Friday, October 5, 2012

Current Events - October 5, 2012



When Obama is before a friendly audience, he acts as though someone else has been president for the past four years and he’s running against that phantom leader. Post-debate, the president talked to a crowd of supporters about holding Romney accountable—as if Romney had been the one in the Oval Office. This is an implicit admission that the president can’t tout his own record, which is strewn with economic failures. At some point, Romney might want to say this outright—that the president acts as if he’s the challenger running against a sitting president. With all due respect, Mr. Obama, you are the sitting president. You have a record of your own you should be held accountable for, and that’s what this election is really about. Did you fulfill your promises, did you lead the country down the right path, or are things still bad and getting worse?
http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/10/05/the-zombie-apocalypse-town-hall-debate-is-coming/


Unemployment is at 7.8% in September. Except it really wasn't. It is much higher, with underemployed and those who stopped looking. What this .03% drop means is that the number of unemployed people dropped by 456,000 when only 114k jobs were created--well below the monthly average, and below population growth. Where did 342k people go to lower the number so dramatically just 31 days before a presidential election? Did they retire, leave the planet, die of old age in the unemployment office?
The numbers, however, are perplexing to CNBC, which notes that there are some oddities:
·        The report presented a slew of contradictory data points, with the total employment level soaring despite the low net number.
·        The falling jobless rate had been a function as much of the continued shrinking in the labor force as it was an increase in new positions.
·        But the government said the total number of jobs employed surged by 873,000, the highest one-month jump in 29 years. The total of unemployed people tumbled by 456,000.
·        The labor force participation rate, which reflects those working as well as looking for work, edged higher to 63.6 percent but remained around 30-year lows. The total labor force grew by 418,000, possibly accounting for the relatively modest net level of job growth.
·        Economists were expecting 113,000 more jobs and the rate to rise to 8.2 percent. Last month saw 142,000 new jobs as the rate dropped from 8.3 percent in July.
Finanical guru Jack Welch sent a tweet alleging the numbers were politically motivated.  Well of course they were.

Mitt Romney was quick to respond, saying “This is not what a real recovery looks like” and that if not for all those who have dropped out of the workforce, “the real unemployment rate would be closer to 11%.” His full statement is below:
“This is not what a real recovery looks like. We created fewer jobs in September than in August, and fewer jobs in August than in July, and we’ve lost over 600,000 manufacturing jobs since President Obama took office. If not for all the people who have simply dropped out of the labor force, the real unemployment rate would be closer to 11%. The results of President Obama’s failed policies are staggering – 23 million Americans struggling for work, nearly one in six living in poverty and 47 million people dependent on food stamps to feed themselves and their families. The choice in this election is clear. Under President Obama, we’ll get another four years like the last four years. If I’m elected, we will have a real recovery with pro-growth policies that will create 12 million new jobs and rising incomes for everyone.”

 
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting receives about $450million from Congress each year. About $280million goes to PBS and the local stations. Federal funding makes up about 12 per cent of the PBS budget. According to Senator Jim DeMint: “Shows like Sesame Street are multi-million dollar enterprises capable of thriving in the private market. According to the 990 tax form all nonprofits are required to file, Sesame Workshop President and CEO Gary Knell received $956,513 -- nearly a million dollars -- in compensation in 2008. And, from 2003 to 2006, "Sesame Street" made more than $211 million from toy and consumer product sales.” 

If you break that down, it works out to over $50 million a year "Sesame Street" is taking in from all that merchandising. Yep, that one-percenter Big Bird makes about four times what Mitt Romney does annually and yet Barack Obama still wants you and I to still carry his freight. I guess that's Obama's idea of "economic patriotism."

PBS statement boasts that 91% of all U.S. television households tune in to their local PBS station each year, and that their service is viewed by 81% of all children between the ages of 2 and 8. If the network is that popular, they should have no trouble finding sponsorship on commercial television. 


Democratic Pennsylvania State Representative Babette Josephs, whose stance on the Pledge of Allegiance is creating controversy. Josephs refused to lead fellow politicians in the Pledge on Wednesday. ”Based on my First Amendment rights and based on the fact that I really think it’s a prayer. I don’t pray in public.”

Josephs attempted to further explain her reasoning for not uttering the so-called prayer. The politician referenced the decision, in 1954, by Congress to add the words “under God” to the national declaration and said that the action — which was taken when she was just 14-years-old — makes the Pledge a prayer.

True colors.



 

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