Yes, the “Name That Party” exercise is getting old.

But somebody has to do it, or 10-20 years from now we’ll have people searching the web and concluding that only Republicans had ethical problems during the 21st Century’s first decade.

The latest example of convenient party omission also involves a couple of other items that bear mentioning.

The story concerns the now somewhat well-known Laura Richardson (D-CA). It is at the LA Times’s “L.A. Now” blog, in a Monday post by Jesus Sanchez:

Laura Richardson’s driving for dollars

She may have defaulted on mortgages and lost a home in foreclosure, but that hasn’t stopped Long Beach Rep. Laura Richardson from driving in style and at great expense, courtesy of the taxpayer. The lease on Richardson’s 2007 Lincoln Town Car costs about $1,300 a month — the most expensive lease of any member of the House of Representatives, reports the Daily Breeze. Richardson’s monthly lease, paid by the federal government, is much larger than the $400 to $800 a month that other House members pay, according to a taxpayer group.

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NixGuy and Matt at Weapons of Mass Discussion commented earlier today on the latest development relating to the Malariotherapy Misadventures of 2nd District Democratic Congressional candidate Victoria Wells Wulsin Whatever (affectionately known around here as “VW3″).

Joseph Rhee’s ABC report on the topic has has more meat in it than the local Cincinnati Enquirer has supplied in the two or three years Wulsin’s Malariotherapy Misadventures have been relevant.

But, as an Old Media report, Rhee takes the seemingly obligatory “GOP candidate on the attack” approach, and in the process makes VW3 a much more sympathetic character than the facts and circumstances warrant.

Additionally, Rhee let Wulsin get away with a contention that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny (bold is mine):

Dr. Wulsin told ABC News that she never directly participated in malariotherapy experiments and was only hired by Dr. Heimlich to review existing malariotherapy studies. “He commissioned a literature review and I demonstrated through that, that it was nowhere near scientific or ethically relevant or justifiable,” said Wulsin.

In December of 2004, Wulsin submitted a draft report to Heimlich that concluded that “the preponderance of evidence indicates that neither malaria or Immunotherapy will cure HIV/AIDS.”

Oh, she’s good. With some voice and choreography lessons, and she could join these guys.

But alas, a full vetting and demonstration will have to wait until early next week, as this issue deserves a lot more attention than it will get on the night before Independence Day.

Today’s employment report, in combination with the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index, should raise alarm bells in Washington.

Instead, I’m afraid that the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, as well as the people at Obama campaign headquarters, are raising champagne glasses.

These folks aren’t just talking the economy down; they’re taking the economy down.

They’re the ones who have created what I’m going to start calling the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy.

Please, I know it’s hard for some of my readers to do this, but just try to imagine that you’re an employer, especially one who runs a small business — y’know, one of those eeeeee-vile people that just so happens to keep the economy going.

You’re now facing the following realities:

• Record-high energy costs.
• A Speaker of the House who insists that we can’t drill our way out of our problems — so we shouldn’t drill at all, while everyone else drills merrily away.
• A Senate Majority Leader who says that we have to get away from coal and oil ASAP because they’re “making us sick.” So, again, we can’t drill at all, and pretty soon we won’t be able to dig at all.
• Thanks to a Supreme Court which actually believes that the junk science known as “globaloney” is real (”globaloney” is my term for the ludicrous notion that earth is warming dangerously, that it’s our fault, and that only drastic reductions in energy consumption, reductions in worldwide living standards, and the perpetuation of Third-World poverty will prevent Armageddon), new coal-fired plants are being stopped, the latest being one in Georgia. Gleeful enviros are demanding “an end to conventional coal” — NOW — and appear to have the means to enforce it.
• A presidential candidate with a shot at winning who thinks it’s okay that energy prices are at record highs, but just wishes the increases would have been more gradual. Too late — he’s got ‘em where he wants ‘em.
• A presidential candidate with a shot at winning who wants a windfall profits tax on the energy sector.

Thanks to all of these things, you pretty much know that energy costs aren’t coming down, and may very well keep going up.

And if that weren’t enough, there’s this:

• An impending tax hike in 2009, targeting only the most productive, that will suck about $160 billion a year out of the economy if Congress takes no action.
• A presidential candidate with a shot at winning who thinks that even more money ($40 billion or so) needs to be sucked out of the economy (again targeting only the most productive) so that the mother of all intergenerational wealth transfers can be kept afloat for another decade or so before the mother of all train wrecks arrives.
• A presidential candidate with a shot at winning who advocates massive government interventions in the economy that haven’t worked elsewhere (health care, “green” energy), and won’t work here.

In this business climate, are you going to hire more people? Replace employees when they leave? Expand your business? Even if demand for your products or services is strong, which is still the case in many sectors, you’re going to try to get through with the resources and facilities you have.

Perhaps some of these employers and entrepreneurs are considering voting with their feet (I’d guess that Costa Rica’s starting to look pretty good to some), or just getting out or selling out.

Make no mistake: Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama are the people who are making the economy sick. Don’t even try to push this off on George Bush.

If the Pelosi-Obama-Reid (POR) Economy has slipped into recession or negative growth, and I’m afraid that it has in the past few weeks, it’s because the congressional majority and its party’s presidential candidate have made it crystal-clear that they don’t give a damn what ever-higher energy prices and the prospect of punitive taxes are doing, right now, to the economy and the stock market. I’ve never seen anything even remotely as irresponsible as this in the US economic-political arena.

The only thing that could mitigate or prevent the recession or continued negative growth that I’m afraid has begun is whatever juice is left in President Bush’s supply-side tax cuts and the economic stimulus checks. At best, they’ll keep growth barely positive; I don’t seem them helping the job market much, if at all.

This POR Economy is an advance demonstration of what four years of an Obama administration would be like. Perhaps enough voters will recognize this and reject it — and, just as important, the congressmen and senators who support him.

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Related Ohio Item: In February, Harry Reid “accused the coal industry of using ‘the old Hitler lie — when you say things long enough people start believing them.’”

The subject was “clean coal.” In a speech that day, he said that there’s no such thing as “clean coal.”

Do the folks in Columbus, and in the Ohio leftosphere, realize that Reid would prefer to nuke, if you excuse the expression, the primary element (about $150 million) of Ted Strickland’s $1.7 billion bond program?

Expectations are that the Institute for Supply Management’s Non-Manufacturing Index (NMI), which covers about 85% of the economy, and which came in at 51.7% last month, will have a June reading of 50.7% (AP) or 51.0% (Bond Buyer). Any reading above 50% indicates expansion.

Given that ISM’s June manufacturing index moved from slight contraction to slighter expansion despite the horrible month in the auto business, I’m guessing that the NMI will hold steady or bump up just a bit.

The answer arrives shortly after 10:00 a.m.

UPDATE: Ouch (bold in second paragraph is mine) –

Economic activity in the non-manufacturing sector contracted in June, say the nation’s purchasing and supply executives in the latest Non-Manufacturing ISM Report On Business®.

The report was issued today by Anthony Nieves, C.P.M., CFPM, chair of the Institute for Supply Managementâ„¢ Non-Manufacturing Business Survey Committee; and senior vice president — supply management for Hilton Hotels Corporation. “The NMI (Non-Manufacturing Index) decreased 3.5 percentage points in June to 48.2 percent, indicating contraction after two consecutive months of growth within the non-manufacturing sector. The Non-Manufacturing Business Activity Index decreased 3.7 percentage points to 49.9 percent. The New Orders Index decreased 5 percentage points to 48.6 percent, and the Employment Index decreased 4.9 percentage points to 43.8 percent.

This calls for a separate post.

Here it is: “Welcome to the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy: A Washington-Driven Recession or Downturn May Have Begun.”

The Runup:

• ADP’s National Employment Report came in at -79,000 seasonally adjusted private nonfarm payroll jobs. Their +40,000 from April was revised up to -15,000.
• Prognosticators at this AP/CNBC link are guessing that BLS’s Employment Situation report would come in today at -60,000 seasonally adjusted jobs (private and government), with the unemployment rate unchanged at 5.5%.
• This MarketWatch report from our good pal Rex Nutting has predictions of -40,000 and -50,000, and doesn’t predict the unemployment rate.
• One thing yours truly will be keeping an eye on, especially since no one else will, is the BLS estimate of how many jobs were actually added in June, as opposed to the seasonally adjusted number that gets everyone’s attention. Revisions to actual adds in May and April also deserve attention. Here’s how it looks so far this year compared to previous years:

  

• I’m rooting for June to have about 500,000 net adds, which would I believe lead to a lower-than-predicted seasonally adjusted job loss, but bracing for the worst.

8:30 a.m. — The News (BLS report will be here when released; details below will be updated after the jump ASAP after the report is released):

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to trend down in June (-62,000), while the unemployment rate held at 5.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Employment continued to fall in construction, manufacturing, and employment services, while health care and mining added jobs. Average hourly earnings rose by 6 cents, or 0.3 percent, over the month.

Other quick details:
- Revision to May’s original - 49,000 — now -62,000, down by 13,000
- Revision to April’s once-revised -28,000 (originally -20,000) — now -67,000, down by 39,000
- Total change including prior-month revisions is -114,000 (-62-13-39)
- Actual jobs added in June — +241,000
- Revision to May’s actual jobs added of +648,000 — up 5,000 to +653,000
- Revision to April’s once-revised actual jobs added of +712,000 — down 15,000 to +697,000
- Total change in actual jobs added, including prior-month revisions is +231,000 (241+5-15)

Unemployment Rate Highlights:
- Unemployment rate (NOT seasonally adjusted) — 5.7% (was 5.2% in May, 4.7% in June 2007)
- June change in the number of unemployed (seasonally adjusted) — up 12,000 (from 8.487 million to 8.499 million)
- June change in the number of unemployed (NOT seasonally adjusted) — up 857,000 higher (from 8.076 million to 8.933 million)
- African-American unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted) — 9.2% (was 9.7% in May, 8.4% in June 2007)
- African-American unemployment rate (NOT seasonally adjusted) — 9.8% (was 9.4% in May, 9.0% in June 2007)
- People working per the unemployment report (seasonally adjusted) — 145.891 million, down 155,000 (was 146.046 million in May)
- People working per the unemployment report (NOT seasonally adjusted) — 146.649 million, up 723,000 (was 145.926 million in May)

Comments:

9:15 a.m. —

• Here’s the rundown of actual jobs added. June’s number is a combination of +638 in the private sector and - 397 in government (vs. +916 and -414 the year before):

  

• So jobs added in the past five months of this year have been 2.712 million, vs. 3.839 mil, 4.122 mil, and 4.359 mil in 2007, 2006, and 2005, respectively. That’s clearly unacceptable.
• The press will, of course, report today’s result in the usual Armageddon-like manner, as if thousands were thrown out on the streets, but a sector-by-sector look reveals that every private-sector category picked up employees (about 890,000 in total — again, not enough vs. previous years) except education and health services, which lost 234,000 employees in June. That, as you might expect, is a normal summertime thing.

But the press might be right about the Armageddon thing, but for the wrong reasons. I’m going to wait until the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index (NMI) comes in before commenting further.

10:10 a.m. — NMI came in showing contraction. After the employment numbers came in, I was afraid we were going to see this.

This calls for a separate post, which is coming.

Here it is: “Welcome to the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy: A Washington-Driven Recession or Downturn May Have Begun.”

From Fort Bragg, North Carolina:

June 30, 2008

Determined to serve: wounded in Iraq, officer is Army’s only blind Special Forces soldier

When Capt. Ivan Castro joined the Army, he set goals: to jump out of planes, kick in doors and lead soldiers into combat. He achieved them all. Then the mortar round landed five feet away, blasting away his sight.

“Once you’re blind, you have to set new goals,” Castro said.

He set them higher.

Not content with just staying in the Army, he is the only blind officer serving in the Special Forces — the small, elite units famed for dropping behind enemy lines on combat missions.

As executive officer of the 7th Special Forces Group’s headquarters company in Fort Bragg, Castro’s duties don’t directly involve combat, though they do have him taking part in just about everything that leads up to it.

“I am going to push the limits,” the 40-year-old said. “I don’t want to go to Fort Bragg and show up and sit in an office. I want to work every day and have a mission.”

Since the war began in Iraq, more than 100 troops have been blinded and 247 others have lost sight in one eye. Only two other blind officers serve in the active-duty Army: one a captain studying to be an instructor at West Point, the other an instructor at the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Castro’s unit commander said his is no charity assignment. Rather it draws on his experience as a Special Forces team member and platoon leader with the 82nd Airborne Division.

“The only reason that anyone serves with 7th Special Forces Group is if they have real talents,” said Col. Sean Mulholland. “We don’t treat (Castro) as a public affairs or a recruiting tool.”

An 18-year Army veteran, Castro was a Ranger before completing Special Forces training, the grueling yearlong course many soldiers fail to finish. He joined the Special Forces as a weapons sergeant, earned an officer’s commission and moved on to the 82nd — hoping to return one day to the Special Forces as a team leader.

Then life changed on a rooftop outside Youssifiyah, Iraq, in September 2006.

Castro had relieved other paratroopers atop a house after a night of fighting. He never heard the incoming mortar round. There was just a flash of light, then darkness.

Shrapnel tore through his body, breaking his arm and shoulder and shredding the left side of his face. Two other paratroopers died.

When Castro awoke six weeks later at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., his right eye was gone. Doctors were unable to save his left.

The Blinded Veterans Association estimates 13 percent of all combat hospital emergency procedures in Iraq have involved eye injuries and more than half of the soldiers with traumatic brain injuries also suffer some visual impairment. That makes them the third most common injury — behind post traumatic stress disorder and brain injuries — in Iraq.

“What he is doing is a strong example that blind individuals can lead exciting and meaningful careers,” said Thomas Zampieri, director of government relations for the association.

After 17 months in recovery, Castro sought a permanent assignment in the service’s Special Operations Command, landing duty with the 7th Special Forces Group. He focuses on managerial tasks while honing the group’s Spanish training, a useful language for a unit that deploys regularly to train South American troops.

“I want to support the guys and make sure life is easier for those guys so that they can accomplish the mission,” he said.

Though not fully independent, he spent a weekend before starting his job walking around the Group area at Fort Bragg to know just where he was going. He carefully measured the steps from car to office.

“Obviously, he cannot do some things that a sighted person can do. But Ivan will find a way to get done whatever he needs to get done,” Mulholland said. “What I am most impressed with, though, is his determination to continue to serve his country after all that he’s been through.” …..

Go here for the rest of the story.