In a separate report, a sharp rise in gasoline costs drove up wholesale prices last month by the most in more than three years. But outside energy and food, price gains were mild.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 382,000, the highest in two months, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week’s figure was revised up to show 2,000 more applications than previously reported.
via CNBC.
We all expect this right?
Is this the new normal?
I really don’t know what to say about this.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHoAuk76fT8?rel=0]
On the last night of the Democratic National Convention, a retired Navy four-star took the stage to pay tribute to veterans. Behind him, on a giant screen, the image of four hulking warships reinforced his patriotic message.
But there was a big mistake in the stirring backdrop: those are Russian warships. …
These were the very Soviet-era combatants that Nathman and Cold Warriors like him had once squared off against. “The ships are definitely Russian,” said noted naval author Norman Polmar after reviewing hi-resolution photos from the event. “There’s no question of that in my mind.”
Naval experts concluded the background was a photo composite of Russian ships that were overflown by what appear to be U.S. trainer jets. It remains unclear how or why the Democratic Party used what’s believed to be images of the Russian Black Sea Fleet at their convention.
via Navy Times.
Vladimir Putin must have made a very nice campaign donation to Obama for America.
God Bless John Kass:
When Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis led her members out on strike this week, she said real school would be closed.
“Negotiations have been intense but productive,” she said. “However, we have failed to reach an agreement that will prevent a labor strike. Real school will not be open (Monday).”
Real school? You mean that public system where four of 10 students don’t graduate?
Since real school wasn’t open, I was compelled to visit an unreal school.A South Side school where 100 percent of the students graduate, and 100 percent are accepted to college. A Roman Catholic all-boys school that draws from poor and working-class neighborhoods, a school where there are no cops or metal detectors, no gang recruitment, no fear.
An unreal school that is mostly black, but with a smattering of whites and Latinos, and where every student who sees a stranger in the halls goes up to the newcomer, introduces himself, shakes his hand, looks him in the eye and calls him Mister.
via Chicago Tribune.
It is unethical and criminal that our children are forced into failing schools when they have the real opportunity to have an excellent education. Vouchers would make real Obama’s rhetoric of every child having a fair chance.
Kass exposes the reality of the situation: this has nothing to due with educating children… it’s about politics.
For shame.
Or at least so says the Left. Bill Maher is only the latest:
HBO host and Obama donor Bill Maher has accused journalists like NBC’s Tom Brokaw of encouraging the birther movement by failing to label it as racist.
In a blog post endorsing Chris Matthews’ recent on-air attack against RNC chairman Reince Priebus during MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Maher accused Brokaw and other reporters of stoking the coals of birtherism by championing “‘balance’ over objectivity,” citing Brokaw’s attempt to defend Mitt Romney’s remark about his birth certificate as an “awkward joke.”
“How did [birtherism] grow to the point where half of Republican primary voters believed it? It wasn’t just the silence of Republican leaders, it was the failure of people like Tom Brokaw to just dismiss it as racism from the beginning,” Maher wrote.
via DailyKenn.
Sometimes the best way to show the absurdity of a position is through comedy. Meet Bob.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1o0ooNn8Qc?rel=0]
Illinois, along with California, Louisiana, Mississippi and West Virginia, are among the worst states in the country for businesses because of their legal climates, according to survey of corporate attorneys released Monday.
Two Illinois counties did not fare well in the survey by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s institute for legal reform, either. Cook County was named the most unfair and unreasonable jurisdiction, and Madison County was named the sixth most unfair county. …
Illinois’ ranking this year, 46th among the 50 states in terms of the fairness of its litigation environment, compares with previous rankings of the 45th worst state in 2010 and the 46th worst in 2008.via Chicago Tribune.
So we’ve been terrible; no one’s done anything about it so we’re still terrible. I see. Hey Gov. Quinn, Anybody home down there?
We have the worst pensions in the country and and a unfair and unreasonable legal environment. It’s no wonder that businesses don’t want to be here.
Add to that mess that fact that:
Chicago, the city that brought us deep-dish pizza, Oprah and “da Bears,” is also home to the nation’s highest tax burden for travelers.
via Chicago Tribune.
So if you’re a business here you know that it hard to do business with other businesses because it’s expensive to travel here. This is also a huge burden on tourists… who used to come here in droves until downtown wildlings become common-place.
Rahm has a full plate. Maybe he should get busy trying to solve a few of these problems instead of non-stop fundraising for Obama.
Yesterday I read something over at Hillbuzz that got me thinking:
Today I want to think about just who are the people who will be voting for Obama in November and see how that compares to the people who voted for him in 2008. I don’t believe anyone who DIDN’T vote for him last time liked anything about him and will be voting for him THIS time. I also don’t believe the people who sat the last election out because of John McCain will be staying home again.
via Hillbuzz.
So I spent a few minutes and created the table below. It only has states that Obama won in 2008. I left out states where Obama took >60% (except for Illinois b/c I was just curious.) It’s sorted by the percentage of voters in that state necessary to jump from Obama to Romney in order to flip the state.
| Raw Votes | Percentage | |||||
| State | Obama | McCain | Obama | McCain | FlipVotes | FlipPercent |
| North Carolina | 2,142,651 | 2,128,474 | 49.70% | 49.38% | 7,089 | 0.16% |
| Indiana | 1,374,039 | 1,345,648 | 49.85% | 48.82% | 14,196 | 0.51% |
| Florida | 4,282,367 | 4,046,219 | 50.91% | 48.40% | 118,074 | 1.26% |
| Ohio | 2,940,044 | 2,677,820 | 51.38% | 46.80% | 131,112 | 2.29% |
| Virginia | 1,959,532 | 1,725,005 | 52.63% | 46.33% | 117,264 | 3.15% |
| Colorado | 1,288,633 | 1,073,629 | 53.66% | 44.71% | 107,502 | 4.48% |
| Iowa | 828,940 | 682,379 | 53.93% | 44.39% | 73,281 | 4.77% |
| New Hampshire | 384,826 | 316,534 | 54.13% | 44.52% | 34,146 | 4.81% |
| Minnesota | 1,573,354 | 1,275,409 | 54.06% | 43.82% | 148,973 | 5.12% |
| Pennsylvania | 3,276,363 | 2,655,885 | 54.47% | 44.15% | 310,239 | 5.16% |
| Nevada | 533,736 | 412,827 | 55.15% | 42.65% | 60,455 | 6.25% |
| Wisconsin | 1,677,211 | 1,252,393 | 56.22% | 42.31% | 212,409 | 6.96% |
| New Mexico | 472,422 | 346,832 | 56.91% | 41.78% | 62,795 | 7.57% |
| New Jersey | 2,215,422 | 1,613,207 | 57.14% | 41.61% | 301,108 | 7.77% |
| Oregon | 1,037,291 | 738,475 | 56.75% | 40.40% | 149,408 | 8.18% |
| Michigan | 2,872,579 | 2,048,639 | 57.33% | 40.89% | 411,970 | 8.22% |
| Washington | 1,750,848 | 1,229,216 | 57.34% | 40.26% | 260,816 | 8.54% |
| Illinois | 3,419,348 | 2,031,179 | 61.85% | 36.74% | 694,085 | 12.56% |
This means if 7,089 people in North Carolina who voted for Obama last time vote for Romney this time then Romney will win NC. Regardless of whatever the polling says.
If Kevin DuJan at Hillbuzz is correct, it’s pretty safe to say that North Carolina, Indiana, Florida, Ohio, and Virginia should all go Romney. In these state Romney needs <2% of voters to flip. That should not be a problem.
Should that happen, Romney will have 265 or 266 electoral votes depending on how Nebraska splits. You can see the map here.
That means that Romney must also win, Colorado or Iowa or Wisconsin or Michigan, or Romney must win at least 2 votes from Nebraska AND New Hampshire.
That my friends is how Romney wins.
According to the Chicago Tribune key issues separating Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union:
SALARIES AND BENEFITS. The district offered 16 percent increase over four years and “modified step increases that both reward experience and provide better incentives for mid-career teachers.” The union said it’s closer on pay but is still concerned about rising health care costs and other benefits. Teachers sought a substantial raise in the contract’s first year because of the longer day and want to keep raises for experience.
This is insane. There is no one in the private sector who’s planning on seeing a 16% increase in their income over the next four years. Plus these people make tons of money already!
A Chicago Public Schools spokesperson said average pay for teachers, without benefits, is $76,000.
via CBS Chicago.
The average family in the city only earns $47,000 a year. Considering a regular school term of 40 weeks, at 6.25 hours per day…. The way I figure that’s $76,000.00 / (6.25 * 200) = $60.80 / hour. Plus they get benefits — excellent benefits.
So what we have is a group of people who on average make over $60/hour — the highest paid teachers in the nation — and are complaining about it.
Next issue:
JOB SECURITY. The union has pushed for a system to recall teachers who have been laid off when new openings occur. This has become important because of rumors the district plans to close up to 100 schools in coming years. The district says teachers displaced by school closings will be eligible for a job at new schools if there is a vacancy — or may elect to take a three-month severance.
I got some news for the CTU: CPS is dying. For the second year in a row, CPS is taking the maximum possible increase to property taxes permitted by law. Further, Chicago is shrinking and here.
There is no job security when you’re product is crappy & overpriced. People do not want to live in a place where they’re taxed to death to fund under-performing public schools. At CPS just 15 percent of fourth graders are proficient in reading and only 56 percent of students who enter their freshman year of high school wind up graduating. If you want job security you need to excel at what you do… not completely suck at it.
Next Issue:
TEACHER EVALUATIONS. The union wants to lower how much student performance contributes to evaluations. CPS has said the new evaluation system, created in collaboration with teachers, was negotiated and settled in March under state law.
I happen to know a few people who are tight with a couple of principals in the CPS system. The first things they will tell you is that it is impossible to get rid of a bad teacher. Everyone knows this. So to improve schools CPS and CTU sat down and came up with a system to evaluate teachers back in March. Now, CTU has decided that it doesn’t like the system it already agreed to.
Not only is the Teachers’ Union is specifically fighting to keep bad teachers in the classroom but it breaking a promise it already made.
– – –
The only possible explanation for all this is that CTU cares very very little about education. There is no talk about reducing class sizes, getting new blackboards, reimbursement for further education, or improving safety in the schools. Nope. It’s all about money & clout. Money & clout. Protecting their own at all costs.
CTU is nothing but a bunch of bullies. Rahm should treat them as such.
Remember when we were promised that if we spent $2 billion of money we didn’t have all would be well?
Let’s compare promised to actual:
It’s also important to keep in mind that this chart does not reflect the millions of people who simply are no longer included in the workforce. As of August, only 42% of the U.S. population was working. 42%!!
Worst news ever!!
The number of Americans whom the U.S. Department of Labor counted as “not in the civilian labor force” in August hit a record high of 88,921,000. …
In July, there were 155,013,000 in the U.S. civilian labor force. In August that dropped to 154,645,000—meaning that on net 368,000 people simply dropped out of the labor force last month and did not even look for a job.There were also 119,000 fewer Americans employed in August than there were in July. In July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 142,220,000 Americans working. But, in August, there were only 142,101,000 Americans working.
Despite the fact that fewer Americans were employed in August than July, the unemployment rate ticked down from 8.3 in July to 8.1. That is because so many people dropped out of the labor force and stopped looking for work. The unemployment rate is the percentage of people in the labor force (meaning they had a job or were actively looking for one) who did not have a job.
The Bureau of Labor Statistic also reported that in August the labor force participation rate (the percentage of the people in the civilian non-institutionalized population who either had a job or were actively looking for one) dropped to a 30-year low of 63.5 percent, down from 63.7 percent in July. The last time the labor force participation rate was as low as 63.5 percent was in September 1981.
via cnsnews.
Think about that. In August the U.S. civilian labor force was 154,645,000 people. The unemployment rate among those people was 8.1%. So of those 154M who could/should be working 12,526,245 were not. These 12.5M are on unemployment. That means that 142,118,755 people are working; hooray for them!!
We are a country of 314,330,000 people. That means that only 42% of the people in this country are working.
Forty-Two Percent of people in this country are working.
Just think about that for a little bit.