Time Magazine thinks that extended unemployment benefits may increase joblessness

To contact us Click HERE
According to a recent story in Time Magazine, there is "a Limit to Compassion". The article figures that with extending the unemployment benefits for up to 99 weeks, congress and the president actually provides the jobless incentive to wait around for jobs---not taking low-paying jobs or a position that would require you to relocate.

Because there's evidence that the extensions are only prolonging joblessness. Today's unemployment rate remains high not because of mass layoffs — most of which happened early last year — but mainly because more people are remaining unemployed for longer periods. In academic parlance, the "exit rate" from the unemployment pool is only around 21%, compared with 34% during the last harsh recession, in 1982.

Trucking Jobs have Dropped During the Recession

To contact us Click HERE

The >Bureau of Labor Statistics has recently issued a study that shows how employment in the truck transportation industry has dropped from 1.45 million jobs before 2008 to about 1.25 million trucking jobs by the end of 2009. This decrease of 200,000 drivers is significant not only for the truckers, but also for the manufacturers and merchants that sell the goods that these guys deliver.



You can see in the above chart that the severity of the decline in this recession (Green Line) is much steeper and prolonged than what it was in the prior two recessionary periods.

January Jobs Report---Unemployment drops to 9.7%

To contact us Click HERE

CNBC reports in this 10 minute video clip the January, 2010 jobs report. The Unemployment rate is at 9.7%. The unemployment declined because of the benchmark revisions and because more people were finding work.

Annual benchmark revisions show 8.4 million jobs lost since the start of the recession versus 7.2 million prior to the revision.

Rick Santelli commented that,the benchmark revision was in the realm of expectations, and he wants to know how much the labor force shrank / (grew) in the period.

The average work week was higher at 33.3 hours per week versus 33.2 hours per week prior to the report.

Temporary jobs continue to increase, but construction jobs continue to decline.

In February and March, government employment is expected to increase as the census starts its 2010 hiring spree.

Mark Zandi views the decline in unemployment rate confusing, because payroll employment continues to shrink (ADP data), so how could unemployment be improving?

In order to stabilize employment, analysts say 125,000 jobs per month need to be created---However, this past month 20,000 jobs were still destroyed. While the trend is still improving, things aren't fully positive yet.

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

To contact us Click HERE


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?

To contact us Click HERE
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.

More Women Working than Men

To contact us Click HERE


As Econompicdata shows for the first time in US history there are more women with jobs than men. This is one reason why the current great recession has been called a mancession. As many industries that have been dominated by males (construction and manufacturing) have been hit quite hard by lay-offs and job-losses, while many industries dominated by women (education and health-care) have not suffered as extreme of a hit to their payrolls.

For additional reading on the subject, you can check out The NY Times or Casey Mulligan's Blog (he's a professor at the University of Chicago).

Unemployment Rate by County

To contact us Click HERE


According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are nearly 30 million people currently unemployed -- that's including those involuntarily working part time and those who want a job, but have given up on trying to find one. In the face of the worst economic upheaval since the Great Depression, millions of Americans are hurting. "

The Decline: The Geography of a Recession," as created by labor writer LaToya Egwuekwe, serves as a vivid representation of just how much. Watch the deteriorating transformation of the U.S. economy from January 2007 -- approximately one year before the start of the recession -- to the most recent unemployment data available today. Original link: www.latoyaegwuekwe.com/geographyofarecession.html.

This data was last updated in February 2010.

65 Years of Unemployment Data

To contact us Click HERE

The St Louis Fed publishes regular updates to the Civilian Unemployment Rate. I thought this chart spanning the ~65 years from post WWII (1945) to today (2010) you can see how recessions have frequently caused large spikes in the unemployment rate.

The spike from the most recent recession is the second highest in the post-war era---That's the bad news. The good news is that during the past few months the Jobless rate went from over 10% to 9.7%... Maybe things are starting to improve.

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

To contact us Click HERE


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?

To contact us Click HERE
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.

That’s all right congressman, because you are one of the 80 commies ..IS ANYONE ELSE SICK OF THIS SHIT YET?

To contact us Click HERE

Rep. James Clyburn (D., S.C.) described Mitt Romney and Bain Capital’s record as one of “raping companies” in a Tuesday interview with MSNBC.

ANCHOR: But, congressman, what about the counterargument to that? What about the counterargument that these attacks on Bain Capital — many see them as an attack on free enterprise as well. CLYBURN: This is not an attack on free enterprise. I would say to you, [unclear] free enterprise–I don’t take contributions from payday lenders. I refuse to do that. That’s free enterprise. but there’s something about that enterprise that I have a problem with. And there’s something about raping companies and leaving them in debt and setting up Swiss bank accounts and corporate businesses in the Grand Caymans. I have a serious problem with that.

Despite Clyburn’s remarks, the congressman has previously taken money from private equity giant Blackstone Group. Blackstone announced Tuesday it willbuy Motel 6 for $1.9 billion. Moreover, lobbyists comprise one of Clyburn’s largest sources of campaign cash, including lobbyists for the payday loan industry. For example, in the current cycle Clyburn accepted $1,500 from Joyce Rogers, a registered lobbyist for payday lender Cash America International.

Every time we get this we get the response, like Col West hyperbolic shit returns, …like….

Moderator: What percentage of the American legislature do you think are card-carrying Marxists or International Socialist? West: It’s a good question. I believe there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democrat Party who are members of the Communist Party. It’s called the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Congressman West’s office responded to questions from CBSMiami.com with the following statement: “The Congressman was referring to the 76 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.  The Communist Party has publicly referred to the Progressive Caucus as its allies.   The Progressive Caucus speaks for itself.  These individuals certainly aren’t proponents of free markets or individual economic freedom.”

ARE WE ALL COMPLETELY TURNED OFF YET ?

THE LOWEST PERCENTAGE OF AMERICANS EVER RECORDED IS AT WORK TODAY. IS ANYONE WORKING ON OR THINKING ABOUT THAT SHIT?

THAT IS THE ISSUE

THAT IS THE ONLY ISSUE

I got your rape right here, Clyburn

To contact us Click HERE

both Obama and the DNC have taken large contributions from Bain employees. Bain’s Managing PartnerSteve Pagliuca, and Managing DirectorsJonathan LavineandMark Nunnellyhave already given the maximum donation to the Obama campaign and the DNC for the 2012 campaign cycle, each contributing $35,800 to the Obama Victory Fund 2012 and $30,800 to the campaign committee. Lavine has also been one of Obama’s top bundlers, raising over $100,000* for him so far this cycle.

KEEP GOING YOU MORONS. DON’T TALK ABOUT YOUR PLANS FOR THE ECONOMY DON’T TALK ABOUT YOUR PLANS IRAN DON’T TALK ABOUT YOUR PLANS IN CASE THE EU GOES WACKO DON’T TALK ABOUT YOUR PLANS ABOUT ANYTHING KEEP VILIFYING THE ‘ENEMY’, THAT’S WAY MORE IMPORTANT.  BUT EVEN BETTER, MAKE THE ATTACKS COMPLETELY ABSURD

Obama’s war on the middle class? Coal-fired power plants are now generating just 36 percent of U.S. electricity, versus 44.6 percent just one year ago

To contact us Click HERE

Obama’s war on coal hits your electric bill

Obama’s War on Coal has already taken a remarkable toll on coal-fired power plants in America.  Last week the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a shocking drop in power sector coal consumption in the first quarter of 2012. Coal-fired power plants are now generating just 36 percent of U.S. electricity, versus 44.6 percent just one year ago.  It’s the result of an unprecedented regulatory assault on coal that will leave us all much poorer. Last week PJM Interconnection, the company that operates the electric grid for 13 states (Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia) held its 2015 capacity auction. These are the first real, market prices that take Obama’s most recent anti-coal regulations into account, and they prove that he is keeping his 2008 campaign promise to make electricity prices “necessarily skyrocket.” The market-clearing price for new 2015 capacity – almost all natural gas – was $136 per megawatt. That’s eight times higher than the price for 2012, which was just $16 per megawatt. In the mid-Atlantic area covering New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and DC the new price is $167 per megawatt. For the northern Ohio territory served by FirstEnergy, the price is a shocking $357 per megawatt. Why the massive price increases? Andy Ott from PJM stated the obvious: “Capacity prices were higher than last year’s because of retirements of existing coal-fired generation resulting largely from environmental regulations which go into effect in 2015.” Northern Ohio is suffering from more forced coal-plant retirements than the rest of the region, hence the even higher price. These are not computer models or projections or estimates. These are the actual prices that electric distributors have agreed to pay for new capacity. The costs will be passed on to consumers at the retail level.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/05/22/obamas-war-on-coal-hits-your-electric-bill/print#ixzz1vdIURf8s

NOTHING is more important to the economic survival of the middle class and below than the defeat of this stupid, stupid ideologue and his amateurish, ill conceived ivory tower projects. The man has NO PRACTICALITY IN HIS BODY

Pakistan blocked Twitter access because of Everybody Draw Mohammed Day

To contact us Click HERE
Did you know that May 20 was Everybody Draw Mohammed Day? Whether or not you do, that was apparently why Pakistan blocked access to Twitter 2 days ago.

Leftist Comics Alliance, which spoke about this, didn't help matters by making a grave factual error though:

May 20 was the third annual Everybody Draw Mohammed Day, the event in which artists depict the Prophet Mohammed in cartoon form to protest censorship and extremist threats (The event was created by cartoonist Molly Norris in 2010 in response to the death threats received by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone for attempting to feature the figure in their Comedy Central series). If you live in Pakistan, however, you wouldn't have seen any mention of this on Twitter yesterday, because government regulators shut down access to the site for hours to keep a lid on things, just in case.

Norris went into hiding on advise from the F.B.I. in 2010, going so far as to change her name and relocate after receiving death threats for illustrating a cartoon that depicted Mohammed as common household objects. Cartoonists worldwide have continued participating, however, as an expression of free speech. Visual depictions of Mohammed are historically uncommon in Islam, and remain so as both a matter of reverence and a measure against idolatry.

A most misleading statement, I'm afraid, considering how the Hadith/Koran both revere Mohammed's violent behavior and acts, and his marriage to a 9-year-old girl. Images of Mohammed are forbidden because they worship him. Which, now that I think of it, is certainly a most peculiar double-standard if the Religion of Rape is supposedly monotheistic, and then it goes along and elevates the horrific man to a level where picturing him is not allowed, unlike both Judaism and Christianity, which both allow for imagery of Moses and Jesus.

But maybe that shouldn't be too surprising, since the writer of that piece at Comics Alliance is someone who'd written a post I'd noted earlier in this post who didn't show a particularly keen awareness of the Koran's contents when he knee-jerkedly attacked Frank Miller for writing Holy Terror. If Comics Alliance writer's got no interest in studying the deeper matters involving the Koran and Hadith, then he's got no business writing about Everybody Draw Mohammed Day either.

5 Million Americans Lost

To contact us Click HERE
From the American Thinker:

Five million Americans have been thrown under the bus.  They are walking around dazed, outcast, and defeated.  Worst of all, they are not even counted in official tallies of the unemployed.  They are those whom the Obama administration simply wishes to ignore: working-age adults who have dropped out of the labor market completely.  They are those for whom the economic recovery underway should have created jobs but has not.

Despite Obama's latest assertion of having created 4 million jobs in the last 26 months, the reality is that in the past two years, 5.4 million workers have left the job market entirely.  These are the 5.4 million whom academics like to call "discouraged workers," and as far as the administration and its media cheerleaders are concerned, they do not exist.

The fact is that these millions of Americans are not so much discouraged as they are hopeless. 

OBAMA IS THE MIDDLE CLASS' 9/11.

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

To contact us Click HERE


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?

To contact us Click HERE
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.

How Many Weeks of Unemployment do I get?

To contact us Click HERE
Click on Map for a Larger Image

If you're wondering just how many weeks of unemployment you're eligible for, the people at the center of budget and policy on priorities produced this interesting chart that shows that much of the nation is able to receive 99 weeks of unemployment checks.

Many states such as Florida, California, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina, Ohio and Illinois get the full 99 weeks of payments. Other states such as Wisconsin, Texas and New York get 93 weeks of unemployment benefits; while the dakotas and Nebraska get the least---60 weeks (which really isn't all that bad because it's still over a year of subsidies).

60 minutes story on the 99 weeks of Unemployment

To contact us Click HERE


60 minutes did a story on people who are running out of the 99 weeks of Unemployment checks. They speak about people who have spent hardship withdrawls from their 401k's and now depend on charities for free food.

They have stories of people who earned $70,000 to $200,000 who were shop-a-holics and now after having applied to hundreds of jobs are forced to scrounge around for recyclables and depend on family and friends for financial help.

How Does EUC work?

To contact us Click HERE
For people who are wondering how the Emergency Unemployment Compensation works, the folks at the center for budget and policy priorities have issued a handy bit of information for how many weeks of unemployment you can expect to receive depending on what state you have worked in.

**********************************************

The unemployment insurance (UI) system helps many people who have lost their jobs by temporarily replacing part of their wages. (See “Policy Basics: Unemployment Insurance.”) The total number of weeks of benefits available in any particular state depends on the unemployment rate and unemployment insurance laws in the state where the person worked. The map below shows the maximum number of weeks of benefits available in each state.

Workers in any state can receive up to 26 weeks of benefits from the regular state-funded unemployment compensation program.

In the current downturn, workers in any state who exhaust their regular UI benefits before they can find a job can receive up to 34 additional weeks of benefits through the temporary federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program enacted in 2008. That number rises to 53 weeks in states with especially high unemployment rates.

Workers who exhaust their regular UI and EUC benefits can receive additional weeks of benefits through the permanent federal-state Extended Benefits (EB) program if their state’s unemployment insurance laws allow it (see table below).

The table below shows how many states fall into each category shown in the map, and what combination of regular UI, EUC, and EB benefits produces the total for those states.

John Kerry, amazingly prescient - “Egypt at Risk” …wowzers!

To contact us Click HERE

National Journal:

NJ Egypt’s criminal trials of American and other nongovernment workers strained ties with Washington this year. Did you sense a shift in the relationship? KERRY I did. There’s a lot of tension. Egypt is really at risk, hanging in the balance of the outcome of the presidential election and the direction the Muslim Brotherhood decides to go. If the brotherhood doesn’t embrace basic laws of economics and attract capital back to the country, it’s very hard to see how you turn your economy around if everyone is scared of the instability. NJ You supported Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s decision to allow military aid to go to Cairo, but you also warned Egypt not to take anything for granted. KERRY  I told the Egyptians very clearly, “We think this relationship is important.” We wanted to act in good faith so they recognize that we’re willing to honor our commitments, and we expect them to. If they don’t, then everything is up for grabs. No question about it. If they suddenly pull out the rug on the peace treaty with Israel, if they put in place very restrictive laws, if they’re not able to do the International Monetary Fund loan, then we’re going to have to question what we’re doing. NJ What do you make of the role of the Muslim Brotherhood, which now holds a majority in parliament? KERRY We have to find a way to hopefully be able to work with them. If they make it impossible because they adopt policies that we find really unacceptable to our basic value system—that’s really a problem. We’re providing this assistance now because we need to make it clear we’re prepared to have a good relationship. If we suddenly cut it off, we’d be sending a horrendous message that basically says, “Screw you, we’re out of here.” And they’ll turn around and say, “There’s no reason to even think about the United States. Let’s go work with Iran or whoever it’s going to be.” So we’d be cutting off our nose to spite our face in that sort of self-righteous early approach.

That’s backwards. If the new gov there (the MB+even more salafi Salafists) wants a realtionship (which I doubt goes any further than getting $ from us) it is THEY who must do things.

NJ Are you hopeful about the prospects of working with them? KERRY I am hopeful. Not because I believe I can take to the bank everything they say—but because everything they say is better than what they could be saying. They’re talking about pluralism, diversity, protecting minority rights, and understanding they can’t put an Islamic extreme regimen in place because it would be counter to a lot of Egypt’s culture. 

Counter to Egypt’s Culture? Has this Gavone Supreme even HEARD of Sayd Qutb?

Amid the Wall Street Journal reportage on Obama’s inner Nixon, have they forgotten HOW he was elected Senator?

To contact us Click HERE

WSJ Opinion:

Those are some ugly details that our Kimberley Strassel has been turning up about the effort to smear Mitt Romney’s campaign donors. The dirt-digging exercise reflects the character of President Obama’s re-election campaign, as well as what’s really behind the drive for more “transparency” in political donations.As Ms. Strassel has reported in recent columns, Idaho businessman Frank VanderSloot has become the target of a smear campaign since it was disclosed earlier this year that he had donated $1 million to a super PAC supporting Mr. Romney. President Obama’s campaign website teed him up in April as one of eight “less than reputable” Romney donors and a “bitter foe of the gay rights movement.” One sin: His wife donated to an anti-gay-marriage campaign, of the kind that have passed in 30 or so states. Now we learn that little more than a week after that Presidential posting, a former Democratic Senate staffer called the courthouse in Mr. VanderSloot’s home town of Idaho Falls seeking his divorce records. Ms. Strassel traced the operative, Michael Wolf, to a Washington, D.C. outfit called Fusion GPS that says it is “a commercial research firm.” Fusion GPS is run by a former Wall Street Journal reporter, Glenn Simpson, who wouldn’t say who is paying him for this high-minded slumming but said in an email that Mr. VanderSloot was a “legitimate” target because of “his record on gay issues.” If Mr. Simpson and Democrats really favor disclosure, then surely Mr. Simpson should disclose who is paying him to rummage through the personal lives of opposition donors. Someone should also ask the White House, the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee if Mr. Simpson’s chop shop is on their payroll and if they approve of such tactics. Does Mr. Obama think the lifestyles and divorce records of campaign donors should be fair political game?

Remember Jack Ryan, well ahead in the polls in Illinois, the husband of Jerri Ryan, ‘7 of 9’ on Star Trek?

Jack Ryan (born October 6, 1959) is a Republican from the state of Illinois who was forced to withdraw from the 2004 United States Senate race due to an alleged sex scandal involving his relationship with his ex-wife, actress Jeri Ryan.^[1][2] His eventual replacement, Alan Keyes, would go on to lose the general election to State Senator and future President of the United States, Barack Obama. Ryan hoped to succeed retiring Republican Peter Fitzgerald in the United States Senate. On March 16, 2004, he won the Republican primary, thus pairing him against Democrat Barack Obama. However, after his divorce records containing damaging allegations were unsealed and made public, he withdrew his candidacy on June 25, 2004, and officially filed the documentation to withdraw on July 29, 2004. The following week, on April 2, 2004, Barack Obama formally established his position about the Ryans’ soon-to-be-released divorce records, and called on Democrats not to inject them into the campaign. The Ryan campaign characterized Obama’s stance as hypocritical, because Obama’s alleged backers had been emailing reports about the divorce records prior to Judge Schnider’s decision

Barack Obama is not just politics as usual, he is Chicago machine politics as usual. He not hope and change he is dirty knives and questionable ethics, but of course, it’s justified and understandable because his is the greater understanding, and good. Nothing is more important than ensuring this man’s defeat.

Without a Point

To contact us Click HERE

Senza Una Donna.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiUn8RwpcfY

Without A Woman. No more pain and no more sorrow. I have a friend eager to begin a new relationship that we hope will be the one relationship that lasts and makes life right. I´m cheering from the sidelines. I want everyone to have someone good to love. I could easily love a woman here in Bolivia, could marry her and settle in and have a huge family, calling it a real life at last. Yeah, I could do that. I hope it works for my friend, and I hope it´s working for you, too.

I´m leaving Bolivia tomorrow for a return to Lima, Peru. According to the customs agent I spoke with I can stay indefinitely in Bolivia, ¨a day, a week, a year, it doesn´t matter; but you have to pay 20 bollies per day after the first 90 days.¨ Nice guy. We chatted about arthritis. The last customs agent I spoke with told me if I want to find a wife I should give him my phone number, he knowing a lot of women who would be happy to meet a fellow like me. Time before that I ended up telling jokes to the customs agent till we were both laughing ourselves silly, shaking hands and professing eternal friendship. And the lesbian lady who was so sweet I could have kissed her. Loving my time here makes it seem like I could love a woman here. But I´m leaving. I´ll remain alone.

My ex wife finally got fed up with me after many years of me fooling around, travelling to this or that place while she stayed home and did the needed things of home life. She left, unsurprisingly, surprising me to the ground and leaving me unhappy about it to this day. No more woman, no more pain. So I say. I wish my friend well.

My exwife found a new guy in time, taking her time to do so, checking men carefully for stability and commitment to reality and common decency. She found a good guy. After 15 years of marriage he shot himself to death on Christmas day. For all my faults, at least I´m still alive. Without a woman. Could be worse.
Then again it could be better. I got an email from a friend whose husband is about the luckiest guy I can think of. But it´s not like he won the national lottery. That kind of luck he has is the result of character and the lucky finding of a woman like himself. My friend is good like that. Here´s hoping his new girl is as good a person as he.


Zucchero & Paul Young, ¨Senza Una Donna.¨ 2010.