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Latest Articles: United States News
Election 2010: Nevada Senate (Rasmussen: Reid +2)
Post Date: 2010-07-30 10:48:41 by go65
25 Comments
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has edged ahead of his Republican opponent Sharron Angle in his bid for reelection in Nevada. Both candidates are seen to hold extreme views by large segments of the population. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Nevada finds Reid with 45% of the vote, while Angle earns 43% support. Seven percent (7%) favor some other candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided. But 48% of the state’s voters have a Very Unfavorable view of Reid. Forty-one percent (41%) say the same of Angle. Overall, 55% have at least a somewhat unfavorable opinion of Reid and 56% view Angle at least somewhat unfavorably. Sixty-two percent (62%) ...
CBO: Public option could save $68 billion by 2020
Post Date: 2010-07-30 10:39:43 by go65
2 Comments
When people think of deficit reduction, they tend to think about spending cuts and tax increases. They don't think as much about saving money by putting more effective policies into place. But as the Congressional Budget Office's analysis of a new public option proposal from Pete Stark suggests, maybe they should. Stark wants to add a public option to the exchanges that would start by paying doctors the rates Medicare pays plus 5 percent, and then grow with the cost of physicians' services. According to the CBO, this plan's premiums "would be 5 percent to 7 percent lower, on average, than the premiums of private plans offered in the exchanges." But that's not ...
House GOP leaders: 9/11 first responders aid bill 'a massive new entitlement program'
Post Date: 2010-07-30 09:24:54 by go65
8 Comments
House Republican leadership is advising its members to vote against a bipartisan bill that would, among other things, bolster medical support to Sept. 11 victims. The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2009, sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), would provide medical monitoring to those exposed to toxins at ground zero, bolster treatment at specialized centers for those afflicted by toxins on Sept. 11 and reopen a compensation fund to provide for the economic loss of victims. And it’s all paid for by closing a tax loophole on foreign companies with U.S. subsidiaries, Democrats said. But according to Republicans, it’s a job-killing growth of government that ...
Poll shows opposition to health care overhaul declining
Post Date: 2010-07-30 09:16:01 by go65
7 Comments
Opposition to the landmark health care overhaul declined over the past month, to 35 percent from 41 percent, according to the latest results of a tracking poll, reported Thursday. Fifty percent of the public held a favorable view of the law, up slightly from 48 percent a month ago, while 14 percent expressed no opinion about the measure, according to the poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation. (More polls from the Washington Post) The approval level was the highest for the legislation since it was enacted in March, after a divisive year-long debate. In April, the poll found 46 percent in favor and 40 percent opposed. Though the legislative battle is over, the political tug-of-war ...
Recession in U.S. Was Even Worse Than Estimated, Revisions Show [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2010-07-30 09:05:40 by go65
96 Comments
The worst U.S. recession since the 1930s was even deeper than previously estimated, reflecting bigger slumps in consumer spending and housing, according to revised figures. The world’s largest economy shrank 4.1 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the second quarter of 2009, compared with the 3.7 percent drop previously on the books, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Household spending fell 1.2 percent in 2009, twice as much as previously projected and the biggest decline since 1942. “We do tend to get bigger revisions at turning points in the economy,” Steven Landefeld, director of the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, said in a ...
-- The "Recovery" is Over; 2nd Quarter GDP growth slides
Post Date: 2010-07-30 08:34:45 by no gnu taxes
12 Comments
Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 2.4 percent in the second quarter of 2010, (that is, from the first quarter to the second quarter), according to the "advance" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the first quarter, real GDP increased 3.7 percent.
Housing Bubble will Not be Reblown; Foreclosures Increase in 154 of 206 Metro Areas with Population Over 200,000
Post Date: 2010-07-29 22:19:44 by Nebuchadnezzar
3 Comments
Housing Bubble will Not be Reblown; Foreclosures Increase in 154 of 206 Metro Areas with Population Over 200,000 It's been one hell of a non-recovery in housing, smack in the face of now-expiring $8,000 home tax credits that have proven to be as stimulative and futile as attacking fire ants with a BB-Gun. Please consider Foreclosure Filings Rise in 75% of U.S. Metro Areas Foreclosure filings climbed in three-quarters of U.S. metropolitan areas in the first half as high unemployment left many homeowners unable to pay their mortgages, according to RealtyTrac Inc. The number of properties receiving a filing more than doubled from a year earlier in Baltimore, Oklahoma City and ...
Official's Work With Tea Party Raises Eyebrows
Post Date: 2010-07-29 19:35:43 by Brian S
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Affidavits filed by more than half of the 23 candidates from Michigan's mysterious Tea Party were notarized by the political director of the Oakland County Democratic Party, elections records show, providing more fuel for suspicions that Democrats organized the new party to hurt Republican chances in the November election. The party, which most of the tea party movement's visible leaders in Michigan disavow, also is represented by a Lansing attorney with long ties to state Democrats. And the California-based petition firm hired to collect signatures to qualify the new party for the November ballot was used by Michigan Democrats for another stealth petition drive two years. State ...
Fed Judge Gets Threats After AZ Immigration Ruling
Post Date: 2010-07-29 19:13:04 by Brian S
5 Comments
Fed judge gets threats after AZ immigration ruling By BOB CHRISTIE Associated Press Writer AP Photo AP Photo/Matt York Watch Related Video Raw Video: Dozens Arrested in Ariz. Protests Buy AP Photo Reprints Multimedia Timeline on Arizona's Illegal Immigration Enforcement Law PHOENIX (AP) -- Authorities say a federal judge in Phoenix has been getting some threats since her ruling on Arizona's controversial immigration law. David Gonzales, the U.S. Marshal for Arizona, says U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton has received thousands of phone calls and e-mails since her preliminary injunction Wednesday that put key provisions of the state's immigration law on hold. Gonzales says ...
Senate Republicans Block $30 Billion Small Business Lending Bill
Post Date: 2010-07-29 19:11:47 by Brian S
1 Comments
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's election-year jobs agenda suffered a new setback Thursday when Senate Republicans blocked a bill creating a $30 billion government fund to help open up lending for credit-starved small businesses. The fund would be available to community banks with less than $10 billion in assets to help them increase lending to small businesses. The bill would combine the fund with about $12 billion in tax breaks aimed at small businesses. Democrats say banks should be able to use the lending fund to leverage up to $300 billion in loans, helping to loosen tight credit markets. Some Republicans, however, likened it to the unpopular bailout of the financial ...
AP survey: A bleaker outlook for economy into 2011 (No shit, AP finally buys a clue)
Post Date: 2010-07-29 19:09:21 by Nebuchadnezzar
2 Comments
AP survey: A bleaker outlook for economy into 2011 By JEANNINE AVERSA (AP) – 19 hours ago WASHINGTON — The U.S. economic recovery will remain slow deep into next year, held back by shoppers reluctant to spend and employers hesitant to hire, according to an Associated Press survey of leading economists. The latest quarterly AP Economy Survey shows economists have turned gloomier in the past three months. They foresee weaker growth and higher unemployment than they did before. As a result, the economists think the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates near zero until at least next spring. Yet despite their expectation of slower growth, a majority of the 42 economists surveyed ...
Letting Bush Tax Cuts Die Would Kill Recovery: Analysts
Post Date: 2010-07-29 17:30:52 by WhiteSands
4 Comments
The nascent US economic recovery would be halted in 2011 if Congress fails to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, analysts at Deutsche Bank said. The cuts were enacted in 2001 and 2003 under President George W. Bush and covered those earning more than $250,000, but they are set to expire at the end of this year. Deutsche said the drag on gross domestic product should they lapse could be as much as 1.5 percent, with the more likely impact at 1.1 percent. The impact would be worse, the analysts said, if Congress fails to fix the Alternative Minimum Tax, which was enacted in 1969 to make sure rich people pay taxes but was never indexed for inflation, and thus is now ...
CAIR: Tea Partiers To ‘Harass’ Muslims With Dogs At Anti-Mosque Protest
Post Date: 2010-07-29 12:48:44 by Brian S
2 Comments
CAIR slams 'KKK tactics,' says Tea Party changing focus to 'promotion of Islamophobia''Islam is not a religion,' declares anonymous protest organizerThe Council on American-Islamic relations has condemned plans for a Tea Party protest outside a southern California mosque, whose organizers are urging protesters to bring dogs with them because Muslims "hate dogs."A recent series of unsigned emails and anonymous Web postings has called for a protest during Friday prayers outside the Islamic Center of Temecula Valley, in Riverside County. Protest organizers are upset at the Islamic group's plans to build a new mosque to replace its current makeshift ...
Ousted USDA Employee Sherrod Plans To Sue Breitbart [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2010-07-29 12:43:00 by Brian S
88 Comments
Ousted USDA employee Shirley Sherrod says she will sue conservative blogger over edited video Ousted Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod said Thursday she will sue a conservative blogger who posted an edited video of her making racially tinged remarks last week. Sherrod made the announcement in San Diego at the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention. The edited video posted by Andrew Breitbart led Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to ask her to resign, a decision he reconsidered after seeing the entire video of her March speech to a local NAACP group. In the full speech, Sherrod spoke of racial reconciliation and lessons she learned after initially ...
EPA: 1M Gallons Of Oil May Be In Michigan River
Post Date: 2010-07-29 12:41:53 by Brian S
1 Comments
EPA says 1 million gallons of oil may have spilled in Mich. river, governor criticizes cleanup. Federal officials now estimate that more than 1 million gallons of oil may have spilled into a major river in southern Michigan, and the governor is sharply criticizing clean-up efforts as "wholly inadequate." The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released the update Wednesday night, shortly after Gov. Jennifer Granholm lambasted attempts to contain the oil flowing down the Kalamazoo River. She warned of a "tragedy of historic proportions" if the oil reaches Lake Michigan, which is still at least 80 miles downstream from where oil has been seen. Granholm called on the ...
Schwarzenegger signs bill establishing 'Ronald Reagan Day' in California
Post Date: 2010-07-29 12:39:12 by Brian S
3 Comments
In Simi Valley today, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger held a ceremonial signing of two bills honoring former President Ronald Reagan. The governor signed the bills in the Air Force One Pavilion of the Reagan Library with former First Lady Nancy Reagan and a crowd of admirers looking on. One bill, SB 944, officially designates February 6 of each year as Ronald Reagan Day in California. On that day, the state will encourage educational institutions to remember the life and accomplishments of its 33rd governor and the country’s 40th president. Ronald Reagan was born on February 6, 1911. He was 93 years old when he died six years ago; had he lived, next year he would have turned 100. So ...
President Tarball: "Black People Are Dogs With Uncultured Breeding"
Post Date: 2010-07-29 12:02:43 by no gnu taxes
3 Comments
President Obama waded into the national race debate in an unlikely setting and with an unusual choice of words: telling daytime talk show hosts that African-Americans are “sort of a mongrel people.” The president appeared on ABC’s morning talk show “The View” Thursday, where he talked about the forced resignation of Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod, his experience with race and his roots. When asked about his background, which includes a black father and white mother, Obama said of African-Americans: "We are sort of a mongrel people." "I mean we're all kinds of mixed up," Obama said. Click for Full Text!
The new Chevy Volt: Overpriced and oversold (but it feels good to be green!!!!)
Post Date: 2010-07-29 11:41:17 by Nebuchadnezzar
19 Comments
July 29, 2010 The new Chevy Volt: Overpriced and oversold Henry Percy Pricing for the Chevy Volt, that eagerly awaited savior of Government Motors, has been set at last: $41,000! That's $8,000 more than the Nissan Leaf will sell for, and the Leaf is a pure electric. The Volt is a hybrid, running only 40 miles on a charge, the rest on a gasoline generator. In one of the most deceptive lines in the WaPo article, the writer informs us that "Although the prices are high, enthusiasts say that electric cars can reach a large, untapped market for vehicles with little or no tailpipe emissions." Oh the clever journalists, parsing their words so carefully: yes, zero tailpipe emissions ...
Meg Whitman: The Next Arnold In Waiting.
Post Date: 2010-07-29 06:57:11 by Skip MacLure
4 Comments
Meg Whitman was on America’s Morning News today. After listening to her talk, I had the distinct impression that what we’re getting is another big government liberal. When queried about the illegal alien subject she danced all over the issue, saying that “Arizona’s anti-illegal alien law was not for California”. It made me wonder if she had ever read California’s statutes, like 634-b of the criminal code. Maybe someone should tell her that we have had the same laws on our books for decades. Successive liberal state governments (like Jerry ‘Moonbeam’ Brown’s) have tied law enforcements’ hands, preventing them from arresting illegals for ...
Google, CIA Invest in ‘Future’ of Web Monitoring
Post Date: 2010-07-28 21:36:36 by A K A Stone
1 Comments
The investment arms of the CIA and Google are both backing a company that monitors the web in real time — and says it uses that information to predict the future.
The company is called Recorded Future, and it scours tens of thousands of websites, blogs and Twitter accounts to find the relationships between people, organizations, actions and incidents — both present and still-to-come. In a white paper, the company says its temporal analytics engine “goes beyond search” by “looking at the ‘invisible links’ between documents that talk about the same, or related, entities and events.”
The idea is to figure out for each incident who was involved, where it happened and when it might go ...
Schwarzenegger orders furloughs, California may start issuing IOUs in August
Post Date: 2010-07-28 18:47:03 by Nebuchadnezzar
7 Comments
Schwarzenegger orders furloughs, California may start issuing IOUs in August by CalculatedRisk on 7/28/2010 04:01:00 PM From the Sacramento Bee: Schwarzenegger orders more furloughs [Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's] new executive order requires employees take three unpaid days off per month. But unlike that policy, it has no termination date: Furloughs will end when lawmakers pass a 2010-11 budget. ... The governor made the decision this week after Controller John Chiang said that unless lawmakers enacted a budget soon, the state's cash would go into the red by October. Chiang said he'll start issuing IOUs in August or September to conserve funds as long as possible. And the ...
NYT: Oil slick on gulf surface disappearing rapidly on its own
Post Date: 2010-07-28 17:02:35 by WhiteSands
18 Comments
ABC actually beat them to the punch on this story, reporting yesterday that clean-up crews are having trouble even finding the spill (“experts say an astonishing amount has disappeared, reabsorbed into the environment”), but only now that the Times is on it will it really break big. It’s not that the oil’s all gone, of course. But a lot of it is. And the rest is … hiding. Scientists said the rapid dissipation of the surface oil was probably due to a combination of factors. The gulf has an immense natural capacity to break down oil, which leaks into it at a steady rate from thousands of natural seeps. Though none of the seeps is anywhere near the size of the ...
It Looks Like This Recovery Is Already Over
Post Date: 2010-07-28 16:16:20 by WhiteSands
1 Comments
Argonaut Capital (via Market Folly) have released their May 2010 investor letter and it points to a depressing reality about the state of the U.S. recovery. That recovery appears to have already topped out, as of Q4 2009. With stimulus funding in decline, we've already seen a fall in Q1 2010. Their projections have that number continuing to fall through 2010. From Argonaut Capital (via Market Folly):
NYC looks to stop spreading bedbug infestations
Post Date: 2010-07-28 16:05:26 by WhiteSands
0 Comments
NEW YORK — One of every 15 New Yorkers battled bedbugs last year, officials said Wednesday as they announced a plan to fight the spreading infestation, including a public-awareness campaign and a top entomologist to head the effort. The bloodsucking pests, which are not known to spread disease but can cause great mental anguish with their persistent and fast-growing infestations, have rapidly multiplied throughout New York and many other U.S. cities in recent years. Health officials and pest control specialists nationwide report surges in sightings, bites and complaints. The Environmental Protection Agency hosted its first-ever bedbug summit last year. In New York City, the pests ...
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