arizona-style “illegal to be brown” law, protested a resolution to recognize October 2009 as Domestic Violence Awareness Month because “it has a homosexual agenda,” and he called Iraq and Afghanistan war vets “traitors” for opposing his energy policy (all here).

The Courier Times story also tells us the following…

(Secretary of the Commonwealth and a proponent of Metcalfe’s scheme Carol) Aichele said voter turnout in states such as Georgia, with strict photo ID laws, has increased across racial, ethnic and socio-economic lines.

I don’t have any information on the Peach State, but as noted here, three studies all concluded that voter ID laws lower voter turnout.

And as noted here...

Voter fraud is virtually nonexistent in America, but this imaginary crime still serves to justify a wave of onerous new voter registration laws—often requiring a state-issued photo ID—that Republican legislators have rapidly spread across the nation. The implications for the 2012 elections are huge.

“The overall idea is pretty obvious,” says Frances Fox Piven, author of three books outlining America’s unusually harsh and restrictive voting laws. “Both parties expect close elections in 2012, and if you peel off just a couple percentage points, you can determine the outcome.”

Piven points to Wisconsin, where protests over a law passed earlier this year rendering public-employee unions toothless were followed by the imposition of a restrictive voter ID law by Gov. Scott Walker and Republican majorities in the state legislature. “We saw labor protests of unprecedented size and intensity over limiting their voice as workers,” Piven says. “And then [protesters] were greeted with a law to limit their power electorally, too.”

With the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) promoting voter identification, eight other states also passed restrictive new laws this year, bringing the total number of states with such laws to 30. Another 16 states have seen similar ID laws introduced in 2011. Only a veto in June by New Hampshire’s Gov. John Lynch (D) prevented the passage of a law using residency requirements to diminish the voting of, as the state’s House Speaker William O’Brien (R) described them, “liberal” students.

Returning to the Courier Times story, I give you the following…

Cost is also an issue. A Department of State analysis shows 99 percent of eligible voters already have an acceptable photo ID, and providing free photo IDs to every other eligible voter would cost just over $1 million.

The House Appropriations Committee estimated the cost at $4.3 million next year while a House Democratic Appropriations Committee pegs the cost at $9.8 million.

So Democrats and Republicans not only differ on the cost of change, but also on the merits of the bill.

State Rep. Steve Santarsiero, D-31, voted against the measure. He calls the legislation a waste of money and “simply not necessary. The voter fraud House Republicans claim it will prevent is virtually non-existent in Pennsylvania. All we are doing here is disenfranchising tens of thousands of Pennsylvania voters.”

Steve stands tall for us once again – to contact him (and to say thanks), click here.

Monday Stuff

Melissa Harris-Perry, sitting in for Rachel Maddow, gives us a recap of Irene's devastation (to help those most severely impacted, click here...Mrs. Doomsy and I felt sick over the flooding in Vermont in particular - kudos as always to Bernie Sanders...Moon Unit Bachmann is a dope, and Ron Paul wants to party like it's 1912)...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

...and we're hardly innocent ourselves on the issue of food waste in this country, but I still thought this was an interesting story timed for the end of the Ramadan observance (I once heard someone say the threat of lawsuits is the reason why we dispose of food from buffets and such instead of donating it more often in the U.S., and the person who said this to me was someone who worked at a restaurant and a person who I don't consider a crank generally)...



...and oh yeah, with the 10th anniversary coming up, it looks like it's time for the "9/11" industry to kick into high gear once again, including T-shirt sales, even if it is for a good cause (and why would anyone outside of Fix Noise take Former President Nutball seriously here, still; by the way, note to Current - your video editing has been sloppy lately...clean it up)...



Update 8/30/11: Ah, the hearty stench of jingoism and bigotry (here)...

...and as long as I'm on the subject of anniversaries, The Beatles played their last live concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on this day 45 years ago (the video below shows pics of the event...and speaking of the Fab Four, I can't wait to check this out).

Bringing The Pain, Part 4

(Part 1 including the setup is here, Part 2 is here, and Part 3 is here.)

Maine

I have a question for the registered voters of this wondrous state: what the hell were you thinking exactly when you elected Paul LePage as governor?

As noted here, he signed a bill easing restrictions on child labor, and as noted here (pretty much doing the bidding of those who financed him, of course), he favored repealing the state’s ban on the use of strikebreakers and eliminating unemployment benefits for strikers, and he also rolled back the state’s wage and tip sharing laws to comply with weaker federal standards.

Oh, and who can forget this typical episode from LePage, where he ordered the removal of a 36-foot mural depicting the state’s labor history from the Department of Labor building (to show how petty LePage truly is, he also favored changing the name of one of the conference rooms from the “Perkins Room,” named to commemorate Frances Perkins, the crusading Secretary of Labor under FDR, to something more “business friendly”).

There are actually sane Republicans still representing this state, though; as noted here, President Snowe met some honest-to-God unemployed people at a job fair, and she and Susan Collins supported extending jobless benefits here (earning them the eternal enmity of this crowd).

Update 1 10/6/11: Given this item, all I can say is that, somewhere, “Chicken Lady” Sue Lowden is smiling, unfortunately (here).

Update 2 10/6/11: God, is LePage a buffoon (here).


Update 5/9/12: Same as it ever was - unbelievable (here).


Maryland

This tells us that the state’s unemployment rate was 7.2 percent in July (with a breakdown of June rates by county here – as noted here, Maryland ranks last in the nation in job growth, though affluent pockets of the state seem to be doing OK).

And as noted here (concerning the March employment numbers)…

“Maryland’s economy continues to grow as our state pulls out of this national recession. Thousands of Marylanders have entered the workforce since the start of the year and we recorded the largest monthly employment gain last month since the final month of President Clinton’s term,” (Maryland Governor Martin) O’Malley said then.

As the story tells us, though, O’Malley was a bit more guarded about the May numbers, for what it’s worth.

Also, this tells you of an individual who had an adventure with filing for unemployment in the state (apparently rescued because he knew someone in the state’s unemployment office). In addition, this tells us the following…

Congressman Elijah Cummings hosted a town hall meeting this weekend at Howard Community College to reach out to those who need help but may not know where to find it.

“It would be so sad for people to sit, thinking that there was nothing they can do, people losing hope. And at the same time, there are programs that exist to help them,” Cummings said.

I respected Elijah Cummings anyway, but I especially do now after that story.

Massachusetts

This tells us of newspaper columnist Jim Kinney, who sought stories of unemployed people in the state in April; I hope individuals were able to communicate with him, or you can reach him now from an Email link accompanying the story.

Also, this provides a discussion thread on the topic of people supposedly choosing unemployment over work (though someone is going to have to prove to me that this is a legitimate issue in light of this). This state (like many others, I’m sure) appears to suffer from a degree of economic anxiety that seems to persist despite a growing economy, as noted here from May.

And when it comes to the politicians, this tells us that “Wall Street Scott” Brown single-handedly blocked an unemployment benefits extension last December, and this tells us of the highly questionable job record of a certain Republican presidential candidate who was once governor of this state (typical for a guy who gave us this “duuh!” moment also).

Michigan

This might be the biggest “job graveyard” of anywhere in this country. However, as noted here, though unemployment once reached the staggering level of 14.1 percent in 2009, it has been coming down since then, though it rose again to 10.9 percent in July (here).

Former Dem Governor Jennifer Granholm said here in June 2010 that the failure of the Senate to extend unemployment benefits and state Medicaid aid was “devastating.” Of course, the wingnuts had a field day with Granholm, trying to propagate the lie that a tax hike led to a spike in Michigan unemployment here, to say nothing of some truly evergreen garbage from the right-wing media circus like this.

So who is in charge of Michigan now with Granholm’s departure? Why, Rick Snyder, head of former lousy computer maker Gateway, who catastrophically slashed unemployment benefits here to a maximum of 20 weeks. And as noted here, Snyder implemented his “emergency manager” law, which of course is meant to (wait for it!) attack public sector unions and arbitrarily remove elected officials from office (Democratic officials primarily, of course).

Want to do something about it? Click here to learn more about the recall effort against Snyder (we’re at least halfway there on the signatures required for recall – let’s keep the momentum going).

Minnesota

The state recently experienced a government shutdown when the Republican legislature wouldn’t agree on a two-year budget plan with Dem governor Mark Dayton (here).

As a result (as noted here)…

The net loss of jobs in July was 19,800 (8,200 private sector jobs were added). Even with the shutdown, the state's unemployment rate remained substantially below the national rate of 9.1 percent.

Most of the 22,000 state workers and 3,000 government contractors who were laid off during the 20-day shutdown have been called back to work. For public sector employment, the good news ends there.

Also, as noted here, the state’s economy lost out on potentially $62 billion. One piece of good news, though, is that the state’s rate of 7.2 percent is still well below the national average.

And when it comes to the politicians, this reminds us that Moon Unit Bachmann said that she hoped higher unemployment would help her campaign (nice). On the sane side, this tells us that Sen. Al Franken issued a statement of support on positive developments in the American Crystal Sugar lockout, which potentially affects 1,300 workers.

Mississippi

This tells us how the state is “shedding jobs,” though hope is out there, somewhere (kind of a reach with a state that ranks last in so many categories, including child poverty, infant mortality, lowest median household income, highest teen birth rate, and highest rate of both obesity and STDs, as noted here…a bit tangential for the jobs issue, I know, but it’s hard to develop an economy with numbers like these).

So what does governor Haley Barbour say about this? Well, he said here that some Medicaid recipients in his state drove BMWs (offering no proof, of course). And as noted here, the state’s two Repug senators, Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker, received an "F" for their antipoverty voting records in 2009 from the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, voting against extending unemployment benefits, the Paycheck Fairness Act, an amendment to extend the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) jobs program, and ten other poverty-fighting bills that could have provided financial relief to their low-income constituents.

Oh, and by the way (as noted here), the state’s unemployment rate in July was 10.4 percent (Barbour, Wicker and Cochran should each be summarily fired, to say nothing of that state’s U.S. House reps…I can dream, can’t I?).

I’ll pick this up later, hopefully this week (I was planning to wrap this up by Labor Day, but I can tell you right now that that ain’t gonna happen).

Sunday Stuff

Here's a Sunday history lesson about "our plain duty" on Social Security (and kudos to Bernie Sanders for this, by the way - and a raspberry to "Goodhair" Perry for this)...



...and I hope everyone made it through the bad weather OK - from these parts, it's finally time to play this song (we may actually see the sun in an hour or so, believe it or not).

Friday Stuff

Hopefully back to posting soon, or Monday at the latest - we'll see...

Meanwhile, with an impending weather calamity facing this country, always count on Eric Cantor to be as big of a sleazy weasel as you can imagine (here)...



...and this song has nothing whatsoever to do with hurricanes, wind or rain, so here it is.

Thursday Stuff

Happy 90th birthday, believe it or not, to boomer icon Monty Hall (I can give you the birthday cake, or you can have what's behind Door Number 2 where Carol is standing...sssh, don't tell him it's 50 cases of Shinola...and "Irene," huh? And I'll bet those two Pontiacs would go for about four times that amount now, fully restored)...



...and from a huckster for fun, I now give you a huckster for real (if you like George W. Bush, you'll love Rick Perry)...



Update 9/3/11: Perry is worse than a joke - he's an obscenity (here).

..."Worst Persons" (Indiana State Rep Phillip Hinkle gets it for the reasons noted here - and as long as we're quoting Yes lyrics - well, I was going to say that "yours is no disgrace," but that would be a lie of course; Florida Congressman Steve Southerland continues to struggle under the apparently oppressive yolk of a low-six-figure salary and free health benefits and myriad other perks...God, are the Florida voters who elected these clowns the stupidest life forms in the universe, or what; but L.A. Dodgers owner Frank McCourt takes it for subjecting Vin Scully, of all people, to a fan poll that apparently will dictate whether or not Scully still has a job...the Phillies are my team, but as someone who respects a pro even if they're on the other side of the diamond, I think there's no way a legend like Scully should have to put up with this...got chopped off a bit at the end, but you get the idea)...



...and no, this isn't a weather forecast, though I suppose it could be.

Thursday Mashup (8/25/11)

I give you the following from clownhall.com…

PaulAzinger:POTUS has played more golf this month than I have. I have created more jobs this month than he has.

(By the way, this is one of the reasons why I hate Twitter, even though I know it’s the wave of the future, as they say. There are some concepts/ideas/themes/whatever that have no business being boiled down to 25 words or less, or whatever the maximum is. If people don’t have the time or the mental capacity to absorb more information…well, they just have to generate more time or more brainpower, that’s all.)

Update 8/28/11: OK, maybe "hate" is too strong - I see that Twitter has value as a "rapid fire" mode of communication, but I'm just saying that it shouldn't be used as a tool for critical analysis of substantive content, that's all, though often it is.

This “tweet” is from golfer Paul Azinger, who seems to have done well turning himself into a cottage industry after winning eleven tournaments in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s; in addition, he organized the U.S. Ryder Cup-winning golf team in 2008 (as noted here, though, the celebration was not without some rather pointless jingoism). He has also survived a bout of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and he has written two books about his career and his illness.

However, based on this, it seems that he’s “tweeting” to find out how successful he would be were he to run for public office.

Sooo…exactly how many jobs have you supposedly created this month, Azinger (and by the way, if you’re going to criticize Obama on that, it’s really weak to give the wretched 112th Congress a pass on this since the president, for the most part, doesn’t make law himself). And only a duffer would criticize a commander-in-chief for actually playing golf on his vacation.

Unlike this guy, of course (Number 43, I mean)…



Note to Azinger; it's nice that you've achieved some degree of success organizing a bunch of golfers, but if you have a plan, get in the public arena for real and tell us what it is, as opposed to taking shots at somebody else. Otherwise, you’re not “shooting for par” (sorry for the golf colloquialisms, but they’re too tempting…family members play it, but I’ve never been any good at the game myself).

Next, I give you J.D. Mullane of the Bucks County Courier Times, lamenting the recent passing of Joey Vento, proprietor of Geno’s Steaks in South Philadelphia (here)…

Joey Vento’s demand that his customers speak English was not about hate, as his critics said. It was a stand for common sense, a defense of the most precious bond that Americans share, a common language, English.

I think Vento’s “English only” policy was stupid; I mean, if he had such a problem trying to understand what his customers were saying, why didn’t his menu have letters or numbers associated with the selections? It’s a lot easier to understand “1, 2 or 3” or “A,B or C” instead of “cheese steak with or without onions, mushrooms or pepperoni,” or something. However, I understand how someone can make a case that he should have been allowed to put up his sign, stupid as it was.

But like Azinger, I think Vento let a little bit of celebrity go to his head; as noted here, he asked how you could give health care to 30 million people and save money over 10 years. “I’ve got a bridge to sell you if you believe that,” Vento said.

In response, I give you this (and as I pointed out at the time, we can be grateful that no one elected Joey Vento to a damn thing).

Continuing, George Will sneers as follows from his ivory WaPo tower here…

The residues of liberalism’s Wisconsin Woodstock — 1960s radicalism redux: operatic lamentations, theatrical demonstrations and electoral futilities — are words of plaintive defiance painted on sidewalks around the state capitol. “Solidarity forever” was perhaps painted by a graduate student forever at the University of Wisconsin. “Repubs steal elections” is an odd accusation from people who, seeking to overturn the 2010 elections, cheeredDemocratic lawmakers who fled to Illinois — a congenial refuge for labor-subservient Democrats — in order to paralyze the duly elected legislature. The authors of the sidewalk graffiti have at least read Jefferson: “The tree of liberty is watered by the blood of tyrants.” The tyrant is “$cott Walker American Fa$ci$t.”

Our well-kept right wing pundit would do well by his readers (assuming they weren’t as close-minded as he is) to read this, including a map of all of the states where labor is fighting back as a result of the power grab by the Kochs and Hosni Mubarak Walker in the “cheese head” state (with the Wisconsin tactics played out across the country).

And as noted here…

To recap: Democrats, using only volunteer help, forced recall elections in 75% of the Republican-held Senate districts eligible for recall. Republicans, on the other hand, forced recall elections in only 37.5% of the eligible Democratic districts, even with paid help and questionable tactics, including using forged signatures and offering free drinks to people in exchange for signing the recall petitions.

Early on, many observers and professional pundits argued that the recalls would be not only a referendum on Scott Walker and his supporters in the legislature, but also a measure of how Wisconsinites felt about the 14 Democratic senators leaving the state to block the bill. Reading the elections in those terms, the Republicans and Scott Walker lost big. They lost in one third of the six recall districts represented by Republicans, and gained no seats in the districts held by Democrats. As State Senator Lena Taylor of Milwaukee phrased it during a Madison, Wisconsin broadcast on MSNBC last week, she and her fellow Democrats “went into their backyard, into their sandbox, took their toys and made them ours.”

What about the Wisconsin 14 who left the state to slow down Governor Scott Walker and his allies in the legislature? Only three of them faced recalls, and they all performed strongly, one even better than he did in 2008.

Also, this tells us that the Dems have their work cut out for them in an effort to recall Walker, though a lot of that depends on the right candidate; it’s basically a tossup at this point, but definitely not a majority of support for Walker by any means…we’ll see.

Finally, the following column recently appeared in the Doylestown Intelligencer by Neil Samuels, vice chairman of the Bucks County Democrats…

Bucks County Republican Party Vice Chairwoman Pat Poprik recently made an outrageous and demonstrably false comment to your newspaper concerning the arrest of four Republican county employees, including the elected register of wills, Barbara Reilly.

Poprik claimed that Democratic County Commissioner Diane Marseglia is as responsible as Republican County Commissioner Charley Martin for not uncovering the alleged felonies and crimes that occurred in the courthouse (which included theft, conspiracy, tampering with evidence and official oppression).

Poprik’s exact quote was: “Diane was a commissioner at the time this took place. If Charley should have known, then she should have known.” Really? Did Poprik not read the grand jury report that led to the arrests? I find that hard to imagine, since the Republican Party headquarters where she spends so much time is frequently mentioned in the grand jury’s final report.

The grand jury cites numerous witnesses swearing under oath that employees from the county Register of Wills Office were paid with tax dollars for working on Republican political campaigns during work hours in the county courthouse and got paid off the books for working at the polls on election days. And 10 separate witnesses specifically admitted under oath that they and other employees also frequently left work and crossed the street to Republican Party headquarters to stuff envelopes, make phone calls or do other campaign chores.

Some readers might legitimately wonder whether any of these department employees ever worked on Democratic campaigns or at Democratic headquarters, and the answer is a resounding “no” for a very simple reason. As the testimony of the now-arrested administrator Candace Quinn is summarized in the report: “Quinn added that Reilly is also a Republican, as is every employee at the Register of Wills. Quinn admitted that in her 18 years in the office, there has never been a Democrat working there.”

Typical Repug garbage; in response, to help Dem Bucks County Commissioner candidates Diane Marseglia and Det Ansinn, click here.

Wednesday Stuff

I was driving back from Maryland yesterday on 95 when we had the earthquake - felt to me like tractor trailers passing by anyway, so I didn't notice much of anything (though Le Manse Doomsy was briefly disturbed for a time, as reported by my "better half"...all is well, though, and hopefully that goes for everybody else).

So, cue the obligatory video...



...and RIP Jerry Leiber (pics are from the film "American Graffiti," including a few actors we know well by now who were very, very young at the time - video goes for about 30 seconds too long, but it's still good)...



...oh, and as a reminder, here is the very definition of a "fighting Dem" (and in a related story, I was sorry to hear about this)...



...and were FDR alive today, I'm convinced that he would take dead aim at the Koch Brothers, for reasons such as those described here (this is a case study in using right-wing code language for "dog whistle" purposes, and also for fighting back).

Wednesday Mashup (8/24/11)

Oh noes! Looks like the Obama Administration is in trouble on the jobs issue (here)…

House Republican leaders used the new economic forecast from the Congressional Budget Office to criticize their Democratic counterparts for slowing the creation of jobs.

“The bottom line in this underwhelming report [is that] … President Obama’s policies are continuing to make it harder for the private sector to create jobs, and that’s continuing to make it harder to balance the federal budget,” Speaker of the House John Boehner wrote in a statement.

And check out this hilarious bit of editorializing in what purports to be a “news” story from The Daily Tucker…

The Republicans’ focus on jobs, rather than deficits, reflects recent polling that shows swing-voters are more concerned about high unemployment than high deficits.

Really? Anybody see a jobs bill from this bunch? Anybody?

And it sounds like Orange Man and his pals actually like the CBO now, doesn’t it?

Wonder why they didn’t here last January, when the CBO said that trying to repeal the health care law would add $230 billion to the deficit?

What a bunch of frauds (and here is an important reminder from Dem U.S. House Rep Joe Crowley).

Update 9/1/11: Oops, looks like the Repugs don't like the CBO again (here).

Next, someone named Maggie Gallagher at Irrational Spew Online here wonders if the gay marriage issue will spell defeat for Dem Dave Weprin, who is running against Repug Bob Turner for the New York seat that used to be held by Dem Anthony Weiner.

Well, seeing that gay marriage enjoys enough support to allow that state to become the sixth in the country to legalize gay marriage (here), I would be inclined to think that Gallagher and her pals will have to look somewhere else for a “wedge” issue (at the moment, Weprin appears to lead Turner by six points, as noted here).

As for the Repug candidate, Turner attacked Weprin for supporting the “ground zero mosque” here and also claimed that the Zadroga Bill shouldn’t cover volunteers who aided with 9/11 rescue and recovery here. So yeah, it looks like Turner is a good little Repug who would be a dutiful servant to the House Repug “leadership” (and more on Weprin is here).

Also, Joe Nocera opined as follows in the New York Times yesterday (here)…

Boeing’s aircraft assembly has long been done by its unionized labor force in Puget Sound, Wash. Most of the new (787) Dreamliners will be built in Puget Sound as well. But with the plane so far behind schedule, Boeing decided to spend $750 million to open the South Carolina facility. Between the two plants, the company hopes to build 10 Dreamliners a month.

That’s the plan, at least. The Obama administration, however, has a different plan. In April, the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Boeing, accusing it of opening the South Carolina plant to retaliate against the union, which has a history of striking at contract time. The N.L.R.B.’s proposed solution, believe it or not, is to move all the Dreamliner production back to Puget Sound, leaving those 5,000 workers in South Carolina twiddling their thumbs.

Seriously, when has a government agency ever tried to dictate where a company makes its products? I can’t ever remember it happening. Neither can Boeing, which is fighting the complaint. J. Michael Luttig, Boeing’s general counsel, has described the action as “unprecedented.” He has also said that it was a disservice to a country that is “in desperate need of economic growth and the concomitant job creation.” He’s right.

I don’t know of a “government agency” dictating where a company makes its products either. However, I would suggest that providing tax incentives to companies to offshore our jobs, to say nothing of signing crappy trade deals into law, helps to “dictate where a company makes its products” also, and I don’t hear anything near the squawking on that that we should be hearing as far as I’m concerned.

Also, it should be noted that, in the 2008 Boeing strike, workers ended up losing $7 grand in salary, which demonstrates yet again that labor strikes rarely have clear winners and losers (here). And in ’09, Boeing said here they had to open the S.C. plant because they couldn’t get a no-strike deal with the machinists, but now, they say they would have opened the S.C. plant “regardless of the labor issue,” which sounds like a flip-flop to me (and as noted here, Boeing originally committed to a second plant in Puget Sound in ‘07, but switched to South Carolina in ’09…so, as far as I’m concerned, they went back on their word concerning their original deal).

In addition (here)…

Boeing executives, including (Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and Chief Executive Jim Albaugh), have been saying good things about the importance of engineering in recent months and have shown “some signs” of following through on that talk, (Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace union spokesman Bill Dugovich) said.

“We’re looking forward to seeing more of that,” he said. “It’s good to hear the president of BCA say they’ve outsourced too much and they won’t outsource key technologies in the future again. Certainly the wing technology is one technology we pointed out repeatedly that that’s just a critical skill and institutional knowledge that should stay within the Boeing Company.”

As for production certainty and cost control, Dugovich said: “We recognize that those are important concerns for Boeing, and they’re concerns for us, too.”

In a letter to union machinists, International Association of Machinists District 751 President Tom Wroblewski agreed with Albaugh’s statements about the Puget Sound aerospace workers, outsourcing, Washington’s business climate and the desirability of putting future commercial airplane programs in the area.

“As far as his comments about strikes and wages go, well, I found it interesting that he’d say something like that just days after he and CEO Jim McNerney both collected $3 million bonuses,” Wroblewski wrote.

I’m willing to entertain a discussion on the merits of the Obama Administration’s efforts to tell Boeing to keep its aerospace jobs in Puget Sound. However, there are plenty of other examples of companies leaving their workforces high and dry for purposes of both on and offshoring, so when one comes along where unionized workers are being protected and they’re getting the work done…well, just don’t expect me to be terribly sympathetic to the company line, that’s all.

(More from Media Matters – turns out that Nocera’s column is more appalling than I imagined…he pledged to write another column about Republicans and non-job creation later, so it sounds like we have more false equivalency on display here.)

Finally, I give you the following from a speech Florida Senate Repug Marco Rubio gave invoking The Sainted Ronnie R (here)…

The answer to what the proper role of government is really lies in what kind of country we want to have. And I think the vast majority of Americans share a common vision for what they want our nation to be. They want our nation to be two things at the same time.

Number one: they want it to be free and prosperous, a place where your economic hopes and dreams can be accomplished and brought up to fruition. That through hard work and sacrifice you can be who God meant you to be. No matter who your parents were, no matter where you were born, no matter how much misfortune you may have met in your life, if you have a good idea, you can be anything if you work hard and play by the rules. Most, if not all, Americans share that vision of a free and prosperous America.

But they also want us to be a compassionate America, a place where people are not left behind. We are a nation that is not going to tolerate those who cannot take care of themselves being left to fend for themselves. We’re not going to tolerate our children being punished for the errors of their parents and society.

So, we are a nation that aspires to two things – prosperity and compassion. And Ronald Reagan understood that.

In response, I give you the following…

Rubio called for raising the age of eligibility to receive Social Security benefits here – so much for compassion.

He opposed adding immigrants to the census here.

Of course, Rubio favors tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations (here).

And that including making the Dubya tax cuts permanent (here).

Also, did I mention Rubio’s education plan cuts tax credits for low-income families to help rich pay for private schools (here)?

And as long as I’m on the subjects of The Gipper and “compassion,” I’d also like to offer the following quote (from here)…

“Is it news that some fellow out in South Succotash somewhere has just been laid off?” (3/16/82)

That Ronnie sure could turn a phrase, couldn’t he?

Monday Stuff

Gee, President Obama takes out both bin Laden and Quadafi - no wonder the wingnuts are beside themselves (And what calm, rational folks the Quadafi regime are, aren't they, as seen below? And no, I don't have a clue as to whether or not that's the correct spelling of his name...I don't know what it is anyway - I want to get to at least one more video on this, but probably not tonight; also, probably no posting tomorrow)...



...and considering the above, doesn't this look like a genius move from Former President Nutball in September 2004 (but ssshh, nary a word of reproach from our corporate media - audio at about :37)...



..."Worst Persons" (yep, I would say that Lamar Smith is a subject matter expert on embarrassing behavior, more proof that "values" charlatan Tony Perkins is a fraud, and sleazy weasel Eric Cantor penned some true dreck today in the WaPo, which I'm sure warmed the cockles of Fred Hiatt and his coal-black heart)...



...and RIP Nick Ashford - along with Valerie Simpson, this is one of their signature tunes…my condolences.

Monday Mashup (8/22/11)

Remember here, when the teabaggers got all upset at Marvel because, in a Captain America comic, they were depicted as holding completely authentic signs, and in the face of criticism, editor Joe Quesada utterly caved and apologized?

Well, in a related story, as they say, I give you this (the correct way to handle such a dustup)…

This year, Marvel Comics announced that multi-racial Miles Morales would be the new man behind Spider-man’s red and blue mask in “Ultimate Spider-Man.” Right on cue, right-wing punditry erupted in a racist rage against the idea of a biracial hero. Defunct Fox News host Glenn Beck lashed out at Marvel, calling Spiderman “a stupid comic book” and attributed the change as an intentional nod to Michelle Obama’s apparent agenda to “change our traditions.” In response, “Ultimate Spider-Man” writer Brian Michael Bendis found reason to celebrate: “We pissed off Glenn Beck, and that was amazing. I don’t think Glenn Beck is an idiot because he’s a conservative. I literally think he’s just an idiot. Regardless of his belief system, he’s just a lunatic. So that was hilarious…I told my wife that she doesn’t have to get me anything for my birthday because nothing will make me happier than this made me.”

Wallopin’ Websnappers!

Also, Tyler Cowen opined as follows at The Old Gray Lady yesterday (here)…

THERE’S been a lot of bad economic news lately, yet we may be overlooking the most disturbing development of all: our economic productivity has been weakening. This isn’t just a problem for the United States. Because America remains a leader in technology and innovation, it is also a matter of concern for the entire world.

Cowen actually cites some legitimate sources for his claim; our ridiculous health care expenditures in this country which basically don’t equate to better patient outcomes, our “expenditures on the military and domestic security” which “generally doesn’t produce useful goods and services that raise our standard of living,” the fact that the Chinese aren’t “taking the lead in creating breakthrough products,” etc. Oh, and Cowen also says, “One problem may be offshoring by American companies” though “(his) point is not to attack offshoring” (of course).

But out of all of this, Cowen arrives at the following conclusion…

“…Americans have not been getting the job done…”

I don’t know what “Americans” Cowen is referring to here, but this tells us the following…

WASHINGTON — The United States is out of step with the rest of the world's richest industrialized nations: Its economy is growing faster than theirs but creating far fewer jobs.

The reason is U.S. workers have become so productive that it's harder for anyone without a job to get one.

Companies are producing and profiting more than when the recession began, despite fewer workers. They're hiring again, but not fast enough to replace most of the 7.5 million jobs lost since the recession began.

Measured in growth, the American economy has outperformed those of Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan – every Group of 7 developed nation except Canada, according to The Associated Press' new Global Economy Tracker, a quarterly analysis of 22 countries representing more than 80 percent of global output.

Yet the U.S. job market remains the group's weakest. U.S. employment bottomed and started growing again a year ago, but there are still 5.4 percent fewer American jobs than in December 2007. That's a much sharper drop than in any other G-7 country. The U.S. had the G-7's highest unemployment rate as of December.

Also, this tells us how Americans are working part-time jobs to supplement their income.

This is pretty much what you’d expect from a “glibertarian” like Cowen, though, who blamed “immigrants who consume public services” for the deficit here and extolled our supposedly glorious private sector health care system in this country (as opposed to that baaad “big gumint” supposed Obama scheme of health care reform) here...so I guess what he says here about HCR basically constitutes a "flip flop," doesn't it?

Continuing, I give you the following inanity from The Daily Tucker (here)…

Barack Obama’s presidency is a disaster. But however low the Dow drops, however high unemployment goes, however many more times we engage in dubious foreign policy adventures like the Libyan war, one thing is for sure: Conservatives will never call for the assassination of the president.

Oh, that’s rich (would that it were true).

This tells us the following…

Since Mr Obama took office, the rate of threats against the president has increased 400 per cent from the 3,000 a year or so under President George W. Bush, according to Ronald Kessler, author of In the President's Secret Service.

(Note: This must be a right-wing site…a tipoff is all of the typos. However, the source information looks credible.)

Also, as noted here…

Sarah Palin's attacks on Barack Obama's patriotism provoked a spike in death threats against the future president, Secret Service agents revealed during the final weeks of the campaign.

Also, wingnut Repug U.S. House Rep Paul Broun of Georgia was just a little bit late in responding to the supposed “joke” from a constituent about assassinating Obama (here), and this idiot Rex Rammell in Idaho made a supposed joke about “hunting” Obama here (and by the way, we’re still waiting for an apology for this).

Make no mistake – I agreed with practically nothing that Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History said or did during his ill-fated term, but despite that, I never wished for violence against him physically or against any other public figure. There are plenty of ways to express disagreement without acting in that uncalled-for fashion, and we should all hope and pray for the safety not just of President Obama, but of all of our public officials.

Also, I know it’s hard to believe, but it looks as though the Republican Party has finally found a tax cut it doesn’t like (here)…

Republicans are balking at President Obama's proposal to extend the payroll tax deduction for another year:

"It's always a net positive to let taxpayers keep more of what they earn," says Rep. Jeb Hensarling, "but not all tax relief is created equal for the purposes of helping to get the economy moving again."

And why aren't they eager to extend it?

The 12-month tax reduction will cost the government about $120 billion this year, and a similar amount next year if it's renewed.

That worries Rep. David Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, and a member of the House-Senate supercommittee tasked with finding new deficit cuts. Tax reductions, "no matter how well-intended," will push the deficit higher, making the panel's task that much harder, Camp's office said.

…

Here's why Republicans don't want to do it: it's a twofer. They get to screw the President and they get to screw the middle-class, all at the same time. It's what they refer to as a "golden opportunity" and they don't want to pass it up.

This is typical for the bunch who removed a middle-class tax credit in January here (without a lot of fight from the Dems as nearly as I can tell). And from the “looking into the crystal ball” dept., I give you the following from Dem U.S. House Rep Pete Stark last December…

If Republicans want tax cuts for the wealthy, we should demand that they explain how to pay for them right now. We know how they will be paid for in the long run -- once Republicans are in the majority and flip-flop back to caring about the deficit, they will insist on "deficit reduction" legislation that slashes important programs that help working families -- all to pay down the deficit that this proposal creates.

In addition, this confirms the fact that the Dubya tax cuts were a complete failure; we experienced the lowest increase of GDP under Dubya than under any other president since JFK. And this tells us that they’re not deviating from the script in any way whatsoever (memo to President Hopey Changey: beat them over the head with this, metaphorically speaking, from now until Election Day...and here is more proof).

Finally (and speaking of Republican congressional numbskulls), I give you the following from the web site of Mikey The Beloved (here)…

“The vast majority of jobs created in our economy today are by small and independently owned businesses,” said Fitzpatrick at the town hall. “So if the federal government is serious about finally reducing unemployment, it needs to listen to the people that are in this room today. The ideas I heard today, including reforming the federal tax code, reducing excessive and redundant regulatory burdens, enacting real cost containment for healthcare, and preventing excessive litigation, are important steps I will advocate for in Washington to help jump start our economy.”

Fitzpatrick is already a co-sponsor of the REINS Act, which would require that Congress approve federal regulatory action that is expected to have an economic impact of at least $100 million.

“Already”? He’s been in office for eight months. What, does he expect fanfare or something?

As noted here, however…

(The REINS Act) would stop any major regulation issued by any federal agency from taking effect until it receives approval from both houses of Congress and the president. Boehner justifies the bill as a “transparency” and “accountability” measure, but it clearly takes aim at the White House, which, with the GOP now in control of the House, is relying heavily on agency rulemaking to advance its agenda in areas such as health care, financial regulation, and clean energy.

Yep, with the gridlock created by the wretched 112th Congress, particularly in the House, Orange Man and his pals are trying to hamstring the only means the Obama White House has of carrying out its agenda.

Of course, a Dem’s notion of implementing change in the face of congressional obstruction is a Repug’s notion of “excessive and redundant regulatory burden,” isn’t it?

Where are the jobs, Mikey??!!

Sunday Stuff

The first 3:30 or so of this clip is good, but Bernie Sanders really nails it in the last 30 seconds here (yes, it's a broken record, and I'll keep repeating it as long as I have to)...



Update 8/22/11: Good job by Sanders here also...

...and I meant to include this on Friday, but I changed my mind at the time, so here it is now.