30 Kasım 2012 Cuma

State Department: Morsi ‘A Far Cry from an Autocrat’

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From National Review:

After the Egyptian president claimed unprecedented powers, prompting protests by various moderate and liberal factions across the country, the U.S. State Department has this to say: 
As we called for last week, when confronted with concerns about the decree that he issued, President Morsi entered into discussions with the judiciary, with other stakeholders in EgyptAs I said, I think we don’t yet know what the outcome of those are going to be, but that’s a far cry from an autocrat just saying my way or the highway.
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UK: Death Panels for Babies - Doctor's haunting testimony reveals how children are put on end-of-life plan

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From the Daily Mail:

  • Practice of withdrawing food and fluid by tube being used on young patients

  • Doctor admits starving and dehydrating ten babies to death in neonatal unit

  • Liverpool Care Pathway subject of independent inquiry ordered by ministers

  • Investigation, including child patients, will look at whether cash payments to hospitals to hit death pathway targets have influenced doctors' decisions


Until now, end of life regime the Liverpool Care Pathway was thought to have involved only elderly and terminally-ill adults.
But the Mail can reveal the practice of withdrawing food and fluid by tube is being used on young patients as well as severely disabled newborn babies.
Sick children and babies are being discharged from NHS hospitals to die at home or in hospices on controversial 'death pathways' (file photo)
Sick children and babies are being discharged from NHS hospitals to die at home or in hospices on controversial 'death pathways' (file photo)

One doctor has admitted starving and dehydrating ten babies to death in the neonatal unit of one hospital alone. 
Writing in a leading medical journal, the physician revealed the process can take an average of ten days during which a  baby becomes ‘smaller and shrunken’. 
The LCP – on which 130,000 elderly and terminally-ill adult patients die each year – is now the subject of an independent inquiry ordered by ministers.
The investigation, which will include child patients, will look at whether cash payments to hospitals to hit death pathway targets have influenced doctors’ decisions.
Medical critics of the LCP insist it is impossible to say when a patient will die and as a result the LCP death becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. They say it is a form of euthanasia, used to clear hospital beds and save the NHS money.

AH, HERE'S ANOTHER GREAT IDEA FROM OUR SECULAR HUMANIST FRIENDS:



The Disabled to Be Used for Slave Labor: UK Government Plan


As part of the current UK government’s overhaul of the health and welfare systems, people with disabilities—including those diagnosed with terminal cancer, stroke victims, accident victims, those pressed into taking antipsychotics, and any others deemed needy of “work experience”—will be forced to labor for free, with no end in sight, or face losing their already meagre benefits.

GO READ THE WHOLE THING.

Should this man be extradited to Bosnia for alleged war crimes?

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A Serb-Israeli has been declared extraditable to Bosnia-Herzigovina for allegedly killing Muslims, and the article seems quite intent on demonizing him in that sense:
The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling to extradite Serb-Israeli Alexander Cvtkovic to Bosnia-Herzegovina for genocide.

Cvtkovic is suspected of involvement in the 1995 "Srebrenica massacre," in which upwards of 8,000 Muslims were murdered after Serb forces overran the town during the 1992-1995 civil war in Bosnia.

Zvtkovic had been declared extraditable by the Jerusalem District Court, but had appealed to the Supreme Court. [...]

The defense had claimed, among other things, that Cvetkovic was stunned by the charges.

It argued that he had been a soldier, but did not participate in the actions attributed to him.

However, according to the testimony of some eyewitnesses, Cvetkovic took part in a massacre at the Branjevo Farm on July 16, 1995.
Just who are these witnesses? If they turn out to be more Muslims themselves, they could be committing taqqiya. As some of the earlier research I'd posted shows, it was the Bosnian Muslims themselves who started the war, and there were very horrific acts they committed against Serbians as well that the MSM predictably avoided publicizing about. And Bosnia is also a country that's not allowing Jews to run for office. And lest we forget that monster named Sulejman Talovic who went on a murderous shooting spree in Salt Lake City.

By extraditing a man who may be innocent, or didn't murder in cold blood as they claim, the politicians in charge of this are signaling they're ungrateful for the help a non-Jewish society gave to Jews during WW2. Is there any chance that an appeal could be made on his behalf?

The Innkeepers: Why the hotel is empty

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The Innkeepers is one of those horror movies I really like because it's about something. Most reviewers I saw seem to have either coincidentally - or not-so-coincidentally, because it was prompted by savvy marketing? - decided it has a Clerks-meets-Shining vibe. So is it about aimless twentysomethings in The Bad Economy™? Sort of, but not exactly: there's more to it than just that. What it's really about, more specifically, is demographic collapse.

Spoilers:

Guy and Girl work as hotel clerks at the 'Yankee Pedlar' (=American Capitalism?). The hotel, although it looks to be in fine shape and have plenty of charm, is closing (due to 'the economy', we suppose) while the absentee owner vacations in Barbados (presumably because the screenwriter wanted to send him somewhere as absentee-sounding as possible). It also has a ghost-story legend behind it. Something about a bride abandoned there on her honeymoon, killing herself, and the then-owners hiding her body for three days to try to avoid the 'bad for business' publicity. So the two clerks, in between catering to the last few guests, are determined to do some ghost-hunting during the hotel's final weekend. Of course, things go wrong, as things have a way of doing.

The girl is cute but unkempt, immature and seemingly sexless. The guy, older, is a standard-issue GenX beta porn-addicted loser who feigns apathy/pessimism as a shield and obviously has a crush on her. She would certainly be out of his league if they were the same age i.e. both in school together. But since she too has dropped out of school and become an aimless loser - 'stuck' in the hotel, like the ghost-bride of the legend - and even becomes interested in his loser nerd interests, he actually has a chance. By all rights, they really should be getting it on. And they aren't.

The movie is mostly about that failure, and is in that sense a straightforward tragedy. Why do they fail? Because he is a weak beta who can't man up and/or attract her despite his obvious interest, and because she is apathetic and antisocial and obsessed with trivia (in particular, the 'ghost' of the hotel) but meanwhile all too happy to string him along as a fawning sidekick. Her fate as the main character is portrayed by the movie as inevitable, something intrinsic to her; his plays itself out in a character arc in which, to his credit, he comes to realize his own weakness and that weakness's role in the tragedy. This doomed coupling, doomed courtship, and (therefore) doomed species-perpetuation plays itself out metaphorically in the form of the ghost-story that is the movie's nominal plot.

I notice that although it got some decent reviews, a sizable contingent of horror-movie fans really didn't like this movie. Its IMDB score is rather low, perhaps due to a bimodal distribution (many gave it 6-10 but also a sizable minority gave it a 1). Understandable. The nominal ghost-story plot is conventional and 'nothing happens' for long stretches of it - but of course, that's when everything important is happening. It's certainly not a 'horror movie' in the vein of Saw/Hostel and anyone who likes/expects that sort of thing will clearly be disappointed. But it's also not a hugely 'scary' ghost story with lots of ghost type stuff always going on, not as such; the treatment of the horror elements is at times even somewhat self-parodic, with a knowing wink. Any conventional horror movie relies on jump-scares, for example, and this movie is no exception - but in true 'ironic' GenX fashion it also inoculates itself by making fun of jump-scares.

But a movie like this isn't about the scares as ends in themselves, it's about the buildup and whether the scenario gets under your skin, and thus how well the scare payoffs are setup. And what's interesting here is how, in a horror movie ostensibly framed around a generic theme of economic decline and what could have easily turned into hackneyed commentary on McJobs, the screenwriter ended up (whether intentionally or subconsciously) drifting toward the far more specific and interesting themes of broken couplings and demographic collapse. All the important details in the movie point in this direction of stunted fertility.

Let's just look at the (so sparse as to feel almost post-apocalyptic) cast of characters. Aside from a little boy, a creepy old man near the end, and some no-name cleanup policemen in the final scene, there are no males in this movie except for the Beta Clerk. (Tellingly, the absentee hotel owner, presumably male, is never shown.) Men are either scared little children who want their mommy (this basically applies to the main Guy as well - asked to name pretty girls he first cites his mother and his sister), or so ancient and past-obsessed and as to be virtual ghosts.

Meanwhile, aside from the Protagonist Girl there are 3 (alive) female characters shown, perhaps representing 3 different stages of stunted/frustrated/diverted fertility: 1. an annoying twentysomething who works at the coffee shop next door and yaps complaints about her immature and unloving boyfriend (played by an actress who I decided was an 'uglier version of Lena Dunham', of Obama-is-our-national-boyfriend fame, but on later inspection turned out to actually just be Lena Dunham); 2. an irritating and demanding wife/mother staying in the hotel who has taken the kid and moved out on her husband for the weekend to 'show him how much he needs her'; 3. a pathetic aging actress (played by an unrecognizable Kelly McGillis) who has become some sort of maybe-phony/maybe-not spiritual-medium as a way to 'try to stay relevant'. As perceived by the actress/medium, ghosts - or spirits - can come from the past or future and all can exist simultaneously. At some point A Christmas Carol, which also has 3 important ghosts from different times, plays on someone's TV. So perhaps these 3 women portray, well, Shrewness in its various stages of life - they are ghosts of Shrewness past, present, and future. (It's a wonder to me the director/writer wasn't more often accused of misogyny by some of the more perceptively-PC critics, but of course, he is equally-hard on the men - well, the 'man' - in his movie.)

What else. The old actress gained fame on some TV show called Like Mother, Like Son - which certainly applies to the aforementioned unmanly Beta. The Beta, of course, is into internet porn, which the Girl sees in his browser history, turning her off; she makes fun of him. The Girl sees the Beta in his underwear, which further turns her off; later he sees her in her underwear, of course with the opposite reaction. They get drunk and he pours his heart out to her in an impotently pedestalizing way about how much he 'likes' her and how she's so 'cool' and how much he 'appreciates' that she 'takes him seriously' (i.e. his website on the supernatural and other nerdy hobbies) - which of course, only cements the fact that she won't be taking him seriously, not as a romantic partner anyway. Then at the crucial moment, when he should be ready to make his move, she spontaneously suggests they go to the basement to do...more super-creepy ghost-hunting. No time for romance or love - especially not with you - when there are graves to be dug and historical trivia about other women to unearth (i.e. when there's Feminist Theory to study?).

It turns out that he had just made-up all his supernatural experiences, presumably as a means of keeping her interested in him. It worked, all too well. As a result, she becomes lost in the dead world of ghosts, while he is left to gape in horror at the monsters he created. He tries to break through to her, but isn't strong enough - his words - and she sees only ghosts. Her one possible means of escape is a door she had pre-emptively locked - tubes tied? - earlier in the film. He never gets to her. Life has been short-circuited and cut off, and as the actress/medium says, nothing could have changed that.

At the end of the film the hotel is empty. There are only ghosts. Demographic collapse is complete, and everyone is to blame. It takes two, after all.

P.S. For a great analysis (aside from mine, of course :-) ) of this great movie, not exactly the same as but largely consonant with my take I think, and a great movie analysis site in general, see The Fine Art Diner.

Originally posted at Rhymes With Cars & Girls.

"unfortunate" and "counterproductive."

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Fox:

UN General Assembly votes in favor of Palestinian statehood


The U.N. General Assembly voted Thursday in favor of Palestinian statehood, after the Palestinians asked it to recognize a non-member state of Palestine in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

The resolution upgrading the Palestinians' status to a nonmember observer state at the United Nations was approved by a more than two-thirds majority of the 193-member world body -- a vote of 138-9, with 41 abstentions.

Real independence, however, remains an elusive dream until the Palestinians negotiate a peace deal with the Israelis, who warned that the General Assembly action will only delay a lasting solution. Israel still controls the West Bank, east Jerusalem and access to Gaza, and it accused the Palestinians of bypassing negotiations with the campaign to upgrade their U.N. status.

The United States immediately criticized the historic vote. "Today's unfortunate and counterproductive resolution places further obstacles in the path peace," U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said.

And U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the vote "unfortunate" and "counterproductive."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the speech by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the General Assembly shortly before the vote "defamatory and venomous," saying it was "full of mendacious propaganda" against Israel.

Abbas had told the General Assembly that it was "being asked today to issue the birth certificate of Palestine." Abbas said the vote is the last chance to save the two-state solution.

After the vote, Netanyahu said the UN move violated past agreements between Israel and the Palestinians and that Israel would act accordingly, without elaborating what steps it might take.

Just before the vote, Israel's U.N. ambassador, Ron Prosor, warned the General Assembly that "the Palestinians are turning their backs on peace" and that the U.N. can't break the 4,000-year-old bond between the people of Israel and the land of Israel.

The vote had been certain to succeed, with most of the member states sympathetic to the Palestinians. Several key countries, including France, this week announced they would support the move to elevate the Palestinians from the status of U.N. observer to nonmember observer state.

Thursday's vote came on the same day, Nov. 29, that the U.N. General Assembly in 1947 voted to recognize a state in Palestine, with the jubilant revelers then Jews. The Palestinians rejected that partition plan, and decades of tension and violence have followed.

The vote grants Abbas an overwhelming international endorsement for his key position: establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, the territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. With Netanyahu opposed to a pullback to the 1967 lines, this should strengthen Abbas' hand if peace talks resume.

The overwhelming vote also could help Abbas restore some of his standing, which has been eroded by years of standstill in peace efforts. His rival, Hamas, deeply entrenched in Gaza, has seen its popularity rise after an Israeli offensive on targets linked to the Islamic militant group there earlier this month.

Israel has stepped back from initial threats of harsh retaliation for the Palestinians seeking U.N. recognition, but government officials warned that Israel would respond to any Palestinian attempts to use the upgraded status to confront Israel in international bodies.

The Palestinians now can gain access to U.N. agencies and international bodies, most significantly the International Criminal Court, which could become a springboard for going after Israel for alleged war crimes or its ongoing settlement building on war-won land.

However, in the run-up to the U.N. vote, Abbas signaled that he wants recognition to give him leverage in future talks with Israel, and not as a tool for confronting or delegitimizing Israel, as Israeli leaders have alleged.

29 Kasım 2012 Perşembe

Iran May Be Close to a Plutonium Bomb, German Defense Experts Warn

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From David Goldman at PJM:

Iran might be “on the verge of producing weapon-quality plutonium,” Germany’s daily Die Welt reported on Nov. 26. Hans Rühle, a former top official in the German defense ministry, and foreign editor Clemens Wergin cite clues pointing to an Iranian crash program to build a plutonium bomb in the just-released International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran’s nuclear activity. Rühle headed German defense policy planning during the 1980s; Wergin is one of the most capable young journalists writing in any language. Their report should be read in dead earnest. The IAEA reported that Iran removed fuel rods from the Bushehr light water reactor—supposedly a peaceful application of nuclear energy—on October 22. There might be a technical explanation for the premature extraction of fuel rods from a light water reactor, Rühle and Wergin observe. But “it may also mean the starting point for production of weapons-grade plutonium. That would mean a dramatic expansion and acceleration of Iran’s nuclear armaments program (my translation).” Although light water reactors are not designed to produce weapons-grade plutonium, the design can produce large amounts of weapons-grade plutonium in a short period of time. In a matter of months, the authors report, the low-enriched uranium fuel in the Bushehr reactor could yield enough plutonium for dozens of atomic bombs:
 In a light water reactor, which is operated with low enriched uranium (four percent), the fuel remains in the reactor up to 60 months when the reactor is run at maximum power generation,. But it takes only a few months to produce plutonium 239, that is, weapons-grade plutonium. … In the 1970s a British company had shut down a light water reactor prematurely. The result was around 450 kilograms of plutonium, or material for about 70 bombs.
It would take only three or four months to convert the plutonium from the Bushehr reactor’s spent fuel rods into weapons-grade plutonium, the authors report. Depending on how long the fuel rods were used before Iran removed them on Oct. 22, they would yield between 150 kg and 300 kg of plutonium, or enough fissile material for 25 to 50 bombs. Western negotiators previously ignored the Bushehr reactor, on the grounds that it constituted peaceful use of energy. Oliver Thränert, head of the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich, told Die Welt, “If Iran does not give a convincing explanation for the early removal of fuel rods, a correction in this policy should be urgently considered.” Last February, I cited Rühle’s analysis of the logistics of a possible Israel strike on Iran, in which the German expert argued that Israel had the capacity to set the program back by years.

UK City Council Removes Foster Children from Conservative Parents

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From PJM:
The term “Orwellian” is overused, but it’s hard to think of a more apt adjective: officials at a left-wing British council have removed three children from their foster parents because of the parents’ political affiliation and unsubstantiated allegations of racism against them.  
Social workers from Rotherham council in Yorkshire, which is controlled by the Labour party, removed the three Eastern European children from the foster parents — and from what was by all accounts a stable and loving home — after learning that the couple were members of the right-of-center UK Independence Party, or UKIP. Among other policies, UKIP wants to tighten Britain’s notoriously lax immigration laws.
GO READ THE WHOLE THING. 

Morsi Praises Obama, "He Been Very Helpful, VERY Helpful"

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Obama has, indeed, been very helpful in Morsi being able to assemble a powerful enough coalition that he has become VIRTUAL DICTATOR of Egypt.

From Politico: 

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, currently under fire at home and abroad for decreeing his actions exempt from judicial review, had high praise on Wednesday for President Obama, whose administration has raised concerns about Morsi's declarations but stopped short of condemning them.
"President Obama has been very helpful, very helpful," Morsi told Time Magazine. "And I can say really that his deeds coincide with his intentions."
Morsi, a critical interlocutor with Hamas, spoke repeatedly with Obama as the parties worked to cement the ceasefire in Gaza.
"We’ve been talking together about the cease-fire, that’s very important," Morsi told Time. "Then we can talk about differences between Palestinians and Israelis. It’s not easy. It’s very difficult. Both sides are talking about differences. We want them to talk about similarities…. We are now doing this job as much as we can."
The White House lavished praise on Morsi for his role in the ceasefire and has appeared to tip-toe around a full condemnation of his apparent power grab since then. Press Secretary Jay Carney has said the administration is "concerned" and has expressed those concerns to Egyptian officials. But asked on Monday if that equated to a condemnation, Carney demurred.
"I don't have any new language to give to you today on how our view on it -- what our view on it is," he said. "I would say that we are concerned about it and have raised those concerns."
He characterized the situation as an internal conflict to be solved by Egyptians.

UK: Death Panels for Babies - Doctor's haunting testimony reveals how children are put on end-of-life plan

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From the Daily Mail:

  • Practice of withdrawing food and fluid by tube being used on young patients

  • Doctor admits starving and dehydrating ten babies to death in neonatal unit

  • Liverpool Care Pathway subject of independent inquiry ordered by ministers

  • Investigation, including child patients, will look at whether cash payments to hospitals to hit death pathway targets have influenced doctors' decisions

Until now, end of life regime the Liverpool Care Pathway was thought to have involved only elderly and terminally-ill adults.
But the Mail can reveal the practice of withdrawing food and fluid by tube is being used on young patients as well as severely disabled newborn babies.
Sick children and babies are being discharged from NHS hospitals to die at home or in hospices on controversial 'death pathways' (file photo)
Sick children and babies are being discharged from NHS hospitals to die at home or in hospices on controversial 'death pathways' (file photo)

One doctor has admitted starving and dehydrating ten babies to death in the neonatal unit of one hospital alone. 
Writing in a leading medical journal, the physician revealed the process can take an average of ten days during which a  baby becomes ‘smaller and shrunken’. 
The LCP – on which 130,000 elderly and terminally-ill adult patients die each year – is now the subject of an independent inquiry ordered by ministers.
The investigation, which will include child patients, will look at whether cash payments to hospitals to hit death pathway targets have influenced doctors’ decisions.
Medical critics of the LCP insist it is impossible to say when a patient will die and as a result the LCP death becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. They say it is a form of euthanasia, used to clear hospital beds and save the NHS money.

NYC Black And Latino Leaders Worried About The “Damage” White/Jewish Candidate Might Do If He Wins City Council Seat

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ANTI-WHITE BIGOTRY GOES MAINSTREAM IN "AMERICA"


Thomas Lopez-Pierre, a Harlem activist with a controversial past who is running for term-limited Councilman Robert Jackson’s seat, circulated an email late last night in an attempt to plan a “private meeting” to “discuss the potential damage to the political empowerment of the Black and Hispanic community if Mark Levine, a White/Jewish candidate was elected to the 7th Council District in 2013.” 
This morning, Mr. Lopez-Pierre told Politicker he isn’t organizing the meeting himself and is working on behalf of a larger group who became concerned when they read a report on the political blog The Perez Notes that the Upper Manhattan political machine headed by State Senator Adriano Espaillat and Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez has been working to “clear” the crowded field of candidates running for the seat to help Mr. Levine win. 
“Now that he actually has a chance to win it’s scaring people,” said Mr. Lopez-Pierre. “So, what started first as a discussion of the blog post has now mushroomed among candidates and community leaders into basically a ‘Stop Levine’ campaign.” 
The race to replace Mr. Jackson in the 7th District is shaping up to be one of next year’s most hotly-contested Council campaigns. In addition to Mr. Levine, who is a local district leader and founder of the Barack Obama Democratic Club, and Mr. Lopez-Pierre, there have been at least eight other candidates eyeing the seat. These hopefuls include local power broker and district leader Maria Luna, Socrates Solano, an aide to Congressman Charlie Rangel, Cheryl Pahaham, the outgoing vice chair of Community Board 12, and another district leader, Marisol Alcantara.  
In his email announcing the meeting about Mr. Levine, Mr. Lopez-Pierre identifies himself as the chair of the Douglass Grant club and said he has spoken to “a number of Black and Hispanic candidates and Black and Hispanic community leaders” who share concerns that Mr. Levine could win without the support of the area’s predominantly African-American and Latino voters because there are so many candidates running for the seat.
Keep reading…

28 Kasım 2012 Çarşamba

What's the Maximum Weekly Unemployment Benefit?

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If you're recently unemployed, you may be wondering what the maximum weekly amount of money that you may be getting from the government. Fortunately, MSN Money published a comparison of how much your UI benefits could be... Note: The amount you get depends on the state in which you worked, not the state that you may move to during your jobless time.

Maximum Weekly Unemployment Benefit By State
  1. Alabama - $255
  2. Alaska - $370
  3. Arizona - $240
  4. Arkansas - $409
  5. California - $450
  6. Colorado - $475
  7. Connecticut - $519
  8. Delaware - $330
  9. District of Columbia (Washington DC) - $359
  10. Florida - $275
  11. Georgia - $330
  12. Hawaii - $545
  13. Idaho - $362
  14. Illinois - $385
  15. Indiana - $390
  16. Iowa - $443
  17. Kansas - $423
  18. Kentucky - $415
  19. Louisiana - $284
  20. Maine - $496
  21. Maryland - $380
  22. Massachusetts - $628
  23. Michigan - $365
  24. Minnesota - $566
  25. Mississippi - $230
  26. Missouri - $320
  27. Montana - $407
  28. Nebraska - $308
  29. Nevada - $362
  30. New Hampshire - $427
  31. New Jersey $584
  32. New Mexico - $455
  33. New York - $405
  34. North Carolina - $494
  35. North Dakota - $385
  36. Ohio - $372
  37. Oklahoma - $392
  38. Oregon - $482
  39. Pennsylvania - $539
  40. Rhode Island - $528
  41. South Carolina - $326
  42. South Dakota - $285
  43. Tennessee - $275
  44. Texas - $378
  45. Utah - $444
  46. Vermont - $409
  47. Virgina - $378
  48. Washington - $541
  49. West Virginia - $424
  50. Wisconsin - $363
  51. Wyoming - $387
The amount of money received during Tier 2 and Tier 3 payouts are the same as what is received during the first phase of unemployment. The numbers above do not include the extra $25/week that Obama approved, so your checks may actually be slightly higher, as long as the stimulus plan is still in affect.

California's UI Fund To Run Huge Deficits

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Click on Chart for a Larger Image

How bad are things in the state of California?

Well according to an Unemployment Insurance (UI) Fund forecast issued by California's Employment Development Department (EDD), the fund which is currently about $8 billion underfunded will be over $27 billion in the red by 2011!

That's almost $1,000 for every man, woman and child in the state of California---Or almost $2,000 for every worker in the state---It will likely be many many years before CA is able to dig out of this hole.

Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi's US Economist on the Unemployment Picture

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On February 5th, Bloomberg interviewed Ellen Zentner, Senior US economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. to discuss the January unemployment rate and the outlook for the US Labor Market.

Ellen's views include:
  • "the labor market is definitely improving, we got a bigger downward revision to payroll data, leading up to today... No we lost 8.4 million jobs vs over 7 million... And this contraction in jobs correlates more to the decline in consumer spending."
  • In january's report the comments are suspicious because jobs aren't being created, yet the unemployment rate drops. Looking at labor force participation, you see that household employment has increased. But you also need to know how many people dropped out of the labor market all together.
  • We have record numbers of discouraged workers and many of them are permanently lost---but thousands will come back into the labor market.
  • The data is showing some job gains in some areas---but it isn't happening in all sectors of the economy. January saw the first increase in manufacturing jobs in over 3 years.
  • Forward looking indicators show that part-time and contract jobs should improve in the next few months---This isn't as good as landing higher paying full time jobs.
  • The labor market will wadddle along for a little bit, because you have create jobs for the previously displaced and the teenagers that are becoming working aged adults---this isn't going to happen for some time.

What's the employment situation?

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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION – SEPTEMBER 2010
Nonfarm payroll employment edged down (-95,000) in September, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Government employment declined (-159,000), reflecting both a drop in the number of temporary jobs for Census 2010 and job losses in local government.

Household Survey Data
The number of unemployed persons, at 14.8 million, was essentially unchanged in September, and the unemployment rate held at 9.6 percent. (See table A-1.)
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for adult men (9.8 percent), adult women (8.0 percent), teenagers (26.0 percent), whites (8.7 percent), blacks (16.1 percent), and Hispanics (12.4 percent) showed little or no change in September. The jobless rate for Asians was 6.4 percent, not seasonally
adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over), at 6.1 million, was little changed over the month but was down by 640,000 since a series high of 6.8 million in May. In September, 1.7 percent of unemployed persons had been jobless for 27 weeks or more. (See table A-12.) In September, both the civilian labor force participation rate, at 64.7 percent, and the employmentpopulation
ratio, at 58.5 percent, were unchanged. (See table A-1.) The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary
part-time workers) rose by 612,000 over the month to 9.5 million.

Over the past 2 months, the number of such workers has increased by 943,000. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. (See table A-8.) About 2.5 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in September, up from 2.2 million a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months.

They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. (See table A-16.)

Among the marginally attached, there were 1.2 million discouraged workers in September, an increase of 503,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.3
million persons marginally attached to the labor force had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.


Learning from China's rise to escape the middle-income trap : a new structural economics approach to Latin America

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This paper discusses the causes of the middle-income trap in Latin America and the Caribbean, identifies the challenges and opportunities for Latin America that come from China's rise, and draws lessons from New Structural Economics and the Growth Identification and Facilitation Framework to help Latin America escape the middle-income trap. Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are caught in a middle-income trap due to their inability to structurally upgrade from low value-added to high value-added products. 
Governments in Latin America and the Caribbean should intervene in industries in which they have a comparative advantage, calibrating supporting policies in close collaboration with the private sector through public-private sector alliances. Through continuous structural upgrading in sectors intensive in factors such as natural resources, scientific knowledge, and unskilled labor, the region could achieve dynamic growth. This would require investments in education, research and development, and physical infrastructure. 
Therefore, industrial upgrading and diversification would be essential to avoid further de-industrialization arising from the competitive pressures of the rise of China, broaden the base for economic growth, and create the basis for further sustained reduction in unemployment, poverty and income inequality. Failure to do so would lead to a loss of competitiveness and risks of further de-industrialization.
Learning from China's rise to escape the middle-income trap : a new structural economics approach to Latin America

27 Kasım 2012 Salı

Who is (or isn't) Counted as Unemployed?

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This little 2 minute video does a good job in explaining how the Bureau of Labor Statistics measures who is Unemployed, who is not in labor market, who is marginally in the labor market and who is working part time for economic reasons.

Only people who are "Unemployed" are counted in the (10%) unemployment rate. The other 3 categories may or may not be included in the U-6 Broader measurement of unemployment (~17%). The video pokes fun that the government would rather have the public and media focus on the smaller number in order to keep optimism high.

What's the Maximum Weekly Unemployment Benefit?

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If you're recently unemployed, you may be wondering what the maximum weekly amount of money that you may be getting from the government. Fortunately, MSN Money published a comparison of how much your UI benefits could be... Note: The amount you get depends on the state in which you worked, not the state that you may move to during your jobless time.

Maximum Weekly Unemployment Benefit By State
  1. Alabama - $255
  2. Alaska - $370
  3. Arizona - $240
  4. Arkansas - $409
  5. California - $450
  6. Colorado - $475
  7. Connecticut - $519
  8. Delaware - $330
  9. District of Columbia (Washington DC) - $359
  10. Florida - $275
  11. Georgia - $330
  12. Hawaii - $545
  13. Idaho - $362
  14. Illinois - $385
  15. Indiana - $390
  16. Iowa - $443
  17. Kansas - $423
  18. Kentucky - $415
  19. Louisiana - $284
  20. Maine - $496
  21. Maryland - $380
  22. Massachusetts - $628
  23. Michigan - $365
  24. Minnesota - $566
  25. Mississippi - $230
  26. Missouri - $320
  27. Montana - $407
  28. Nebraska - $308
  29. Nevada - $362
  30. New Hampshire - $427
  31. New Jersey $584
  32. New Mexico - $455
  33. New York - $405
  34. North Carolina - $494
  35. North Dakota - $385
  36. Ohio - $372
  37. Oklahoma - $392
  38. Oregon - $482
  39. Pennsylvania - $539
  40. Rhode Island - $528
  41. South Carolina - $326
  42. South Dakota - $285
  43. Tennessee - $275
  44. Texas - $378
  45. Utah - $444
  46. Vermont - $409
  47. Virgina - $378
  48. Washington - $541
  49. West Virginia - $424
  50. Wisconsin - $363
  51. Wyoming - $387
The amount of money received during Tier 2 and Tier 3 payouts are the same as what is received during the first phase of unemployment. The numbers above do not include the extra $25/week that Obama approved, so your checks may actually be slightly higher, as long as the stimulus plan is still in affect.

California's UI Fund To Run Huge Deficits

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Click on Chart for a Larger Image

How bad are things in the state of California?

Well according to an Unemployment Insurance (UI) Fund forecast issued by California's Employment Development Department (EDD), the fund which is currently about $8 billion underfunded will be over $27 billion in the red by 2011!

That's almost $1,000 for every man, woman and child in the state of California---Or almost $2,000 for every worker in the state---It will likely be many many years before CA is able to dig out of this hole.

Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi's US Economist on the Unemployment Picture

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On February 5th, Bloomberg interviewed Ellen Zentner, Senior US economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. to discuss the January unemployment rate and the outlook for the US Labor Market.

Ellen's views include:
  • "the labor market is definitely improving, we got a bigger downward revision to payroll data, leading up to today... No we lost 8.4 million jobs vs over 7 million... And this contraction in jobs correlates more to the decline in consumer spending."
  • In january's report the comments are suspicious because jobs aren't being created, yet the unemployment rate drops. Looking at labor force participation, you see that household employment has increased. But you also need to know how many people dropped out of the labor market all together.
  • We have record numbers of discouraged workers and many of them are permanently lost---but thousands will come back into the labor market.
  • The data is showing some job gains in some areas---but it isn't happening in all sectors of the economy. January saw the first increase in manufacturing jobs in over 3 years.
  • Forward looking indicators show that part-time and contract jobs should improve in the next few months---This isn't as good as landing higher paying full time jobs.
  • The labor market will wadddle along for a little bit, because you have create jobs for the previously displaced and the teenagers that are becoming working aged adults---this isn't going to happen for some time.

What's the employment situation?

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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION – SEPTEMBER 2010
Nonfarm payroll employment edged down (-95,000) in September, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Government employment declined (-159,000), reflecting both a drop in the number of temporary jobs for Census 2010 and job losses in local government.

Household Survey Data
The number of unemployed persons, at 14.8 million, was essentially unchanged in September, and the unemployment rate held at 9.6 percent. (See table A-1.)
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for adult men (9.8 percent), adult women (8.0 percent), teenagers (26.0 percent), whites (8.7 percent), blacks (16.1 percent), and Hispanics (12.4 percent) showed little or no change in September. The jobless rate for Asians was 6.4 percent, not seasonally
adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over), at 6.1 million, was little changed over the month but was down by 640,000 since a series high of 6.8 million in May. In September, 1.7 percent of unemployed persons had been jobless for 27 weeks or more. (See table A-12.) In September, both the civilian labor force participation rate, at 64.7 percent, and the employmentpopulation
ratio, at 58.5 percent, were unchanged. (See table A-1.) The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary
part-time workers) rose by 612,000 over the month to 9.5 million.

Over the past 2 months, the number of such workers has increased by 943,000. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. (See table A-8.) About 2.5 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in September, up from 2.2 million a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months.

They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. (See table A-16.)

Among the marginally attached, there were 1.2 million discouraged workers in September, an increase of 503,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.3
million persons marginally attached to the labor force had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

26 Kasım 2012 Pazartesi

Al Sharpton Says Republicans Are To Blame For High Black and Hispanic Unemployment

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Surprise: What he says makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

First he says we have gained jobs in the public sector. That's false. During Obama's term, the private sector has lost tens of millions of jobs.

Second, he says the public sector has lost jobs. That's false: During Obama's term, the "business" of Federal government has thrived.

Third, he says Republicans are cutting the agencies where black and Latinos work. False: The truth is, the budget cuts in Public Sector are at the State and local level, where Obama's policies have decimated the tax base, and left no room for government to do anything, but cut.

Here, read this.




“One of the reason that I think people do not understand why unemployment has gone down and in some cases black unemployment and Latino’s has remained stagnant is over the last thirty two months Dr. Hutchinson, they’ve increased jobs and found jobs unemployment has gone down in the private sector. What has not gone down is in the public sector and blacks in particular are disproportionately in the public sector.
One of the reasons those jobs have gone down, or have remained down is one the Republicans are cutting a lot of the agencies, where we are the employees are government jobs, government employed and a lot of those jobs go through governors and mayors who are also have had cutbacks. So what we’ve got to do and we addressed that to the President is take on these governors and mayors as well as the private sector on why the private sector is getting all these contract and bailouts and not hiring and correcting the disproportionate amount of their employment does not touch our community and have the President and them support us in that.”

Hamas Preachers Link “Victory” Over Israel To “Prophet” Mohammed’s Slaughter Of Jews

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(Friday, Nov 23, 2012) — When they finally emerged from their houses after eight days of Israeli bombardment, the people of Gaza seemed to have only one desire: to satisfy their craving for sugar. 
Sweet shops and pastry makers were over-run with customers on Thursday morning, the day after an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire entered into effect. 
“People rushed to the shop as soon as it opened,” said Abu Wassim, the owner of Alqadi Famous Sweets in Jabalya. His store sold four times more baklava, knaffeh and other sugary delights than on normal days. “In your country, when you celebrate a victory, you open a bottle of alcohol,” he said. “Here, we go and buy sweets.” 
In Gaza, they have been treating the end of the latest bloody clash between Israel and Hamas as a Palestinian victory. Of that they have no doubt. 
On Wednesday night, thousands celebrated spontaneously in the streets, minutes after the ceasefire announcement. On Thursday, declared a national holiday by the Gaza authorities, there were victory parades and rallies. On Friday, the midday prayers were dominated by declarations of victory, with some preachers drawing a line between the latest conflict and the Prophet Mohammed’s victory over the infidels.

Gerry Conway takes the side of the villains

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If, like me, you read comic books years ago, you may be familiar with Gerry Conway, who wrote a bundle of leading series for Marvel, DC and a few other companies between 1968-93, and went on to work in TV writing/producing.

But this week, I made the devastating revelation that he's part of the worst of the leftist crowd you can find in Hollywood when I took a look at his Twitter account, and found him attacking Benjamin Netanyahu for all the wrong reasons:

So he buys into what the MSM tells him hook line and sinker, despite Melanie Phillips and Elder of Zion's research that shows the tolls aren't what he thinks and that a lot of the casualties in Gaza were caused by the jihadists themselves? And does he also buy into the lie of a palestinian Islamic/Arab people?

I read plenty of Conway's comic book work years ago, and one of the first comics I read in my childhood was written by him (an issue of the Fantastic Four). I've got plenty of his work in my collection, some available in paperbacks, others not. I thought he had plenty of merits back in the day too. And he returns the favor by siding with Israel's enemies and parroting the leftarded mantra that "Bibi" is a warmonger? It's truly devastating. He even says:

What about Ismail Haniyeh, Mahmoud Abbas, and even Mohammed Morsi? And what about the willingness of people like you to turn a blind eye at the Koran's contents? Conway also says:

So I guess yours truly who enjoyed his work of yore is just a Zionist piece of crap who should be smashed into the dust? And is Will Eisner, who more or less slammed Islamofascism and its use of even non-Islamic works of anti-semitism to fuel the jihadist fires in his last graphic novel, also someone whom he scorns? How is it that a guy who was given a great job by Jewish editors and publishers returns the favor by attacking their bloodbrothers back in Zion by siding with blood libels? It makes no difference what the political positions of the Jewish Marvel/DC staff were like years before; what Conway's doing is an alarming show of disrespect for the comics medium's Jewish founders. Come to think of it, he's also disrespected ex-Muslims and even Armenians. How the mighty have fallen. Years before, he wrote a story in Justice League of America #188 where the Atom celebrated Hanukah with some of his colleagues. This is a basic betrayal of that neat tale. But I guess this can only be expected of someone whose later body of work was as producer of Law & Order, mainly the spinoff called Criminal Intent. There were moments in the franchise when it featured stories fairly hostile to Jews, including this one.

I suppose the best way to sum this up is that I don't regret reading his older work from his younger years as a comics writer. But that doesn't mean I can excuse this modern mindset he now goes by. And his work as a TV writer/producer, that I understand, and L&O is something I'd rather avoid like the plague. In the end, thanks very much Mr. Conway, for telling someone who thought you did have talent as a comics writer that you're siding with the enemies of his country, the Islamofascists. Creatures who, you can be quite sure, are as hostile and hateful of the Jewish publishers you worked for as they are against any Jewish resident of Israel. And thanks for implying you see nothing wrong with Koranic verses like Sura 2:223 either. Conway is clearly the kind of man who really lost direction when he turned more to screenwriting than comic books, even though comics writers aren't saints either. If I were Jerry Siegel or Joe Shuster and I saw how low he'd stooped, I'd be feeling absolutely awful.

THE CLINTON LEGACY ACCORDING TO THE MUSLIM WORLD "DELIVERANCE OF BOSNIA-HERZOGOVENIA AND KOSOVO, AND NEAR-DELIVERANCE, WITHIN 100 METERS, OF PALESTINE FROM OCCUPATION"

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From Pamela at Atlas Shrgus:

Painfully amusing to hear Saudi Arabia’s Prince Turki al Faisal "congratulate" Bill Clinton on his handover of Bosnia, Kosovo and "Palestine" to the Muslim world. I get excoriated all the time for pointing this very thing out; why no such remonstrations towards the awful prince or Clinton's warm reception of this stunning admission?

The Clinton Legacy According to Saudi Arabia (thanks to Julia Gorin for sending this)
The Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting:
Saudi Arabia’s [Prince] Turki al Faisal addressing Bill Clinton at Clinton Global Initiative shindig, September 25, 2012: “Muslims will never forget your deliverance of Bosnia-Herzogovenia and Kosovo, and near-deliverance, within 100 meters, of Palestine from occupation.”
GO READ THE WHOLE THING. 

"America" No Mind --- Honey Boo Boo Asks, "Whutza Recession?"

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Morgan Stanley’s Doom Scenario: Major Recession in 2013




AN ECONOMY DOMINATED BY GOVERNMENT ACTION:


The global economy is likely to be stuck in the “twilight zone” of sluggish growth in 2013, Morgan Stanley has warned, but if policymakers fail to act, it could get a lot worse.


Picturegarden | The Image Bank | Getty Images
The bank’s economics team forecasts a full-blown recession next year, under a pessimistic scenario, with global gross domestic product (GDP) likely to plunge 2 percent.
“More than ever, the economic outlook hinges upon the actions taken or not taken by governments and central banks,” Morgan Stanley said in a report.

25 Kasım 2012 Pazar

NEW YORK TIMES: "OBAMA AND MORSI FORGE LINK IN GAZA DEAL"

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From the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report:

The New York Times has published an article titled “Egypt Leader and Obama Forge Link in Gaza Deal” that confirms the GMBDR conclusion that today’s truce between Hamas and Israel represents a major victory for Egyptian President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. According to the article, President Obama was “was impressed with the Egyptian leader’s pragmatic confidence”:  

WASHINGTON — President Obama skipped dessert at a long summit meeting dinner in Cambodia on Monday to rush back to his hotel suite. It was after 11:30 p.m. and his mind was on rockets in Gaza rather than Asian diplomacy. He picked up the telephone to call the Egyptian leader who is the new wild card in his Middle East calculations.
Over the course of the next 25 minutes, he and President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt hashed through ways to end the latest eruption of violence, a conversation that would lead Mr. Obama to send Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the region. As he and Mr. Morsi talked, Mr. Obama felt they were making a connection.
Three hours later, at 2:30 in the morning, they talked again. The cease-fire brokered between Israel and Hamas on Wednesday was the official unveiling of this unlikely new geopolitical partnership, one with bracing potential if not a fair measure of risk for both men.
After a rocky start to their relationship, Mr. Obama has decided to invest heavily in the leader whose election caused concern because of his ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, seeing in him an intermediary who might help make progress in the Middle East beyond the current crisis in Gaza. The White House phone log tells part of the tale.
Mr. Obama talked with Mr. Morsi three times within 24 hours and six times over the course of several days, an unusual amount of one-on-one time for a president. Mr. Obama told aides he was impressed with the Egyptian leader’s pragmatic confidence. He sensed an engineer’s precision with surprisingly little ideology. Most important, Mr. Obama told aides that he considered Mr. Morsi a straight shooter who delivered on what he promised and did not promise what he could not deliver. 
‘The thing that appealed to the president was how practical the conversations were — here’s the state of play, here are the issues we’re concerned about,’ said a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. ‘This was somebody focused on solving problems.’ The Egyptian side was also positive about the collaboration.
Essam el-Haddad, the foreign policy adviser to the Egyptian president, described a singular partnership developing between Mr. Morsi, who is the most important international ally for Hamas, and Mr. Obama, who plays essentially the same role for Israel. =‘Yes, they were carrying the point of view of the Israeli side but they were understanding also the other side, the Palestinian side,’ Mr. Haddad said in Cairo as the cease-fire was being finalized on Wednesday. ‘We felt there was a high level of sincerity in trying to find a solution. The sincerity and understanding was very helpful.’  Read the rest here.
The article cites President Obama’s aides who said “they were willing to live with some of Mr. Morsi’s more populist talk as long as he proves constructive on the substance.”  According to a recent Secure America Now report, Dr. Morsi’s “populist talk” has included:
  • Signing a bayyan (Islamic declaration) that speaks about the “ Zio-American pact and its allies” and calls for “military resistance” in Iraq and Palestine, which it labels as “Jihad.”
  • Stating “the Quran has established that the Jews are the ones in the highest degree of enmity towards Muslims” and that “there is no peace with the descendants of the apes and pigs”.
  • Calling Israelis “killers and vampires” who are “more dangerous to global security than any other kind of terrorism.”
  • Stating on the sixth anniversary of 911 that “The US administration has never presented any evidences on the identity of those who committed that incident” and that it was “impossible” for a plane to have brought down the Twin Towers 
In October, a post reported that Dr. Morsi participated in a prayer service during which an Islamic cleric called upon the Jews to be destroyed.”