Okay, it’s barely there, but I’ll take it:

Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in June following four months of contraction, while the overall economy grew for the 80th consecutive month, say the nation’s supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business®.

The reading was 50.2, barely above the 50 needed to indicate expansion. Update: May’s reading was 49.6.

The prediction was for 48.5, and the language used at the link was really off-putting:

As food and energy prices are sucking money therefore all the spending power form the Americans” pockets, there is nothing much left to be spend on manufactured goods, consumer spending has slowed in the recent times, affecting the manufacturing sector badly and therefore affecting the labor market, and here comes the correlation between the ISM reports and the jobs report.

Now what do you clowns have to say?

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Update, 10 p.m.: This paragraph from later in the ISM report is worth puttin’ out there –

A PMI in excess of 41.1 percent, over a period of time, generally indicates an expansion of the overall economy. Therefore, the PMI indicates the overall economy and the manufacturing sector are growing at this time. Ore stated, “The past relationship between the PMI and the overall economy indicates that the average PMI for January through June (49.3 percent) corresponds to a 2.6 percent increase in real gross domestic product (GDP). In addition, if the PMI for June (50.2 percent) is annualized, it corresponds to a 2.9 percent increase in real GDP annually.”

It turns out that the “past relationship” predicted growth rates for May and April were 2.7% and 2.4%, respectively. Blended with June, that would seem to presage a 2nd quarter growth rate of 2.6% – 2.7%.

I think that’s too optimistic. Those correlations clearly haven’t worked in the last two quarters, and as manufacturing’s percentage of GDP continues to decline, I would think that so would the PMI’s GDP predictive ability. But it does make the 1.5%-2.0% predicted GDP growth at this link in the wake of May’s retail sales report look like more than a dart-throw, and makes the media’s recession obsession look that much more ridiculous.

….. But I Don’t Have Any Time For:

• Oh man, not this again. Memo to the presidential candidate I refer to as JS3M3 (John Sidney the Mad Maverick McCain III) — See this (”Romney as Veep? Only If the GOP is the Stuck-on-Stupid Party”). Mitt Romney has been and remains Objectively Unfit based on what he did in, and to, Massachusetts and the rest of the country while he was Bay State Governor. You will lose the active support of most social conservatives, regardless what people posing as their leaders tell you. Oh, and here’s the latest on Commonwealth Care aka RomneyCare: “This is the legacy of health care reform: Nearly 95 percent of residents now have some form of coverage, but the vast majority of that coverage is subsidized and the state is quickly being burdened with rising costs, with no end in sight.” They’re trying to paper over this year’s shortfall with a $1 per pack cigarette tax. In this case, IBDeditorials.com has lost its mind.
        Update: Those not up on Romney’s considerable shortcomings should start here. Sorry, it’s a long slog, but it is that way because he is the most deeply flawed politician the GOP has considered for the presidency or vice-presidency in my lifetime, if not ever.
• The presidential candidate I refer to as “Mr. BOOHOO-OUCH” (Barack O-bomba Overseas Hussein “Obambi” Obama – Objectively Unfit Coddler of Haters) is the sponsor of the Global Poverty Act of 2007, whose ultimate goal “could” be to commit the US to handing over 0.7% of Gross Domestic Product annually (about $100 billion based on current GDP of about $14.2 trillion) to the United Nations to fight global poverty. Could” is in quotes because I can’t prove that voting for the bill, which passed in the House last year on a voice vote, would force the commitment, or “merely” make it look like an obligation the next president would feel compelled by “world opinion” to give into. I’d say it’s best not to take any chances. The Senate should send it down in flames, and Obama should find something else to consider his signature accomplishment — or, for that matter, his first accomplishment. As to how to meet the UN’s “Millennium Development Goals” for reducing poverty, I have a one-word answer unrelated to fleecing taxpayers: Capitalism.
• Even if the Chicago Tribune got its way (HT NixGuy) and the Second Amendment were repealed, there would be a pesky problem, cryptically recognized by Justice Scalia, who should have been more assertive, that we have a God-given, natural-law right to defend ourselves.
• Obamaniacs (to be clear, without any evidence that the candidate or his campaign is behind this) appear to be taking anti-Obama sites on Blogger offline with spam-site complaints. Funny — can you name any examples of center-righters engaging in anything like this on the scale described?

From Pee Dee Country, South Carolina (video is at link):

Published: June 30, 2008

Sheila McDaniel followed her passion for others 25 years ago and became a member of the Latta Rescue Squad.

She was following a lifelong passion to help others, and to bring that help to a rural town.

“She’s been doing this rescue work all her life. I mean, she did it even as a child, helping other people as a little girl, the way she’s teaching her little girls now to help people,” McDaniel’s friend, Alene Cox, said.

“A long time ago my oldest sister persuaded me to take the basic E.M.T. class and when I got into it and got involved I realized that it was something good and something I could bring home,” McDaniel said.

For a woman who could’ve worked elsewhere, there was an overwhelming desire to help those a little closer to home.

“I realized that our county and small town needed something, that we needed to have the E.M.S. here and it’s a little different in the hometown because it’s more personal. These are our neighbors that we’re working on, so it means a little something extra special for us,” McDaniel said.

McDaniel has gone on countless ambulance calls, assisted fire personnel on scene and responded to accidents.

She’s also managed to raise a family and make a huge impact on the community.

“It takes a lot of juggling and a lot of family involvement and I have a wonderful family who has been behind me every step of the way,” McDaniel said.

McDaniel and most of the other rescue squad members don’t get any money in return for their services.

What they do get though, is an opportunity to make a difference on a daily basis. …..

Go here for the rest of the story.