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Latest Articles: United States News
THE OBAMA DEPRESSION -- Jobless claims jump 37,000 to 464,000
Post Date: 2010-07-22 08:57:35 by no gnu taxes
2 Comments
he number of people applying for initial state unemployment insurance benefits rose 37,000 to 464,000 in the week ended July 17, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected an initial claims level of 450,000. The four-week average of initial claims - a better gauge of employment trends than the volatile weekly number - rose 1,250 to 456,000. Continuing claims in the week ended July 10 fell 223,000 to 4.49 million. Recent volatility in this number is due to seasonal adjustment issues, according to the Labor Department. The four-week average of these continuing claims fell 21,500to 4.57 million. A federal extension of benefits has expired, and an ...
U.S. exempted BP's Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study
Post Date: 2010-07-22 02:24:50 by WhiteSands
13 Comments
The Interior Department exempted BP's calamitous Gulf of Mexico drilling operation from a detailed environmental impact analysis last year, according to government documents, after three reviews of the area concluded that a massive oil spill was unlikely. The decision by the department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) to give BP's lease at Deepwater Horizon a "categorical exclusion" from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on April 6, 2009 -- and BP's lobbying efforts just 11 days before the explosion to expand those exemptions -- show that neither federal regulators nor the company anticipated an accident of the scale of the one unfolding in the gulf. ...
Couric’s Future Questioned at CBS
Post Date: 2010-07-21 18:52:52 by reaganisright
30 Comments
This past spring, CBS News president Sean McManus and executive vice-president Paul Friedman discussed whether to try to bring an end to what may be the last great experiment in network news: Katie Couric, anchorwoman. Though her reported $15 million annual contract is not up until next June, one idea that was floated was for CBS to buy out the remainder of Couric's contract this September and put in someone new this fall, according to people familiar with the conversation. Executives were perhaps also concerned about the bad publicity that might result from a long contract negotiation with Couric, especially if she ended up leaving. McManus didn't want to make an early move, and ...
Is Fox News the Government's Daddy? [ This has to be one of the most embarrassing stains to come on the White House since the President took office ]
Post Date: 2010-07-21 18:08:24 by WhiteSands
7 Comments
This has to be one of the most embarrassing stains to come on the White House since the President took office. A loyal, non-racist employee is fired for talking about all people loving each other and coming together. Yet Shirley Sherrod was fired for being just that--a peace maker. Ms. Sherrod was fired not based on being a racist, but for a two minute clip on Fox News from a blog post by Andrew Breitbart. What kind of government do we have that reacts from a two minute clip? In fact, this government got so mad that Ms. Sherrod was forced to pull over and give her resignation over a blackberry phone. I have to ask this government, is Fox News your Daddy? Over and over again, this ...
Bernanke Says Economic Outlook is "Unusually Uncertain", Fed Prepared for "Actions as Needed" Be prepared for Quantitative Easing Round 2 (QE2) and/or other misguided Fed policy decisions because Bernanke Says Fed Ready to Take Action
Post Date: 2010-07-21 17:48:53 by Nebuchadnezzar
2 Comments
Bernanke Says Economic Outlook is "Unusually Uncertain", Fed Prepared for "Actions as Needed" Be prepared for Quantitative Easing Round 2 (QE2) and/or other misguided Fed policy decisions because Bernanke Says Fed Ready to Take Action. Treasuries rose, pushing two-year yields to the fourth record low in five days, as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the economic outlook is “unusually uncertain” and policy makers are prepared “to take further policy actions as needed.” Ten-year note yields touched a three-week low as Bernanke said central bankers are ready to act to aid growth even as they prepare to eventually raise interest rates from ...
Failure is success for Dumbass Obama fans
Post Date: 2010-07-21 16:44:02 by no gnu taxes
7 Comments
Cognitive dissonance has struck the political classes concerning President Obama, who was hailed 18 months ago as the new President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but now looks like somebody else. To Jonathan Alter, he's still FDR, only better: being two for two (or four for four) on his major initiatives. "You've got a ... record that's already historic," he says. He has escaped the fate of being a do-nothing failure like President Carter, and become a do-everything figure, like President Lyndon B. Johnson, yet Johnson's behavior brought Carter's results. Politico says he is flirting with failure: His numbers are dropping, independents are fleeing, Zbigniew ...
Obama Mortgage Plan May Fuel Wave of Foreclosures [ failing to aid many ]
Post Date: 2010-07-21 16:12:22 by WhiteSands
4 Comments
The Obama administration's effort to help those at risk of losing their homes is failing to aid many and could spur a rise in foreclosures that would further depress the housing industry. More foreclosures would force down home prices and that would deter already-ailing homebuilders from starting new projects. As a result, the economic rebound could suffer. Each new home built creates, on average, the equivalent of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in taxes paid to local and federal authorities, according to the National Association of Home Builders. "Foreclosures hold down the pricing for everybody," said Marty Mitchell, vice chief executive officer of ...
House Democrats Plan Manufacturing Jobs Push
Post Date: 2010-07-21 15:06:10 by Brian S
14 Comments
(Reuters) - Democrats in the House of Representatives are planning action on a number of bills to boost U.S. manufacturing jobs, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Tuesday. "We want to focus on ... 'Made in America,'" Hoyer told reporters. "We want to focus on encouraging -- and yes, tax benefits would be part of this -- expanding manufacturing." The push comes as Democrats in the House and the Senate face potentially heavy losses in November elections because of voters anxiety about the high U.S. unemployment rate of 9.5 percent and frustration with Washington in general. It also follows a poll last month done for the Alliance for American ...
Pa. Senate Race Turning Into Israel Proxy Fight
Post Date: 2010-07-21 13:10:31 by Brian S
1 Comments
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- A close battle for Pennsylvania's open U.S. Senate seat is quickly turning into a proxy war between self-described pro-Israel forces on the left and right. The immediate fight is over the pro-Israel credentials of U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), who knocked off the incumbent Arlen Specter in the Democratic primary and is now facing Republican former congressman Pat Toomey. The Emergency Committee for Israel, a group recently founded by neoconservatives and evangelical Christians, released a TV ad last week attacking Sestak and questioning whether he understands "Israel is America's ally." J Street countered this week with an ad defending Sestak and ...
True UE is 25%? (Household survey)
Post Date: 2010-07-21 11:58:24 by Nebuchadnezzar
2 Comments
The Jobless Effect: Is the Real Unemployment Rate 16.5%, 22%, or. . .? By PALLAVI GOGOI Posted 12:00 PM 07/16/10 Economy, Careers Hundreds of people lined up for a job fair in Miami Raghavan Mayur, president at TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, follows unemployment data closely. So, when his survey for May revealed that 28% of the 1,000-odd households surveyed reported that at least one member was looking for a full-time job, he was flummoxed. "Our numbers are always very accurate, so I was surprised at the discrepancy with the government's numbers," says Mayur, whose firm owns the TIPP polling unit, a polling partner for Investors' Business Daily and Christian ...
Police Deaths In Line Of Duty Up 43 Percent This Year
Post Date: 2010-07-21 11:29:00 by Brian S
4 Comments
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A nonprofit group in Washington says the number of police officers who have died in the line of duty is up 43 percent so far this year. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund released preliminary data Wednesday. It shows that 87 officers died in the line of duty between Jan. 1 and June 30. That's compared with 61 officers during the first six months of last year. The deaths were spread across 36 states and Puerto Rico - with California, Texas and Florida showing the most fatalities. Other states included Virginia and Maryland, where a state trooper was fatally shot June 11. Among the causes of death were traffic accidents and shootings. If the trend ...
Police: Alleged Freeway Shooter Was Targeting ACLU
Post Date: 2010-07-21 11:07:14 by Brian S
1 Comments
Police say a California man arrested after a freeway shootout with authorities was planning to attack people at the American Civil Liberties Union and another nonprofit group. Oakland police Officer Jeff Thomason says Byron Williams was upset with the ACLU and Tides Foundation for their political views. Williams told investigators he was on his way to San Francisco late Saturday when California Highway Patrol officers pulled him over on Interstate 580. Authorities say Williams, wearing a bulletproof vest and armed with three guns, opened fire. He was arraigned Tuesday on four counts of attempted murder, plus weapons enhancements. He was released from the hospital earlier in the day ...
Report: Tab For 'War On Terrorism' Tops $1 Trillion
Post Date: 2010-07-21 11:06:30 by Brian S
4 Comments
Washington (CNN) -- The United States has spent more than $1 trillion on wars since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, a recently released Congressional report says. Adjusting for inflation, the outlays for conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere around the world make the "war on terrorism" second only to World War II. The report "Cost of Major U.S. Wars" by the Congressional Research Service attempts to compare war costs over a more than 230-year period -- from the American Revolution to the current day -- noting the difficulties associated with such a task. Since the the 9/11 terror attacks, the United States has spent an estimated $1.15 trillion. World ...
RNC treasurer accuses leadership of hiding debt figures
Post Date: 2010-07-21 10:44:25 by go65
1 Comments
With Republicans on track for a potential tidal wave of success in the upcoming midterms, the party should be organized for maximum efficiency. Instead, the RNC may find itself in serious trouble with the FEC for failing to disclose millions of dollars in debt — a burden about which the treasurer of the GOP says he knew nothing. Randy Pullen sent a memo to the budget committee accusing RNC chair Michael Steele and his chief of staff of deliberately hiding the debt: The Republican National Committee failed to report more than $7 million in debt to the Federal Election Commission in recent months – a move that made its bottom line appear healthier than it is heading into the ...
President Tarball Approval Drops To Lowest Point Ever; Voters Would Prefer a Republican Over Him
Post Date: 2010-07-21 09:05:57 by no gnu taxes
1 Comments
A year after President Barack Obama's political honeymoon ended, his job approval rating has dropped to a negative 44 - 48 percent, his worst net score ever, and American voters say by a narrow 39 - 36 percent margin that they would vote for an unnamed Republican rather than President Obama in 2012, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.
USDA reconsiders firing of Ga. official over speech on race
Post Date: 2010-07-21 08:42:18 by war
22 Comments
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said today he is reconsidering his department's decision to fire a Georgia official in wake of new details about her controversial speech to the NAACP. Vilsack said in a statement early Wednesday morning that he will "conduct a thorough review and consider additional facts" about his decision to ask Shirley Sherrod to resign. Washington's apparent reversal came hours after a video of Sherrod's full speech was released, and the director of rural development in Georgia was defended by the white couple at the center of the controversy. The full, uncut video of a federal agricultural official's NAACP speech purporting racial ...
N.A.A.C.P. Backtracks on Official Accused of Bias
Post Date: 2010-07-21 08:35:21 by war
17 Comments
The president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People apologized Tuesday to a black civil servant whose ouster the civil rights organization had originally cheered. Last week, the N.A.A.C.P. garnered headlines when it accused parts of the Tea Party movement of being racist. Then, over the weekend, a video emerged of Shirley Sherrod, the head of the Department of Agriculture’s rural development office in Georgia, speaking at an N.A.A.C.P. event in Douglas, Ga., in March. In a two-and-a-half-minute clip, Ms. Sherrod seemed to explain that she discriminated against a white farmer 24 years ago. Ms. Sherrod said she was pressed to resign after the video whipped ...
Gingrich To Hannity: Tea Party Should Make Nice With NAACP.
Post Date: 2010-07-21 04:50:14 by Skip MacLure
39 Comments
Newt Gingrich is a really well-educated, bright guy when it comes to history. However, he showed that he doesn’t understand the Tea Party Patriots or the New Conservative movement very well. In an interview with Sean Hannity, Newt suggested that the Tea Party groups should ‘reach out’ to the NAACP in their local areas. I know I’m echoing Mark Levin when I say this but, like him, I disagree. First of all, Mark said that we, as the Conservative Patriot Movement, should be concentrating on one thing and one thing only… that is victory in November. I strongly agree. The NAACP lost whatever thin credibility it had left when it started being the water carriers for ...
Carte Goodwin Sworn In as Senator to Replace Robert Byrd And Break UC Filibuster
Post Date: 2010-07-20 19:53:03 by war
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Carte Goodwin was sworn into the Senate Tuesday, succeeding the late Sen. Robert Byrd. Vice President Joe Biden administered the oath of office with West Virginia's senior senator, Jay Rockefeller, looking on. Goodwin then provided the key vote to end a Republican filibuster against a bill to extend unemployment benefits for long-term unemployed Americans, after which the Senate gallery erupted into applause. Goodwin, 36, is the youngest senator and the 57th Democrat in the Senate. He'll also have one of the shortest terms, since West Virginia will hold a special election to fill the remaining years of Byrd's term in November. Goodwin practices law in his family's West ...
Facebook Lawyer `Unsure' Whether Founder Mark Zuckerberg Signed Contract
Post Date: 2010-07-20 19:36:43 by jwpegler
0 Comments
A lawyer for Facebook Inc. said she was “unsure” whether company founder Mark Zuckerberg signed a contract that purportedly entitles a New York man to 84 percent of the world’s biggest social-networking service. Paul Ceglia sued Facebook and Zuckerberg in state court June 30, claiming that an April 2003 contract entitles him to ownership of most of the closely held company. Ceglia’s lawyer produced a copy of the document for U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara today at a hearing in federal court in Buffalo, New York. “Whether he signed this piece of paper, we’re unsure at this moment,” Facebook lawyer Lisa Simpson told Arcara. Palo Alto, California-based ...
Obama is such a fucking failure
Post Date: 2010-07-20 19:30:01 by no gnu taxes
3 Comments
Apparently acknowledging the failure of his so-called “stimulus” to meaningfully produce jobs, Barack Obama blasted Republicans for not supporting his plan to pass another unemployment extension, this time another $34 billion for those whose benefits have reached the statutory limit of 26 weeks. Previously, Congress has enacted extensions of unemployment benefits up to 99 weeks in some states, which expired in June. The plan now is to extend current benefits through November, but not for those after 99 weeks — just those between 26 and 99 weeks. Which is ironic, since in Barack Obama’s remarks yesterday, he made it appear as if the extension would apply to the ...
NAACP Retracts Criticism Of USDA Worker
Post Date: 2010-07-20 19:04:05 by Brian S
1 Comments
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration is standing by its quick decision to oust a black Agriculture Department employee over racially tinged remarks at an NAACP banquet in Georgia, despite evidence that her remarks were misconstrued and growing calls for USDA to reconsider. Shirley Sherrod, who until Tuesday was the Agriculture Department's director of rural development in Georgia, says the administration caved to political pressure by pushing her to resign for saying that she didn't give a white farmer as much help as she could have 24 years ago, when she worked for a nonprofit group. Sherrod says her remarks, delivered in March at a local NAACP banquet in Georgia, were ...
Oil Spill Threatened by Possible Tropical System this Weekend
Post Date: 2010-07-20 18:44:04 by Brian S
3 Comments
A tropical wave with the potential to develop into a tropical storm over Florida this weekend could also impact the oil spill site in the Gulf of Mexico. AccuWeather.com meteorologists are focused on two scenarios with this tropical system. The first depicts the storm developing, crossing over Florida early in the weekend and entering the eastern Gulf of Mexico as a weaker system. Impacts over the oil spill site in the central Gulf would be less than were caused by Hurricane Alex, which moved through the southern Gulf of Mexico in late June. The second scenario depicts the system moving through the Florida Keys late in the week, developing into a stronger tropical storm or hurricane. If ...
War Escalates Between Joe Sestak And Right-Wing Pro-Israel Group
Post Date: 2010-07-20 17:44:04 by Brian S
3 Comments
A fascinating story out of Pennsylvania: The war is escalating big time between Dem Senate candidate Joe Sestak and Bill Kristol's new pro-Israel group, with the group increasing its ad buy slamming Sestak as soft on Israel and Sestak demanding that cable TV pull the spot on the grounds that it's a vicious smear. MIchael Goldfarb, a spokesman for Kristol's Emergency Committee for Israel, which was modeled on Liz Cheney's "Keep America Safe," tells me the group is doubling the size of the buy it plunked down to run this new spot, which asks: "Does Congressman Joe Sestak understand Israel is America's ally?" Separately, I've obtained a letter that ...
Senate Democrats Break GOP Filibuster On Unemployment Extension Bill
Post Date: 2010-07-20 17:17:19 by Brian S
0 Comments
WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats, with the help of a pair of Maine Republicans, broke a GOP filibuster this afternoon and set up an expected vote late tonight or tomorrow to approve an extension of unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless. The 60 to 40 vote to move the bill ahead ended a Senate deadlock that has cost 2.5 million Americans their benefits, including tens of thousands in Massachusetts, since June 2. The close vote and political drama highlighted how jobs and the economy will dominate debate in the upcoming Congressional elections. The vote split the Massachusetts delegation, as Republican Scott Brown voted against allowing the bill to move forward, agreeing with his ...
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