From Berks County, PA (video is at link):

September 16, 2010

A four-year-old girl was on her death bed, until a man from Berks County stepped in and saved her life.

He made an anonymous bone marrow donation to that little girl, never thinking that she or her family would find out who he was.

Then a package came in the mail.

Benito Estrada is a father a three.

Eight years ago he and his wife signed up for the National Bone Marrow Program.

This last time it was urgent and there was no fooling around they called and they said they needed him right away and this little girl he was her only match, her only chance, said his wife, Amanda. They needed to know right away whether he was willing to do it.

After having Emma, their second daughter, they knew they had to help.

The problems that we ran into were minor compared to this and I can’t imagine being in her shoes, said Amanda. I can’t imagine my child’s life being at risk and I can’t imagine if there was one person in the world that could save her, if they wouldn’t do it how I would feel.

In May, Benito received injections for a week before the donation.

Muscle aches, pain on the knees you feel like an old man with arthritis, said Benito. And it was hard to go up and down the steps, but I did it you know.

Benito is humble and down plays what he did to save a 4-year-old little girl’s life. But in September that girl’s mother sent a package expressing her gratitude.

He made a sacrifice for someone he didn’t even know and it’s the greatest gift of all life, said a letter from the girl’s family. …

Go here for the rest of the story.

Summer is departing soon, as today is the last official day of summer.

Larry Summers is reportedly departing — no, is officially departing — the Obama administration at the end of the year.

“Recovery Summer” (aka the predicted summer of “Rebound? What Rebound?”) never arrived.

I don’t recall a previous administration where three key economic advisers at such a high level (Budget Director Orszag, Council of Economic Advisers Chair Christine Romer, and now National Economic Council head Summers) all left within two years of a new president’s inauguration. The closest parallel might be the initial years of the Clinton administration, when Budget Director Leon Panetta, NEC head Robert Rubin, and Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen all left within two years. But two of those gentlemen stayed with the administration in other capacities, with Rubin heading up the Treasury Department. You can also find similarly short stints during Jimmy Carter’s and Richard Nixon’s first term; but I believe that in both cases at least one of the people involved moved to another position within the administration.

I don’t think Romer, Summers, or Orszag will ever be coming back to Obamaland. I can’t say I blame them. I do blame them for being enablers of trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see.

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According to Bob Woodward (an admittedly shaky source), it looks like President Obama made Afghanistan into Vietnam all over again:

Frustrated with his military commanders for consistently offering only options that required significantly more troops, Obama finally crafted his own strategy, dictating a classified six-page “terms sheet” that sought to limit U.S. involvement, Woodward reports in “Obama’s Wars,” to be released on Monday.

According to Woodward’s meeting-by-meeting, memo-by-memo account of the 2009 Afghan strategy review, the president avoided talk of victory as he described his objectives.

O.M.G. We can only hope that David Petraeus, when he succeeded Stan McChrystal, put a stop to this nonsense.

Update: It gets worse –

I’m not doing long-term nation-building. I am not spending a trillion dollars,” he reportedly told Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in October 2009. “I want an exit strategy,” he said at one meeting. Privately, he told Vice President Biden to push his alternative strategy opposing a big troop buildup in meetings.

While Obama ultimately rejected the alternative plan, the book says, he set a withdrawal timetable because, “I can’t lose the whole Democratic Party.”

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From the “You Should Have Thought About That Before Supporting ObamaCare” Dept.:

Catholic legal experts warn HHS against requiring coverage of contraception and sterilization

Many if not most Catholic bishops were okey-dokey with ObamaCare as long as it doesn’t fund abortions (which it really will anyway, sooner or later, if not repealed). Why is anyone surprised that OCare will cover contraception?

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The administration and its establishment media acolytes are so desperate for anything they can call economic good news, or at least not bad news, that they’re calling why you see on the right good news:

US housing starts at 4-mth high, hint at stability

Groundbreaking for new U.S. homes jumped in August to a four-month high, a tentative sign of stability in the housing market after steep declines brought by the end of a homebuyer tax credit.

Analysts said the data on Tuesday, which came as Federal Reserve policymakers met to assess the economy, further allayed fears that the recovery from the worst recession since the Great Depression was at risk.

It also strengthened the argument against the U.S. central bank announcing any new monetary policy easing steps at the end of Tuesday’s meeting.

“It suggests we have hit bottom (in housing),” said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor’s in New York.

Uh, not really, David. The raw (not seasonally adjusted) numbers on the right representing the Census Bureau’s estimate of what really happened tell us that while there was a slight increase in total starts from August 2009, single-family starts plummeted 8.5%, while multi-unit starts zoomed.

The single-family figure of 39,700 above is the lowest for any August on record going back to 1959 (full Census Bureau PDF is here). Last year’s 43,400 single-family figure was the previous record low for any August.

The numbers are of course slightly different, but with building permits (full Census Bureau PDF is here) the story is the same — single-families down, multi-units way, up, and consecutive all-time August lows for single-families.

Sorry, Reuters and David Wyss. These aren’t indicators of “stability,” nor do they indicate that “we have hit bottom.” They’re just more bad news.

It went up here yesterday afternoon.

It will appear here at BizzyBlog tomorrow afternoon (link won’t work until then).

Related: Since this WEOZ item went up yesterday, I’ve become privy to some not-disclosable information that could — emphasis “could” — indicate that we’re in a “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet” situation that could make Boehner’s assertion that 100 House races are in play this fall turn out to be, well, conservative. But this is no time for overconfidence.

It’s here.

The sub-headline:

Scheduling all statewide primaries just before or after Labor Day would improve the prospects of insurgents on the left and right. That would be a good thing.

It will go up here at BizzyBlog on Friday (link won’t work until then) after the blackout expires.

I first posted some thoughts on how early primaries work to protect incumbents and give too much power to party establishments a couple of weeks ago.

From Phoenix (video and photo at link):

Posted: 9/17/2010

A Phoenix police officer who grabbed a 3-year-old girl from a burning house spoke about the rescue Friday.

He described how he put the fear of losing his own life aside to run into the smoke-filled house.

“I feel pretty good. A little soreness, a little tightness,” said Officer Jaime Corrales.

Corrales said the joy he feels is helping him recover from injuries he suffered at a house fire on Thursday near 47th Avenue and Osborn Road.

“Usually we just cordon off the area and make sure nobody goes inside, but in that incident we had to change it up and go inside the house and try and find that child,” Corrales said.

That child was 3-year-old Darlene Alana. She was still inside.

Corrales along with three other officers set aside their own safety to search for the girl.

“Running in the house I reminded everybody to stay low, not meaning it literally. Then I slipped in the water and slid across the living room floor,” Corrales said.

That’s when he notice Darlene hiding under the couch.

“Maybe the angel on my shoulder made me fall, I can’t answer that but it’s a good thing it happened in the long run,” Corrales said.

The officers got the girl out safely.

“She looked real frightened,” said Corrales.

Corrales only had minor injuries from the fall.

“I would call it nothing short of a miracle because it was at that point he was able to see the young child,” said Phoenix Police Sgt. Tommy Thompson. …

Go here for the rest of the story.

They’re out of excuses.

Summer’s over. It’s after Labor Day. The kids are back in school. People are back into their routines. The trouble for the Big 3 broadcast networks is that those routines don’t include watching their early-evening newscasts.

Beyond that, last week was a pivotal week in Campaign 2010, with key primaries in New York, Delaware, New Hampshire, and several other states. As far as I can tell, Brian Williams, Diane Sawyer, and Katie Couric were firmly ensconced in their anchor chairs all week long.

With all that, the Big 3 Nets’ audience for the week was less than 20 million, almost 5% lower than the same week a year ago, when there were no key election races. The Big 3 are not recovering from what was an awful summer.

Here are the numbers (source: Media Bistro — Week of Sept. 13, 2010; week of Sept. 14, 2010):

NBC and ABC both took huge hits in the 25-54 demographic groups, while CBS picked up a bit.

If they expected their all-O’Donnell-bashing all-the-time strategy to translate into additional evening news viewers, early returns would seem to indicate that it’s not working out too well.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

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UPDATE: From the “Couldn’t Happen to a More Deserving Bunch” Dept. — Here’s how it’s been during the last 30 years:

Mentally incorporate 2010′s results, and it’s clear that the slide is continuing.

The audience has shrunk by over 60%. The country’s population has grown by about 37% (83 million higher than 1980′s 226 million). Their “market penetration” in a given week has gone from 23% (52 million out of 226 million) to 6.5% (20 million out of 309 million), a drop of 72% (16.5 points divided by 23).

How sweet it is. And look at the precious resources they’re wasting on anchor “talent.”

At Political Calculations:

Further thoughts at Political Calculations (italics added by me):

In practical terms, that means government spending has become completely disconnected from the ability of the typical American household to support it. And until this skyrocketing spending growth is arrested and reversed, we suspect that government spending has become disconnected from the ability of any American household to support it.

What possible coherent leftist defense can there be to this? (not that there is much defense against what happened after 2000)

What establishment media outlet will be the first to show this chart? (likely answer: no one will dare)

The chart shows why Rick Santelli has been and is still right:

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UPDATE: From the “Spouses Keep You Grounded” Dept. —

“The five-minute rant was the best five minutes of my life,” Santelli tells reporter Abdon Pallasch. “But beyond that, really four minutes in time, it’s the Tea Party. My wife pointed out to me, ‘You were there for the insemination, but you were not there to raise the child.’”

Pallasch writes that Santelli and his wife have attended local Tea Party rallies, donning “sunglasses and baseball caps…not talking to anyone, not claiming any credit, just admiring democracy at work.”

From the UK, proof that “One Nation Under Revolt” has arrived just in time:

The UK’s tax collection agency is putting forth a proposal that all employers send employee paychecks to the government, after which the government would deduct what it deems as the appropriate tax and pay the employees by bank transfer.

From there, it’s not that difficult to require that all vendor payments to be handled similarly, until virtually all commercial transactions are filtered through the state. Game over; statists win.

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While the looming income tax increases remain important, let’s not forget that the death tax returns next year unless something is done.

I don’t think the job-loss effect will be anywhere near what is described at this link, because astute estate planners will help many people avoid the tax entirely. But from a macro viewpoint, all of that planning is a colossal waste of time that adds no value to the economy and diverts some of the attention of the economy’s most productive people from being, well, the economy’s most productive people.

Also, here’s a statement related to the estate tax that can be applied to most attempts at wealth redistribution generally: “… it can’t be stressed enough that an estate tax is very much a tax on those not in possession of inherited wealth. When governments tax wealth whether it’s earned or inherited, what they’re really doing is reducing the amount of capital available to fund the growth of tomorrow’s innovators.”
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Go figure (internal links are in original):

Survey Shows Arabs More Opposed to GZ (Ground Zero) Mosque Than American Media

According to a recent survey by the Arabic online news service Elaph (Arabic version here), 58 percent of Arabs think the construction should be moved elsewhere. And according to a Media Research Center study released last week, 55 percent of network news coverage of the debate has come down on the pro-Mosque side.

The project’s front people have a litany of tax, legal (note that Imam Feisal Rauf is being sued by a city, not just by unhappy tenants), criminal, and financial problems (if you’re holding $10,000 fundraisers for a $100 million project, you’ve got financial problems), and there are clearly financial irregularities relating to how the the property was acquired. Then there’s the damning effect of their own exposed words (here, here, here, and here, to name just a few) and associations with terrorism sympathizers.

You might think that this tidal wave of demonstrated problems would cause many of those who have been sympathetic to their cause to back away. But it won’t, because once something becomes a PC cause, facts don’t matter, and there is no backing down regardless of how overwhelming the facts become. Instead, supporters like Michael Moore are doubling down on stupid.

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Christine O’Donnell didn’t appear on this Sunday news shows. Good, and I totally agree with Mark Levin in hoping she stays away from them, and while we’re at it, the Big Three Networks in general. She doesn’t need them, and she owes them nothing, and she has nothing to “prove” to the people of Delaware or the nation by appearing.

Their ratings are in the tank. They are no longer gatekeepers. They’re for the most part a bunch of leftist gotcha artists who aren’t worth the time or bother.

But, if she does choose to appear, it has to be with these reasonable conditions: her camera crew gets to be there, is allowed to film the entire event, and gets to post it unedited online. I’ll betcha not one of the three will accept those conditions, because they won’t be able to twist the results with “clever” editing.

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Troubling news out of Government Motors:

GM and the Treasury Department would not comment Sunday on reports that the automaker is in talks with its current partner in China, SAIC, about buying a stake in the Detroit company. SAIC is owned by the Chinese government.

Make that “Two-Government Motors.”

I would oppose this for most of the same reasons I opposed CNOOC’s purchase of Unocal five years ago.

From Birmingham, England:

Sep 19, 2010 / 08:50 am

Speaking to journalists less than an hour after Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman’s beatification, Vatican spokesman Fr. Lombardi expressed confidence in his being canonized. There is a “concrete possibility,” also, that he will be made a “doctor of the Church.”

The Vatican spokesman was asked if Pope Benedict had it in mind to canonize Blessed John Henry Newman considering his enthusiasm to have him beatified.

Responding frankly, he said that official procedure calls for further measures before that can happen and the Pope is “very respectful” of the rules. A papal decree verifying a second miracle has to be made for the Blessed to become a fully-fledged saint.

“But,” he said, “we are confident that there will also be the canonization.”

Fr. Lombardi commented that after the beatification, especially because it was presided over by the Pope himself, there will be a lot of attention and devotion to the Blessed. He thought that there would be many people who would pray for graces through Cardinal Newman’s intercession and said he was “optimistic” about the process for his canonization advancing to fulfillment. …

Go here for the rest of the story.

Outnumbered at least 100-to-1, watch what happens:

Wow.

I suspect that headline writers at the Associated Press would be pleased as punch if readers stopped at their capsulization of Randall Chase’s story and didn’t read it.

The headline at the AP’s main site currently reads: “Surprise Del. primary winner seeks GOP support.”

Perhaps they’re hoping that Christine O’Donnell’s Tea Party base will be disappointed at the impression the headline gives, namely that O’Donnell is going to the Republican Party establishment for help, and in the process presumably compromising sensible conservative principles.

Well, that hope naively assumes that informed readers trust the factual basis of AP headlines. If they trust AP headlines as much as the rest of the press’s and Big Three TV networks’ output, that’s mostly not true (i.e., only 25% have a great deal of trust). In this case, Chase’s report makes it pretty clear that a lot of heavy hitters and strategists in the GOP are actually coming to her:

Some members of a GOP establishment that once shunned tea party favorite Christine O’Donnell are getting behind her now that she has won the Republican Senate primary, offering help in the form of cash and experienced staffers.

A young spokeswoman who has been thinking of going back to college is no longer handling media calls. Instead, reporters are referred to a public relations firm run by longtime GOP operative Craig Shirley, who has done communications work for the Republican National Committee and a political action committee that spent $14 million to help re-elect Ronald Reagan.

O’Donnell is also getting help from Tom Sullivan, a health care industry executive who worked for the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee in 1990 and later as a political consultant, with clients such as former Republican congressman Dick Armey.

… But some experienced hands with Washington ties are pitching in, and contributors have poured in more than $2 million to fund her November contest against Democratic county executive Chris Coons. Sullivan said Monday that the campaign recently brought some big guns on board to help with fundraising, though he declined to identify them.

If there’s any evidence that O’Donnell has been “seeking” establishment support, it’s not present in any of the excerpted paragraphs, and it’s at best only vaguely hinted at in the rest of Chase’s piece. Instead, it’s pretty clear for the most part she has people joining her.

Headline spinners at the AP can’t change that.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

The recession as normal people define it began in July 2008 and ended in June 2009.

The recession as the National Bureau of Economic Research declared it began in December 2007 and, just announced today, ended in June 2009.

So NBER got it half right. It remains wrong about when the recession began, and unless there are either significant downward adjustments to the relevant data down the road, or a retraction on their part, their assessment will remain so for all time by at least four and more likely six or seven months.

To remind readers, here, largely in their own words using their own standard, is why the NBER got their declared beginning wrong.

Here is their standard:

A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in production, employment, real income, and other indicators. A recession begins when the economy reaches a peak of activity and ends when the economy reaches its trough. Between trough and peak, the economy is in an expansion.

First, let’s look at “production,” the primary overall measurement of which in terms of goods AND services is Gross Domestic Product (GDP). During the seven additional months in which the NBER says we were in recession (December 2007 through June 2008), reported GDP growth was as follows:
- 4Q07, +2.7%
- 1Q08, -0.7%
- 2Q08, +0.6%

If there’s a “significant” decline in there, I don’t see it. Even during the first half of 2008 in isolation, there’s still a tiny increase.

Now, let’s look at employment:

Again, one has to consider the word “significant” in NBER’s definition.

In December 2007, the first month of its alleged recession, seasonally adjusted employment as shown in the first chart increased. During the first quarter of 2008, the seasonally adjusted decrease was clearly small, amounting to a “whopping” 0.069% of the workforce. The seasonally adjusted numbers began getting significantly large in April.

The not seasonally adjusted (NSA) numbers in the second chart also tell an important tale. Though the NSA numbers clearly lagged previous years, during the first four months of 2008, there isn’t a true “code red” result until May (possibly) or June (definitely). So if you’re looking for “significant” decline in employment, it didn’t happen until one of those two months.

Here, in their own words, are NBER’s own internal contradictions relating to “real income” and other indicators:

The income-side estimates (of Gross Domestic Income) reached their peak in 2007Q3, fell slightly in 2007Q4 and 2008Q1, rose slightly in 2008Q2 to a level below its peak in 2007Q3, and fell again in 2008Q3.

Our measure of real personal income less transfers peaked in December 2007, displayed a zig-zag pattern from then until June 2008 at levels slightly below the December 2007 peak, and has generally declined since June.

The Federal Reserve Board’s index of industrial production …. peaked in January 2008, fell through May 2008, rose slightly in June and July, and then fell substantially from July to September.

Sorry, guys. None of those impacts is “significant.”

What’s more, two key measurements relating to production directly and forcefully contradict NBER’s final excerpted assertion about production, and another data set contradicts NBER’s assertion about incomes.

First, production (Census Bureau source page; see “Historic Timeseries – NAICS” spreadsheets for “Shipments” and “New Orders”):

From November 2007, just before NBER’s alleged recession began, until June 2008, the last month before the recession as normal people define it began, both manufacturing new orders and the total value of shipments increased by what most people would consider pretty significant amounts and percentages (I confirmed with the Census Bureau that these are seasonally adjusted numbers – the “A” at the beginning of the abbreviation stands for “Adjusted”).

For NBER’s benefit, this is the kind of data one sees during an expansion. Yes, there was a decline in both numbers in early 2008, but they both recovered to a level that was higher than the previous November. In other words, June 2008 represents the true peak for these values. If you want to see when the REAL kick-in-the-pants recession began, look at the Census Bureau’s rock-like drops in August 2008 and subsequent months for shipments and orders. That of course happens to be shortly after the Era of Business Uncertainty yours truly has referred to as the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy for over two years began.

The NBER relies on production data from the Federal Reserve, which shows downward trends during the period indicated, instead of the Census Bureau. In the absence of someone making a convincing case why the Fed’s data is better, the worst anyone could say after seeing the two sets of results is that the economy was really, really flat until mid-2008 — but not in a recession.

Now, income:

Inflation-adjusted disposable income kept going up until the third quarter of 2008. Inflation-adjusted personal income excluding transfer receipts didn’t drop until the second quarter of 2008. No case for a recession during the first quarter of 2008 emerges from this income data; perhaps one can be made for it beginning in the second quarter, but it would be pretty weak in any event.

So, let’s summarize (and add a little):

• GDP — didn’t begin a long-term or significant decline until 3Q08.
• Employment — became problematic at what would be considered a recessionary level in May or June 0f 2008.
• Industrial order and sales — convincingly up according to the Census Bureau through June 2008, dropping steeply after that. Federal Reserve data largely contradicts this. At best, it’s a wash, but the burden of proof is on those who would say the Fed is somehow more right than the Census Bureau.
• Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM’s) Non Manufacturing (i.e., “Services” index; data is at this link) — was in serious contraction in January 2008, went barely into expansion from February through May, went barely in contraction during the next two months, and dropped seriously after that. That’s not impressive, but it’s also not recessionary.
• ISM’s assessment as to whether the economy was growing — stayed positive until roughly August 2008 (can’t find data right now, but I definitely recall that the assessment stayed positive until at least that month). This completely contradicts NBER.

Thus, the case that the economy was in recession from December 2007 through April 2007 hasn’t been made, and probably will never be, because there’s not enough support for the claim. The case that the economy might have been in recession during May and June is weak at best. The case that the economy was in recession from July 2008, shortly after the inception of the POR Economy, until June 2009 is of course overwhelming — which is why we should be relying on the “normal people” definition of a recession and not the arbitrary constructs of academics who possibly have agendas other than presenting the truth.