(Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rebounded last week, returning to levels consistent with only modest job growth after a seasonal quirk caused a sharp drop the prior period.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 34,000 to a seasonally adjusted 386,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims had dropped by 24,000 in the prior week and a combined 36,000 over the previous two weeks.
According to CEO and Chief Global Strategist of Euro Pacific Capital Peter Schiff, the U.S. economy is heading for an economic crash that will make 2008 look like a walk in the park. Stimulus programs can delay this day of reckoning, but only for so long and only at the expense of making the eventual meltdown much, much worse.
Schiff, who famously warned investors about the housing and financial crisis in his 2007 book Crash Proof, says the Fed's palliative efforts during the housing meltdown have made the next crisis inevitable.
"We've got a much bigger collapse coming, and not just of the markets but of the economy," Schiff says in the attached clip. "It's like what you're seeing in Europe right now, only worse."
PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup's U.S. Economic Confidence Index averaged -27 for the week ending July 15, down four points from -23 each of the prior two weeks. This extends a gradual decline in confidence that has been underway since late May, when the index was at a four-year best of -16. The index was nearly this low a month ago -- at -26 in mid-June -- and now stands at the lowest weekly average since late January of this year.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - U.S. retail sales fell by a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in June to mark the third straight decline, the first time that's happened since midway through the last recession in 2008, according to the latest government data. Excluding autos, sales dropped 0.4%, the Commerce Department said Monday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had forecast a 0.2% increase in overall retail sales and no change excluding autos.
Gasoline stations reported the biggest drop, down 1.8%, but almost every sector of the economy posted a decline. In the past 12 months, retail sales have risen 3.5%, but they fell in each month of the second quarter. Sales in May were unchanged at a 0.2% decline, while sales in April were revised down to a 0.5% drop from -0.2%.
While debt and deficits have fallen off Washington's radar screen a bit, in favor of debate over the federal health care law and other issues, U.S. finances remain alarmingly out of balance. And by some measures, it's worse than it is across the pond.
Consider this: Per capita debt in the United States is higher than in all -- or at least some, depending on how it's calculated -- the European nations that have accepted bailouts to date.Ireland: $41,906 Greece: $38,159 Portugal: $19,686 Spain: $18,162
Based on official 2010 International Monetary Fund data released earlier this year, the U.S. debt per capita is $46,208.
The latest Quinnipiac poll shows that — by a 15-point margin — the Supreme Court’s Obamacare ruling makes voters less likely, rather than more likely, to cast their vote for President Obama. Twenty-seven percent of registered voters say that the ruling makes them “less likely” to vote for Obama, while only 12 percent say that it makes them “more likely” to do so. Only 9 percent of independents say that they are “more likely” to vote for Obama because of the ruling, compared to 27 percent who are “less likely.”
Eighty-three percent of American physicians have considered leaving their practices over President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, according to a survey released by the Doctor Patient Medical Association.A perfect example of the law of unitended consequences.
The DPMA, a non-partisan association of doctors and patients, surveyed a random selection of 699 doctors nationwide. The survey found that the majority have thought about bailing out of their careers over the legislation, which was upheld last month by the Supreme Court.
(CNN) – President Barack Obama's re-election campaign announced Monday that it, along with the Democratic National Committee, raised $71 million in June from more than 706,000 donors.
The amount lags far behind the $106 million Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee raised last month, a number the campaign made official early Monday.
U.S. payrolls expanded by just 80,000 net jobs in June keeping the unemployment rate flat at 8.2 percent, new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows.
The private sector only expanded by some 84,000 positions. Economists polled by Bloomberg had forecast a gain of 100,000 positions during the month, with private payrolls advancing 106,000.
The disappointing report, which follows several months of weak economic gains, has sent U.S. markets sharply lower.
Unemployment ebbs and flows, but one measure of the nation's economic health, average weekly wages, rarely dips.
Until now. In the latest demonstration of the struggling economy that threatens President Obama's reelection, average weekly wages fell in 2011, one of only five declines since the category was created in 1978 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In a just-released review of employment in the nation's largest 322 counties, BLS found that weekly wages dropped over the year by 1.7 percent to $955 in the fourth quarter of 2011 from a high of $971 in the fourth quarter of 2010.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. manufacturing shrank in June for the first time in nearly two years, a troubling sign that the economy is faltering.
The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, says its index of manufacturing activity fell to 49.7. That's down from 53.5 in May and the lowest reading since July 2009. Readings below 50 indicate contraction.
Stocks fell immediately after the report was released.
In what is fast becoming a weekly event, the Obama administration granted 200 more companies waivers from the Democrats' sweeping health care law in the Friday night news dump. That brings the number of companies receiving waivers to 1,372. (You can get a full list of the companies exempted here.)
Not surprisingly, it helps to be a Democratic ally when seeking a waiver. The Republican Policy Committee reports that over half of the workers that have been exempted so far belong to unions:
The plans newly approved for waivers cover more than 160,000 people, bringing to nearly 3.1 million the number of individuals in plans exempted from the health law’s requirements. Of the participants receiving waivers, more than half – over 1.55 million – are in union plans, raising questions of why such a disproportionate share of union members are receiving waivers from the law’s requirements. The percentage of participants receiving waivers that come from unions also continues to rise – the number was 48% in April, and 45% in March.
Mr. Emanuel listed safer streets among his top three priorities when he became mayor a year ago, but Chicago, the nation's third-largest city, is now testing that promise. Homicides are up by 38 percent from a year ago, and shootings have increased as well, even as killings have held steady or dropped in New York, Los Angeles and some other cities. As of June 17, 240 people had been killed here this year, mostly in shootings, 66 more deaths than occurred in the same period in 2011.
"That's somebody's husband, somebody's son, and they're dying right on our block," said Maya Hodari, who lives on a South Side street where two shootings have already taken place this year, one of them fatal and another as a toddler looked on. "It hurts."
The violence has left its largest scars in some of Chicago's most impoverished, struggling neighborhoods on the South and West Sides, places with views of the city's gleaming downtown skyline that feel worlds apart. Wealthier, whiter parts of the city have not been entirely immune - shootings were reported in the last few days along the city's Magnificent Mile shopping district and near the Lincoln Park Zoo - but a majority of the killings have been tied to Chicago's increasingly complicated gang warfare, police statistics suggest, and to the gritty neighborhoods where gangs have long thrived.
Twenty-year-old models which have suggested serious ice loss in the eastern Antarctic have been compared with reality for the first time – and found to be wrong, so much so that it now appears that no ice is being lost at all. “Previous ocean models … have predicted temperatures and melt rates that are too high, suggesting a significant mass loss in this region that is actually not taking place,”
Wisconsin membership in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees - the state's second-largest public-sector union after the National Education Association, which represents teachers - fell to 28,745 in February from 62,818 in March 2011, according to a person who has viewed Afscme's figures. A spokesman for Afscme declined to comment. Much of that decline came from Afscme Council 24, which represents Wisconsin state workers, whose membership plunged by two-thirds to 7,100 from 22,300 last year.
A provision of the Walker law that eliminated automatic dues collection hurt union membership. When a public-sector contract expires the state now stops collecting dues from the affected workers' paychecks unless they say they want the dues taken out, said Peter Davis, general counsel of the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission. In many cases, Afscme dropped members from its rolls after it failed to get them to affirm they want dues collected, said a labor official familiar with Afscme's figures.
New Jersey woman who was struck in the facewith a baseball at a Little League game is suing the young catcher who threw it.
Elizabeth Lloyd is seeking more than $150,000 in damages to cover medical costs from the Manchester Little League game two years ago. She's also seeking an undefined amount for pain and suffering.
Lloyd was sitting at a picnic table near a fenced-in bullpen when she was hit with the ball. Catcher Matthew Migliaccio was 11 years old at the time and was warming up a pitcher.
Anthony Pagano, a lawyer for the Migliaccio and his family, says the lawsuit is "frivolous" and "disgusting."
Factory activity in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region contracted for a second month in a row in June as new orders tumbled, a survey showed on Thursday.
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank said its business activity index dropped to minus 16.6 from minus 5.8 in May, far below economists' expectations for a reading of zero, according to a Reuters poll.
The forward-looking new orders gauge fell to minus 18.8 from minus 1.2.
President Obama has granted an 11th-hour requestby Eric Holder to exert executive privilege over Fast and Furious documents, a last-minute maneuver that appears unlikely to head off a contempt vote against the attorney general by Republicans in the House.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is expected to forge ahead with its meeting on the contempt resolution anyway.
Job openings fell to a five-month low in April and showed their sharpest percentage decline in about seven and a half years, according to a government report Tuesday that helped confirm a slowdown in the labor market.
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, indicated 3.4 million job openings at the end of April, an 8 percent decline from the previous month. The pace of total hiring also slowed, with 160,000 fewer jobs filled during the month.
Moreover, the drop showed weakness across the employment spectrum, with manufacturing seeing 62,000 fewer job openings and construction dropping by 2,000.
Today it’s being widely reported that Romney had a moment were he was amazed at the existence of WAWAs, a convenience/gas store, and the electronic touchtone ordering of sandwiches. They have spun this to make it seem like he’s out of touch – BUT THE VIDEO IS EDITED DECEPTIVELY.Video HERE.
Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A Taliban commander in northwest Pakistan has announced a ban on polio vaccines for children as long as the United States continues its campaign of drone strikes in the region, according to a statement by the Taliban.
"Polio drops will be banned in North Waziristan until the drones strikes are stopped," said the statement, released Saturday.
Days before President Obama proclaimed a new Justice Department edict concerning the deportation of young illegal immigrants, both the New York Times and Time magazine ran huge stories on Hispanics in America.
According to Fox News Watch panelists Saturday, this was no coincidence...
U.S. industrial production unexpectedly fell in May, with a slump in manufacturing activity providing another sign of concern for the economic recovery.
Industrial production last month slipped 0.1%, the Federal Reserve said Friday. April's output figures were revised down slightly to a 1.0% gain, versus an initial estimate of a 1.1% jump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans sought unemployment aidlast week, suggesting hiring remains sluggish.
The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly unemployment benefit applications rose 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 386,000, an increase from an upwardly revised 380,000 the previous week.The 65th upward revison in 66 weeks. See a pattern?
The four-week average, a less volatile measure, rose for the third straight week to 382,000. That's the highest in six weeks.
(Reuters) - Retail sales fell for a second straight month in May and wholesale prices dropped by the most in three years, offering more evidence of a downshift in the economic recovery.
Retail sales slipped 0.2 percent as demand for building materials sagged and declining gasoline prices weighed on receipts at service stations, a Commerce Department report showed on Wednesday. April's sales were revised to show a 0.2 percent drop instead of the previously reported 0.1 percent gain.
Motor vehicle sales rose 0.8 percent, a surprise given that manufacturers reported weak unit sales during the month. Excluding autos, sales fell 0.4 percent, the biggest decline in two years, after dropping 0.3 percent the prior month.
This witch deserves to be in jail. It was in August of 2010 the House Ethics Committee decided to proceed with charges against California Congresswoman Maxine Waters for contriving to procure “special favors” for the Massachusetts-based, OneUnited Bank. And although “Waters has done her damnedest during [these] three years to exploit as many legal technicalities as possible to try to get the investigation halted…” it now looks as though the jig might finally be up.
(1) In 2008, Representative Waters set up a meeting between officials of the Treasury Department and members of a “trade association” of minority owned banks. The meeting, however, consisted almost exclusively of OneUnited Bank executives who, to the surprise of the Treasury people, asked them for a $50 million dollar loan! It seems the minority-owned OneUnited was in trouble.
It also seems Maxine Waters’ husband, Sidney Williams, was on the board of OneUnited and owned $350,000 worth of the bank’s stock–stock which would have been worthless if the bank failed. The Congresswoman forgot to mention this minor point to Treasury when arranging the get together.
CBS News) CBS News has learned the House Oversight Committee will vote next week on whether to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. It's the fourth time in 30 years that Congress has launched a contempt action against an executive branch member.
This time, the dispute stems from Holder failing to turn over documents subpoenaed on October 12, 2011 in the Fast and Furious "gunwalking" investigation.
The Justice Department has maintained it has cooperated fully with the congressional investigation, turning over tens of thousands of documents and having Holder testify to Congress on the topic at least eight times.
However, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., says the Justice Department has refused to turn over tens of thousands of pages of documents.
Those include materials created after Feb. 4, 2011, when the Justice Department wrote a letter to Congress saying no gunwalking had occurred. The Justice Department later retracted the denial.
A controversial Coney Island principal has pulled the plug on patriotism. For the first time this year, Mitt Romney’s campaign has bested President Obama’s re-election effort in a one-month fundraising period, outraising the Democrats by more than $16 million in May. The Romney campaign, along with the Republican National Committee and a joint fundraising committee set up between the two entities called Romney Victory, raised $76.8 million last month, the campaign announced on Thursda
The campaign and the RNC also reported ending the month with $107 million cash on hand. That massive haul tops what the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee raised in May by more than $16 million, according to their figures announced Thursday morning.
There is another class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs—partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays.-Booker T. Washington
Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs… There is a certain class of race-problem solvers who do not want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public.
President Obama's budget suffered a second embarrassing defeat Wednesday, when senators voted 99-0 to reject it. Coupled with the House's rejection in March, 414-0, that means
Mr. Obama's budget has failed to win a single vote in support this year. Republicans forced the vote by offering the president's plan on the Senate floor.
Democrats disputed that it was actually the president's plan, arguing that the slim amendment didn't actually match Mr. Obama's budget document, which ran thousands of pages. But Republicans said they used all of the president's numbers in the proposal, so it faithfully represented his plan.
A medical report compiled by the family physician of Trayvon Martin shooter George Zimmerman and obtained exclusively by ABC News found that Zimmerman was diagnosed with a "closed fracture" of his nose, a pair of black eyes, two lacerations to the back of his head and a minor back injury the day after he fatally shot Martin during an alleged altercation.
Betty White says she usually keeps her political views private but in this presidential election strongly favors one candidate. As she prepares to visit the Smithsonian Institution and National Zoo next week, White told The Associated Press she "very, very much favors" President Barack Obama in the election. The 90-year-old actress said Friday she is very bi-partisan and has stayed away from politics all of her life. She usually never says who she is for or against because she doesn't want to turn off any of her adoring fans.
Jamie Lynn Grumet, the 26-year-old mother featured on the cover of Time magazine breastfeeding her 3-year-old son, has done more this week than become the poster woman for “attachment parenting,” the sometimes laudable movement that advises parents to be physically and emotionally available and responsive to their children. She has shown the limits of such a concept, and the ways in which it can be twisted into a bizarre, contemptible caricature of itself.
Wholesale inventories increased by 0.3% (month-over-month), less than the consensus had forecast. The result was also below the rate of wholesale inventory growth assumed by the Commerce Department in its advance estimate of Q1 GDP. As a result, the report implies a possible downward revision to Q1 GDP. Based on available data, we now expect that Q1 GDP will be revised down to +1.9% (annualized) from +2.2% originally report (the wholesale inventory report accounts for one tenth of the expected downward revision). Tomorrow’s trade report could also affect expected revisions to Q1 GDP. We made no changes to our tracking estimate of Q2 GDP (still +2.0%).
A United Nations investigator probing discrimination against Native Americans has called on the US government to return some of the land stolen from Indian tribes as a step toward combatting continuing and systemic racial discrimination. James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, said no member of the US Congress would meet him as he investigated the part played by the government in the considerable difficulties faced by Indian tribes.If they start with United Nations Plaza I might consider it.
Keep your fingers crossed. The Obama administration’s challenge to an Arizona immigration law will not hinge on the law’s popularity or wisdom; state legislatures are permitted to enact unpopular and unwise laws. And as Chief Justice John Roberts observed — and the administration’s lawyer agreed — this case is not about civil rights or racial profiling, either. The challenge to Senate Bill 1070 hinges on the narrow question of whether it conflicts with federal immigration law. Since last week’s arguments before the Supreme Court, supporters of the Arizona law are increasingly hopeful that the court will find it does not conflict with federal law and will uphold most if not all of it. S.B. 1070 requires state and local law enforcement officials to verify the immigration status of those legally stopped if there is a “reasonable suspicion” that they are in the country illegally. It also allows arrests without a warrant if authorities have probable cause to believe a noncitizen has committed an offense that subjects him to deportation. Those provisions are entirely consistent with federal law. Federal statutes allow state and local officials to communicate with federal officials to ascertain a person’s immigration status. The federal government is also required to respond to state or local government inquiries about an individual’s immigration status for any lawful purpose. As the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has noted, “Congress passed a series of provisions designed to encourage cooperation between the federal government and the states in the enforcement of federal immigration laws. … This collection of statutory provisions evinces a clear invitation from Congress for state and local agencies to participate in the process of enforcing federal immigration laws.”
Vice President Biden ordered supporters to "pretend you like me" after mocking them as "dull as hell" at a campaign fundraiser in Washington on Friday.
The vice president was speaking to Turkish and Azerbaijani donors about the potential of the region as a democratic and economic force when he noticed he wasn't getting much of a reception.
“I guess what I’m trying to say without boring you too long at breakfast – and you all look dull as hell, I might add. The dullest audience I have ever spoken to. Just sitting there, staring at me. Pretend you like me!" Biden said.
Police have yet to charge a black motorist who shot dead a mentally disabled and unarmed "white Hispanic," Daniel Adkins, in a Taco Bell parking lot near Phoenix earlier this month. The two reportedly exchanged words before the shooting that occurred, according to some accounts, after the motorist almost ran over Adkins who then banged his fist on the car's windshield.
The April 3 shooting by the 22-year-old black man -- whom police in suburban Laveen have yet to identify -- has gotten little if any coverage by the national media. Nor has President Obama weighed in on the case. Is it because Adkins doesn't look like his son?
Whatever the case, the slaying of Adkins -- who was walking his yellow lab on a leash -- has ignited controversy in Arizona, and it has been commanding increasing attention in the blogosphere. Adkins' grieving family says he had the mental capacity of a 12 year old. He lived with his mom and dad.
Local media outlets are describing Adkins as a Hispanic -- yet with an "Anglo" name and light complexion, he easily qualifies as what the national media have called a "white Hispanic" when describing George Zimmerman. Is this why the national media has yet to take an interest in the case?
MOBILE, Alabama -- According to police, Owens fussed at some kids playing basketball in the middle of Delmar Drive about 8:30 Saturday night. They say the kids left and a group of adults returned, armed with everything but the kitchen sink.If Obama had a son would he have helped beat Matthew Owens?
Police tell News 5 the suspects used chairs, pipes and paint cans to beat Owens.
What Parker says happened next could make the fallout from the brutal beating even worse. As the attackers walked away, leaving Owen bleeding on the ground, Parker says one of them said "Now thats justice for Trayvon." Trayvon Martin is the unarmed teenager police say was shot and killed February 26 by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman in Samford, Florida.
Whether you've had some form of head trauma that has caused you to like Barack Obama or like all good hearted people, you can't stand him, his performance has objectively been terrible. Of course, we can debate WHY his performance has been so bad. His supporters would probably blame Bush, Republicans in Congress, ATM machines, fairy dust shortages and people forgetting to click their heels together three times before saying, "There's no place like home." On the other hand, people who haven't been drinking Barney Frankosaurus brand Kool-Aid might note that ifRead the whole thing, well worth the time.
Obama is going to blame Republicans for everything that happens while he's President, we might as well just replace him with a Republican. Whatever the case may be, here are five devastating numbers that show how poorly America has fared under Barack Obama's watch.
) 3 years and 2 months: "The National Debt has now increased more during President Obama's three years and two months in office than it did during 8 years of the George W. Bush presidency.
The Debt rose $4.899 trillion during the two terms of the Bush presidency. It has now gone up $4.939 trillion since President Obama took office." -- CBSNEWS
Keep in mind that in 2008, when Obama was in full "hope, change, and bullflop" mode, he actually called Bush "unpatriotic" for adding so much to the debt which is kind of like being called a traitor by Benedict Arnold.
2) $9.5 trillion: At a certain point, it does get a little tedious to keep hammering home how much debt we're piling up, but it's such an urgent problem that produces so little reaction, that it's nearly impossible to do otherwise. It's almost like being chained to people in a house that's burning down, but they're too busy camping out on the couch eating chips and watching American Idol to bother to save themselves.
Ted Nugent will meet with the Secret Service on Thursday as a result of incendiary comments he made about the president, the rocker told conservative radio host Glenn Beck.
“We actually have heard from the Secret Service and they have a duty. I support them. I salute them. And I look forward to our meeting tomorrow,” Nugent said on Wednesday, according to the Beck-founded website The Blaze. “I‘m sure we’ll have a great conversation … bottom line is, I’ve never threatened anybody’s life in my life. I’ve never threatened. I don’t waste breath threatening.”
Nugent emphasized that he has a great deal of respect for the Secret Service, and never actually advocated physical violence.
“Every reference I made, whether it’s a shot across the bow or targeting the enemy, it always ended the sentence with ‘in November at the voter booth,’” he said on the show. “I’m not trying to diminish the seriousness of this, because if the Secret Service are doing it they are serious. They are dedicated and I will be as polite and supportive as I possibly can be, which will be thoroughly.”
According to his neighbors, George Zimmerman had bandages on his nose and head the day after he shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on February 26th.
Zimmerman claims Martin jumped him, broke his nose and pounded his head into the ground inside a gated community in Sanford, Florida. He then fired one shot, hitting Martin in the chest because he feared for his life.
In a newly published report by Reuters, Zimmerman's next-door neighbor Jorge Rodriguez said that when he saw Zimmerman the day after the incident, "he had two big, butterfly bandages on the back of his head, and another big bandage...on the bridge of his nose," while he was talking to a police detective in his driveway. Rodriguez's wife Audria also said she saw the bandages and a third neighbor, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said, "I saw two bandages on the back of his head, and his nose was all swollen-up."
MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. (AP) — Police in Georgia handcuffed a kindergartner after the girl threw a tantrum and the police chief defended the action.
The girl's family demanded Tuesday that this central Georgia city change policy so that other children aren't treated the same way. They say the child was shaken up by being put in a cell at the police station.
Salecia Johnson, 6, was accused of tearing items off the walls and throwing furniture in an outburst Friday at Creekside Elementary School, Macon television station WMAZ-TV (http://on.wmaz.com/HPb7nr ) reported. Police said the girl knocked over a shelf that injured the principal.
Mitt Romney leads President Obama in the first Gallup national daily tracking poll.
Romney took 47 percent support from surveyed registered voters, while Obama took 45 in a poll conducted between April 11 and April 15. Romney's edge though is within the poll's three point margin of error.
Independents tipped the scale in favor of Romney, going for the former Massachusetts governor 45 percent to 39.
Access to the Obama White House is in direct correlation to the amount of money donated to the president's reelection effort and the Democratic party, the New York Times reports today. The Times reports: "those who donated the most to Mr. Obama and the Democratic Party since he started running for president were far more likely to visit the White House than others. Among donors who gave $30,000 or less, about 20 percent visited the White House, according to a New York Times analysis that matched names in the visitor logs with donor records. But among those who donated $100,000 or more, the figure rises to about 75 percent. Approximately two-thirds of the president’s top fund-raisers in the 2008 campaign visited the White House at least once, some of them numerous times."
But the most explosive allegation in the news story comes from former Democratic congressman Patrick Kennedy, son of the late Ted Kenney, who calls what the Obama White House is doing "quid pro quo."
Patrick J. Kennedy, the former representative from Rhode Island, who donated $35,800 to an Obama re-election fund last fall while seeking administration support for a nonprofit venture, said contributions were simply a part of “how this business works.”
“If you want to call it ‘quid pro quo,’ fine,” he said. “At the end of the day, I want to make sure I do my part.”
In an unprecedented slap at NASA’s endorsement of global warming science, nearly 50 former astronauts and scientists—including the ex-boss of the Johnson Space Center—claim the agency is on the wrong side of science and must change course or ruin the reputation of the world’s top space agency.
Challenging statements from NASA that man is causing climate change, the former NASA executives demanded in a letter to Administrator Charles Bolden that he and the agency “refrain from including unproven remarks” supporting global warming in the media.
“We feel that NASA’s advocacy of an extreme position, prior to a thorough study of the possible overwhelming impact of natural climate drivers is inappropriate,” they wrote. “At risk is damage to the exemplary reputation of NASA, NASA’s current or former scientists and employees, and even the reputation of science itself.”
The letter was signed by seven Apollo astronauts, a deputy associate administrator, several scientists, and even the deputy director of the space shuttle program.
You might remember this one...
After Barack Obama became an Illinois state legislator, his wife moved up as well, scoring a job as 'vice president of community relations' at the University Of Chicago Hospital for a very generous salary of $121,910. When Obama became a senator in 2005, her 'salary' leapfrogged to $$316,962 for the same job...and one of Senator Obama's first acts in office was to see to it that the hospital received over a million dollars of your tax dollars as an earmark.
Well, Michelle has moved on,and guess what...that vital job of hers,worth a salary of over $300 K has been quietly eliminated.
It's the Chicago Way, cushy no-show jobs in exchange for political patronage...fist bump.
Following the all time record high February budget deficit of $232 billion, the US March budget deficit number is in, and in addition to being bigger than expected, coming at $198.2 billion on expectations of "only" $196 billion, the government outlay in the past month also is the largest March deficit on record. This brings the total deficit in fiscal 2012 to $779 billion, which is to be expected for a country gripped in total political chaos and which is unable to either raise revenues or lower spending.
What is more disturbing is that over the same period (Oct 1 2011 - March 31, 2012), the US government issued $792 billion in debt, a trend that will continue. What is most disturbing is that the comparable tax revenues net of refunds, "matching" this increase in deficit and spending, are only $693 billion, in other words the US government is funding well more than half of its cash needs with debt rather than with tax revenue. Just like Japan.
Donald Trump on Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.)'s budget proposal: ""It is catastrophic what he's done. If they lose, it will be the single biggest reason why the Republicans lost: the Ryan plan."
Dr. Frasier Crane, "Celebrity Rehab" host? It's not that far-fetched. This video sheds some Hollywood spotlight behind the scenes of "Frasier," that ninetiest of all '90s sitcoms, and finds that the fake radio doc's callers were largely celebrities making "The Simpsons"-style guest appearances. Helen Mirren, Halle Berry, Matthew Broderick, Ben Stiller and even a young Hilary Duff brought their problems to the "airwaves" in uncredited roles. When you hear them now, it's pretty obvious, and pretty awesome.Unbelievable, are these a$$ covering crazies trying to equate a purely entertainment network show with real news? The disingenuousness is truely blatant.
In related news, we hope Niles and Daphne are doing alright.
NEW YORK — NBC News has fired a producer for editing a recording of George Zimmerman’s call to police the night he shot Trayvon Martin, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.
The person was not authorized to talk about the situation publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The identity of the producer was not disclosed.
An NBC spokeswoman declined to comment.
The producer’s dismissal followed an internal investigation that led to NBC apologizing for having aired the misleading audio.
NBC’s “Today” show first aired the edited version of Zimmerman’s call on March 27. The recording viewers heard was trimmed to suggest that Zimmerman volunteered to police, with no prompting, that Martin was black: “This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.”
But the portion of the tape that was deleted had the 911 dispatcher asking Zimmerman if the person who had raised his suspicion was “black, white or Hispanic,” to which Zimmerman responded, “He looks black.”
WASHINGTON—U.S. job growth slowed in March, and the labor force shrank, signaling that the economy could be losing momentum.Employment numbers stink but unemployment drops a tenth of a percent, HERE'S why.
Jobs outside of agriculture grew by 120,000 last month—half the number that the economy added the prior month—the Labor Department said Friday, marking the first time since November that job growth fell below 200,000.
The unemployment rate, obtained by a separate survey of U.S. households, ticked down a tenth of a percentage point to 8.2%, but the drop resulted in part from fewer Americans seeking work.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected a gain of 203,000 in payrolls and for the jobless rate to remain at 8.3% for March.
The debate about climate change and its impact on polar bears has intensified with the release of a survey that shows the bear population in a key part of northern Canada is far larger than many scientists thought, and might be growing.
The number of bears along the western shore of Hudson Bay, believed to be among the most threatened bear subpopulations, stands at 1,013 and could be even higher, according to the results of an aerial survey released Wednesday by the Government of Nunavut. That’s 66 per cent higher than estimates by other researchers who forecasted the numbers would fall to as low as 610 because of warming temperatures that melt ice faster and ruin bears’ ability to hunt. The Hudson Bay region, which straddles Nunavut and Manitoba, is critical because it’s considered a bellwether for how polar bears are doing elsewhere in the Arctic.
America is used to leading the world but not like this: As of April 1, the U.S. has the dubious distinction of being the developed economy with the highest corporate tax rates.
On Sunday, corporate taxes in Japan dropped to 38%, making America's 39.2% rate the world's highest and well above the average of 25.4% for developed nations, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Amid the broader issue of reforming the tax code, corporate tax rates have already been a hot-button issue on the campaign trail: President Obama has proposed lowering the top rate to 28% while Mitt Romney's plan would drop it to 25%. Anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist says dropping corporate rates to 25% is just "the first bite at the apple." America's new standing as the world's top corporate tax regime is adding further fuel to the partisan fire.
