The opening sentence of Charles Babington’s “objective report” about the possible extension of what was billed late last year as a “temporary payroll tax cut” reads like a Democratic National Committee press release: “News flash: Congressional Republicans want to raise your taxes.”

It doesn’t get any better until the final paragraph. Babington’s babble is otherwise a long-winded, largely childish taunt about the supposed hypocrisy of anyone who would like to see a program which for all its very considerable faults at least ran a cash surplus for several decades get into the neighborhood of where taxes collected almost equal disbursements.

(more…)

It looks like Gadhafi might be out in Libya. Expect Obamabots to assign all the credit for our lawbreaking participation in the war to oust him to The One.

I’ll hold the applause until we find out whether the NATO alliance created another Al Qaeda stronghold.

____________________________________________________

There Is No Media Bias, Part 82,945: Lisa Bernard-Kuhn’s “coverage” at the Cincinnati Enquirer of Ohio’s results in the government’s Regional and State unemployment report told readers that the state’s unemployment rate went up and the number of unemployed went up, but “somehow” forgot to tell readers that the state added about 8,000 jobs in the Establishment Survey, for a total of about 79,000 thus far this year.

____________________________________________________

Non-shock of the Day: “Social Security disability on verge of insolvency.”

That’s because, unless the definition of “disabled” has been changed to mean “can’t/won’t find work, and still demand money,” there are a lot of people on Social Security disability who don’t belong there. The proof that this contention is true is in the second paragraph of Stephen Ohlemacher’s Associated Press report:

Applications are up nearly 50 percent over a decade ago as people with disabilities lose their jobs and can’t find new ones in an economy that has shed nearly 7 million jobs.

Today, about 13.6 million people receive disability benefits through Social Security or Supplemental Security Income.

That 13.6 million number is about 10% of the number of adults who are working. It should be intuitively obvious that one in ten work-eligible adults is not legitimately disabled.

I’m sorry, you don’t become “disabled” and therefore eligible for “disability” just because you lost your job. The AP’s Ohlemacher wants readers to think that it’s only people who were already truly disabled and working and then lost their jobs who are applying. Horse manure.

____________________________________________________

Big Ben’s Monopoly Money: It turns out that the Fed lent $1.2 Trillion to various big-money banks in 2006.

The betting here is that no one outside the Fed and perhaps Hank Paulson’s Treasury Department knew this — and yes, I’m suggesting that they deliberately kept George W. Bush and Congress in the dark.

Bloomberg’s misleading headline says: “Wall Street Aristocracy Got $1.2T in Loans.” That’s only if you think “Wall Street” includes banks in a number of European countries:

Almost half of the Fed’s top 30 borrowers, measured by peak balances, were European firms. They included Edinburgh-based Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, which took $84.5 billion, the most of any non-U.S. lender, and Zurich-based UBS AG (UBSN), which got $77.2 billion. Germany’s Hypo Real Estate Holding AG borrowed $28.7 billion, an average of $21 million for each of its 1,366 employees.

I would think that readers would be interested in knowing, well, whether anyone has paid the Fed back. I don’t see it in Bradley Keoun’s and Phil Kuntz’s quite lengthy report.

The Fed has been operating as a de facto outlaw government. Ron Paul, for all his quirks, has been right in his longtime demand for annual audits of the Fed.

From Madrid:

Aug 21, 2011 / 04:31 pm

Pope Benedict XVI left Spain on the evening of August 21, after giving a challenge to the million-plus young people who came to World Youth Day in Madrid over the past six days.

“Now I ask you to spread throughout the world the profound and joyful experience of faith which you had here in this noble country,” said the Pope, on the tarmac at Madrid’s Barajas Airport.

“By your closeness and your witness, help your friends to discover that loving Christ means living life to the full.”

Pope Benedict led nine events during his four-day visit for World Youth Day. The peak moment was Sunday’s Mass at Cuarto Vientos airbase, with a congregation said to contain up to 2 million people.

Spain’s King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia came to Barajas to bid the Pope farewell on behalf of the Spanish nation.

“Holiness, you have addressed words of love and hope, encouragement and confidence to a youth that treasures values like solidarity,” said King Juan Carlos.

“I give the most heartfelt thanks for your visit to Spain. Thank you for the hope and the vision that you have given to our youth.”

In response, the Pope told them that “Spain is a great nation whose soundly open, pluralistic and respectful society is capable of moving forward without surrendering its profoundly religious and Catholic soul.”

The Pope thanked World Youth Day 2011′s organizers, giving special mention to Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity; Madrid’s Cardinal Archbishop Antonio Rouco Varela; and the event’s General Coordinator, Monsignor Cesar Augusto Franco Martinez.

About two hundred young people got to come onto the tarmac to wave goodbye to the Pope. As with his arrival at the same location, he was “protected” by a line of mini-Swiss Guards, Spanish schoolboys dressed in the uniforms of the illustrious Vatican army.

“I leave Spain very happy and grateful to everyone,” said the Pope.

“But above all I am grateful to God, our Lord, who allowed me to celebrate these days so filled with enthusiasm and grace, so charged with dynamism and hope.” …

Go here for the rest of the story.

Well, the extent to which this one gets nationally noticed should be interesting.

Yesterday, at a high school gym in Inglewwood, California,  at what was billed as a “Kitchen Table Summit,” as seen in a video currently showing at both MRC-TV and Breitbart, Congresswoman Maxine Waters said, “As far as I’m concerned, the Tea Party can go straight to hell.” The crowd, reportedly “more than 2,000 people,” cheered her statement.

We’re already through one overnight news cycle at the Associated Press, and I found nothing relating to this outburst at its home page in a search on the congresswoman’s name. The one item listed is a day older, and even that one is sanitized. Referring to Waters’s appearance at a Congressional Black Caucus summit in Detroit last week, the AP’s Ken Thomas, with assistance from AP Deputy Polling Director Jennifer Agiesta, only reported that Waters told those in attendance that, “Our people are hurting. The unemployment level is unconscionable.” Many of those who follow New Media know the real news was Waters virtually begging her audience, and by inference African-Americans in general, to “unleash us” (the Caucus) to complain about President Obama’s failure to address the economic needs of the black community. (Don’t worry, Maxine, he’s an equal opportunity ignorer).

A Google News search on ["Maxine Waters" "go straight to hell"] (typed exactly as incidated between brackets) covering the past two days returned all of five items at the following mostly nonestablishment locations: Huffington Post, Daily Caller, ABC7 in Los Angeles, Contra Costa Times, and an LA Times blog. That’s far from impressive.

As to the media getting cold feet and avoiding the H-word, spare me the sudden prudery. Google News Archive searches on [Republicans "go straight to hell"] and [Democrats "go straight to hell"] returned 104 and 68 results, respectively.

If this one doesn’t get wide establishment press coverage, it will be because they will have seen the perceived negative risk of average people finding out the left’s true mindset as too high.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

On August 15, the Boston Herald, the Boston Globe, and the Associated Press all reported that Massachusetts-based Evergreen Solar had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Oddly enough (no, not really), The New York Times, which published a 1,600-word report in January on the company’s competitive difficulties, did not take note of Evergreen’s filing.

Each of the three reports cited gave readers the impression that Bay State agencies were the only ones which had provided the company any form of financial assistance during the past several years during which, according to its latest 10-K annual report (large HTML file), it was losing hundreds of millions of dollars annually (about $950 million in the past three calendar years):

(from the Boston Herald’s full report)

Evergreen Solar Inc., the Massachusetts clean-energy company that received millions in state subsidies from the Patrick administration for an ill-fated Bay State factory, has filed for bankruptcy, listing $485.6 million in debt.

… The Massachusetts Republican Party called the Patrick administration’s $58 million financial aid package, which supported Evergreen’s $450 million factory, a “waste” of money.

… In January, after Evergreen announced it would close the Devens factory, Patrick told the Herald he was disappointed in the job losses but did not regret making the investment.

(Boston Globe — Note: A terse, four-paragraph report)

Evergreen Solar Inc., the once promising alternative energy company that received millions in state subsidies, revealed today that that it has voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

(Associated Press — Note: Another terse, four-paragraph report)

A solar energy company that received millions of dollars in grants and tax incentives from Massachusetts before closing one of its facilities in the state has voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy relief.

It took David Mastio at the Washington Times to visit the White House’s web site and note that Evergreen was identified in April 2009 as a beneficiary of federal ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act), or “stimulus,” funds. Here is portion of the White House’s statement:

To: Interested Parties

Fr: White House Communications

Da: April 22, 2009

Re: The Obama-Biden economic plan: creating jobs, strengthening the economy for Massachusetts families

Facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, President Obama started his Presidency with decisive action — proposing and quickly passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

… here’s a look at how his policies have impacted Massachusetts in the first three months of his administration.

… Because of the Stimulus Bill and New Contracts, Green Energy Companies Are Looking to Hire Many New Employees.

… Evergreen Solar, the Marlborough-based maker of solar panels, also is hoping to hire 90 to 100 people at a manufacturing plant in Devens, said Gary Pollard, vice president of human resources.

… Evergreen Solar Was Hoping to Hire 90 to 100 People for Its Manufacturing Plant. “Evergreen Solar, the Marlborough-based maker of solar panels, also is hoping to hire 90 to 100 people at a manufacturing plant in Devens, said Gary Pollard, vice president of human resources. The plant, which opened last summer, is expected to employ more than 800 when it reaches full capacity.” [Boston Globe, 3/6/09]

It’s clear that at least the Globe knew that Evergreen was a beneficiary of significant federal government largesse, and chose to ignore that fact. The introduction to Its March 6, 2009 article (full article is behind the Globe’s pay wall) reads as follows (bolds are mine throughout the rest of this post):

Renewable job market

Even as economy worsens, state’s green companies are hiring

According to a spokesman for congressman Ed Markey, the Malden Democrat who chairs the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Massachusetts is set to get $125 million in stimulus funds for weatherization projects and $55 million in state energy block grants to be used mainly for energy-efficiency programs. According to a recently released report from his firm, the legislation contains about $83 billion for “clean-tech spending and tax plans” and positions the industry as a “key driver of economic stabilization and job growth.”

“His (Markey’s) firm”? I do hope the Globe really meant “his committee.”

As the White House announcement noted, Evergreen’s hiring plans as a result of ARRA appear later in the Globe report.

The fact that the Globe failed to report what it knew of Evergreen’s stimulus involvement made it easy for the Associated Press, whose report closely mirrors the Globe’s, to ignore it as well.

So how much stimulus money, or indirect benefit, did Evergreen receive? Good luck getting your arms around that.

As far as stimulus reporting requirements are concerned, all that apparently had to be reported about who benefitted from the $55 million block grant noted above (which is in the state’s stimulus report) was its gross amount and the fact that the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources originally got the money, as seen below (part of full ARRA report as of September 30, 2010; numbers reformatted to get rid of cents and to include commas):

It may be in the Bay State’s Recovery Act web site somewhere, but I could not find any breakdown of who might have received those funds.

There are anecdotal items which contain some detail, such as this one from a Massachusetts paper which was linked from the Bay State’s ARRA website:

Renewable energy companies from Holliston and Marlborough will play key roles in what is likely the largest-ever project to install solar panels on state-owned facilities.

Renewable Sales of Holliston, a wholesale distributor, said it will supply 11,000 photovoltaic panels manufactured by Marlborough-based Evergreen Solar for the initiative.

The $9.8 million plan includes $5.3 million in federal stimulus cash.

The solar equipment will go up on 11 state colleges and universities – including Framingham State – a recycling facility in Springfield and an education center at Chickatawbut Hill in Milton.

“It’s the largest project we’ve ever landed,” said Kevin Price, president of Renewable Sales. “What we were excited about was not just winning the project for us, but keeping the money in the commonwealth.”

Here’s another:

The Berkshire Community College project illustrates how the Patrick-Murray Administration’s push for renewable energy is putting Massachusetts companies to work. Financed with $984,400 in federal funds available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and $758,388 in federal low-interest Clean Renewable Energy Bonds, the rooftop systems comprise inverters made by Solectria of Lawrence and panels from Evergreen Solar of Devens, which are being installed by Ostrow Electric of Worcester. Once complete later this fall, the system is expected to produce 440,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity – enough to supply over 20 percent of the school’s demand.

So who was the actual recipient of the stimulus cash, i.e., who got check(s) to take to the bank? Renewable Sales? Evergreen? Some general contractor who actually installed the panels? I can’t tell, but there is little doubt that Evergreen benefitted at the very least to the tune of millions of dollars by being able to sell panels, possibly at inflated prices, which it otherwise would not have sold. As far as I could tell from reviewing its financial statements, Evergreen treats its entire business as one reportable segment for financial reporting purposes, meaning that there is no breakdown of residential, commercial, and government sales.

One thing is for certain: The deliberately selective (in the case of the Globe) and incomplete (in regards to the others) reporting of which governmental entities gave aid to Evergreen Solar conveniently covers up what has to be seen as yet another in a long, long list of examples where federal government stimulus funds were ultimately largely wasted.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

From Albuquerque, New Mexico:

Posted at: 08/18/2011 2:35 AM

A man whose gutsy and quick action saved a family from its worst nightmare is winning praise and offers of help from people across the country.

Antonio Diaz Chacon, 24, used his truck to chase a man after he allegedly snatched a 6-year-old girl and fled with her in his van, rescuing the child when the vehicle crashed.

Now, police and reporters have received calls from people requesting an address to send gift cards, money and even donations for a college savings fund for his two children.

“We’re just overwhelmed with all of this. We’re trying to take it all in,” his wife, Martha, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. She has been sharing his story, relaying from Spanish to English details of that eventful afternoon that turned the mechanic and father of two into a hero.

Diaz Chacon had no idea his quick reaction would result in such an outpouring of appreciation and an online flood of high-fives for his heroic actions.

Shelly Hornback, of Buckeye, Ariz., said in a telephone interview she was happy to learn the little girl was saved and she felt she had to do something to recognize Diaz Chacon’s efforts.

“It was like he restored our faith in humanity that people are good, and clearly to act so quickly for the common good made such a big difference. A lot of people would just not be so brave,” she said.

“Here, he jumped in like Superman and saved that girl and made us all remember that there are good people out there who care.”

Diaz Chacon was not even supposed to be home Monday afternoon. He left work early to spend time with his family. Nor was he supposed to be at his mother-in-law’s home about a block away, where the couple had gone to do laundry after their washing machine had broken.

He was in the right place at the right time to see what could have been a family tragedy.

“He just says, `You know what, it was something I had to do,’” Martha Diaz said of her husband’s gut reaction. “We didn’t expect this outcome.”

The phone was constantly ringing at the family’s home Wednesday, but Martha Diaz didn’t mind answering the calls from well-wishers and those asking how they could help.

“This was never our intention, but I didn’t know there were still so many good people out there,” she said.

The funny thing is many others feel the same way about her husband. …

Go here for the full story.

Michael Nutter needs to look at who really “damaged their own race.”

_____________________________________

Note: This column appeared at Pajamas Media and was teased here at BizzyBlog on Thursday.

_____________________________________

A week ago, in the midst of this, the summer of the flash mob — groups of mostly black teens who have attacked non-blacks at random in public places — Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter angrily lectured his city’s young black thugs:

“If you walk into somebody’s office with your hair uncombed and a pick in the back, and your shoes untied, and your pants half down, tattoos up and down your arms and on your neck, and you wonder why somebody won’t hire you? They don’t hire you ‘cause you look like you’re crazy,” the mayor said. “You have damaged your own race.”

Of course, Nutter’s admonishment was necessary and overdue. But let’s face it. While in no way exonerating the criminals involved in this summer’s mayhem, you have to be blind in one eye and not be able to see out of the other not to recognize and admit that policies which black civil rights “leaders,” most big-city mayors of all races, and liberals in general have favored for decades have contributed mightily to today’s devolved black youth culture. In a supreme and bitter irony, America’s first African-American president (well, not really, but work with me here) and his party in Washington have sharply accelerated the damage during the past three years.

In difficult economic times, entry-level, less-skilled and less-senior workers suffer the most. Sadly, blacks are overrepresented in these groups. Getting these workers into or back to productively contributing to society is why turning around an economy as quickly as possible after a serious downturn is so critical. It has been over three years since the beginning of the recession as normal people define it, roughly coinciding with the inception of the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) economy, also known as the fear-based economy. It’s been over two years since the recession officially ended. The degree of turnaround needed to employ these workers is not happening. Indeed, the situation is getting worse.

The latest available census information, bumped up by a bit, tells us that there are about 2.8 million African-Americans in the 16-19 age group. As of July, according to not seasonally adjusted data at the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

• 433,000, or 15%, had jobs. By contrast, in July 2006, over 700,000 African-American teens were working. In July 1998, among a smaller population, over 900,000 were.
• 306,000, or 11%, were unemployed.
• 740,000, or 26%, were working or looking for work. In July 2006, that number was over 1.1 million. In July 1998, it was over 1.3 million.
• The remaining 2.06 million, an astonishing 74%, during the peak month of teen summer employment, were not in the workforce.

The equivalent July 2011 percentages for whites, over which there is no cause to jump for joy, were 35% employed, 11% unemployed, and 54% not in the workforce. While there is a clearly a teen workplace disengagement epidemic among whites, in the black community it’s a full-blown plague.

This returns us to Mr. Nutter, a large percentage of his mayoral colleagues around the country, the leftists who control most urban areas, and Washington’s Democratic Party establishment. It is all too telling that one of the pet excuses for high black teen unemployment this summer, as seen in a Cleveland Plain dealer item back in June, is that the stimulus programs which funded some teen summer jobs in 2009 and 2010 with money that we as a country didn’t have weren’t available this year.

That copout doesn’t cut it, not after decades of liberal government policies and negative cultural influences which have betrayed the hopes and dreams of millions of young blacks, and which are largely responsible for creating the dangerous conditions underlying this summer’s flash mob outbreak. Here are just a few of the financial and economic factors, besides the aforementioned Democrat-driven recession and “Rebound? What Rebound?” recovery:

• Minimum wage laws. Total employment in all age groups dropped almost 10% from July 2006 to July 2011. Meanwhile, the minimum wage went from $5.15 in 2006 to its current $7.25, and black teen employment dropped by 38%. That’s not a coincidence.
• Taxes and regulation. Urban property, income and other taxes are generally higher than in surrounding communities. Additionally, the larger the city, the more likely it is that there will be dedicated groups of environmental zealots and other corporate harassers, some with city government and others in “advocacy groups,” whose mission is to make life miserable for job providers, and who seem to consider it a victory when businesses leave or fail. Because of these unnecessary burdens, companies have been voting with their feet and taking their jobs to lower-tax in-state and out-of-state suburbs and exurbs for decades. Surprise, surprise (not): As a result, fewer low-skilled and summer-job opportunities are available for urban teens.
• Entitlement dependency. Sadly, blacks make up a disproportionate percentage of the food stamp, Section 8 housing, and traditional welfare rolls. Teens who get jobs can cause their families to lose partial or full eligibility for these programs. Gainful employment can also reduce the amount of available federal college aid. It’s a lot easier to just stay at home, hang out, and potentially get in trouble.

While Mayor Nutter deserves some credit for calling out the teen hoodlums in his midst, it’s hard to take him seriously as someone who really wants to go after the black teen unemployment problem. You see, he has a lot in common with this country’s chief executive. While Barack Obama was on a three-state bus tour this week in “Greyhound One,” shattering all previous presidential records for whining and excuse-making, Nutter, a deputy mayor, and the city’s water commissioner were on a junket in Rio de Janiero accompanying Lisa Jackson, who heads Obama’s job-killing Environmental Protection Agency. Their objective: “to listen, learn, and lend their expertise on green development.” Nutter’s ultimate goal: “to make Philadelphia the greenest city in the country.” Any manufacturer who hasn’t yet left the City of Brotherly Love will likely be giving it serious consideration shortly. What will that do for the job prospects of the city’s black teens, or for that matter its other unskilled or unemployed residents?

Establishment press reporters will insist from now until the cows come home that they play it straight. Their actions all too often belie their claims.

One such face-hitting example came yesterday in Associated Press reporter Chris Rugaber’s coverage of the government’s Regional and State Employment and Unemployment report. If it weren’t already given away in this post’s title, veteran media bias sleuths would have had no trouble detecting the “clever” technique employed in the following two paragraphs on seasonally adjusted state job gains and losses from Rugaber’s risible rendition (key sentences bolded):

New York enjoyed the biggest job gain in July: 29,400. The state added jobs in education and health care and professional and business services – a category that includes accounting, engineering, and temporary workers, among other professions.

Texas reported the second-most number of new jobs. It added positions in retail, transportation, education and health, and hotels, restaurants, and other leisure industries.

Texas has accounted for nearly half the U.S. jobs created since the recession officially ended two years ago, according to calculations by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Its job-creation figures are coming under scrutiny now that Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, has launched a presidential campaign.

Illinois reported the biggest loss of jobs last month: 24,900. It was followed by Florida, with a loss of 22,100 and Minnesota, with 19,800. Many of Minnesota’s job losses stemmed from the state government’s shutdown last month. State agencies temporarily laid off 22,000.

It was so nice of Chris to tell readers that Texas’s “job-creation figures are coming under scrutiny.” Too bad he chose not to give them any figures to scrutinize, even though he did give specifics for the other four states identified in the excerpt.

Texas’s seasonally adjusted job additions in July were 29,300. That’s within a whisker of the Empire State’s 29,400. Especially given the vagaries involved in seasonal adjustment, Texas’s monthly figure should not only have been specifically reported, it should have been identified as a virtual tie.

Rugaber’s choice to refer to the Dallas Fed as the source of job growth data since the recession ended is odd, almost giving one the impression that it’s a bunch of home team cheerleading. The same Bureau of Labor Statistics which issued yesterday’s report is where the Dallas Fed would almost definitely have obtained its post-recession information, which after yesterday looks like this:

In the 25 months since the recession ended, Texas has added 328,000, or 47%, of the nation’s 697,000 seasonally adjusted jobs.

Those specifics would have been nice too, Chris.

There may not be an AP embargo on the numerics of good news about Texas now that Governor Rick Perry has declared his presidential candidacy, but Rugaber’s report yesterday sure makes it look as if there is.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

From Madrid:

Aug 19, 2011 / 02:38 pm

Pope Benedict XVI met with young religious sisters and later with young university professors on Aug. 19 at the royal site of El Estorial. He emphasized the importance of the sisters’ radical consecration and urged the professors to be a source of encouragement for students.

“The Pope spoke about a personal encounter with Christ, and that (encounter) is what fulfills us,” said Sr. Ruth Martin, a 38-year-old sister of the recently founded religious community, Ieuso Communio.

“It was a huge privilege, a great joy!” she told CNA, amid the cheering and singing of sisters from various communities.

The sisters of Ieuso Communio, as young as 18 years old, caught the attention of those present, because of their denim habits, which symbolize the current day and age.

Pope Benedict told the group of more than 1,000 sisters gathered that the Church needs their “youthful fidelity, rooted and built up in Christ.

“Thank you for your generous, total and perpetual ‘yes’ to the call of the loved one,” he continued.

“Your lives must testify to the personal encounter with Christ which has nourished your consecration, and to all the transforming power of that encounter.”

Go here for the rest of the story.

So is the half-full part of the glass more important than the half empty-part?

Here’s the seasonally adjusted half-full news:

Ohio is still number nine in the nation in percentage employment growth this year. Michigan (a newly-red state), Massachusetts (which passed public-sector cost reforms not long ago), and Rhode Island (too small to matter) moved ahead of it in July.

It will be interesting to see the not seasonally adjusted numbers, which I will look at this evening. (Update: They were less impressive than I would like to have seen. The overall decline (which typically happens in July) was a bit more [-33.5K] than a year ago [-29.8K], but better than every other July from 2000-2009. The private sector pickup was essentially zero [vs. 15.5K in 2009], and was better than every other July from 2000-2009, except in a virtual dead heat with 2004.)

The unemployment rate went to 9.0%, and relates to a problem I noted on a nationwide basis a week or so ago, namely that employment and the labor force per the Household Survey (used to determine the unemployment rate) are heading down, while employment per the Establishment Survey (used to determine the “official” employment number) is heading up (as seen in the graphic). That’s a countrywide problem (28 states saw their rates go up, 13 stayed the same, and 9 went down).

_____________________________________________

UPDATE: The BLS noted that payroll jobs (i.e., per the Establishment Survey) were up in 31 states, and down in 9.

One of the biggest losers was Illinois, which lost 24,900 jobs, the second month in a row of significant losses. Pat Quinn’s and Illinois Democrats’ high-tax chickens appear to be coming home to roost.

Headline I thought I’d never see, at least until the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy arrived — “Mortgage rates make new lows, but nobody cares.”

_________________________________________________

Pethokoukis at Reuters:

The White House’s worst-case scenario for the economy on Election Day next year has become Wall Street’s baseline scenario. After looking at a string of weak economic reports and Europe’s growing fear of debt meltdown and contagion, JPMorgan – led by Obama pal Jamie Dimon – has just come out with a politically poisonous forecast.

The megabank now thinks the economy won’t grow much faster over the next 12 months than it did during the first half of this year — and that’s assuming Europe doesn’t go all pear shaped. It sees GDP growth at just 1.5 percent this year, 1.3 percent next year with unemployment at … 9.5 percent heading into the final days of the election season. “The risks of recession are clearly elevated,” the bank said.

Yet from what I understand, the only thing the clown in the White House wants to propose is to double or triple down on even more stimulus with money we don’t have. And he’ll get around to it in, oh, maybe, September.

____________________________________________

Too bad I won’t be able to see the numbers on state employment today until early evening. They will be here at 10 a.m. It will be interesting to see if certain red states continue to separate themselves from the rest of the country, especially the “newly-reds,”, or whether they start getting dragged into the rest of the economy’s muck.

____________________________________________

The Financial Times’s Gavyn Davies asks, “What Went Wrong with the Global Recovery?” Unfortunately, he gets it wrong. The real answers are easy: We had the wrong people in charge who chose the wrong solutions and made things even worse than they already were.
____________________________________________

From the “You’ve come a long way baby” Dept. –

• In DC — “Flash Mob Robberies Continue”: “In the latest incident, 10 women stormed the Shop Express convenience store along Benning Road in northeast Washington at about 3:15 a.m. Thursday. … Store employees said this was the third such incident at the store in the past couple of weeks.”
• In Philly — “New Video Surfaces Showing Unprovoked Attack by Philadelphia Teens”: “A new video has surfaced showing a group of teen girls attacking a worker outside City Hall in Philadelphia, myfoxphilly.com reports. The video, shot in May, shows a woman being attacked in broad daylight. … In the video, the girls are seen laughing, screaming and even dancing.”

_________________________________________________

At Expatica — “Cars torched in Berlin for fourth consecutive night.” The remarkable thing about this headline is that I don’t recall having seen one about Days 1, 2, or 3. What most Americans don’t realize is that car torchings are routine events in many major cities in Europe.

As to why:

“We don’t rightly know the reason for it,” police spokesman Guido Busch told AFP.

“But we believe it is mostly the work of a single person, or a single group of people, and that it is vandalism with no political motive,” he added.

Ann Coulter can explain it.

From Oregon, and South Carolina:

August 08, 2011

Medford man returns rare handgun to Medal of Honor winner (and MOH winner returns the favor — Ed.)

A historic Colt .45-caliber, semi-automatic pistol stolen more than 30 years ago from a Medal of Honor winner in South Carolina has been returned to its rightful owner.

The gun and owner were reunited after a history buff in Medford, who bought the old handgun in an online auction last month, tracked down the retired Marine whose name is engraved on it.

“I knew if I found him and it was his gun, I couldn’t keep it,” said George Berry, 71, who knew little about the history of the gun when he purchased it from an auction house in Pennsylvania.

The story begins when Berry, a retired Navy warrant officer who also served in the Marine Corps, decided this summer to fulfill a lifelong dream of owning one of the historic handguns.

“I’ve always wanted to own a Colt Model 1911 .45 automatic — always wanted one,” he says. “John Wayne had one in every World War II movie I’ve ever seen him in.”

Early in July, he began searching the Internet and discovered that Alderfer Auction, a well-known auction firm in Hatfield, Pa., would be offering three of the Colt .45s in a July 12 auction.

In particular, lot No. 78 caught his eye: “Colt 1911 A1 semi-automatic pistol. Cal. 45. 5″ bbl. SN 0103889. Reblued finish on all metal, plain walnut Colt grips, after-market rear sight, no magazine,” the description read.

“Faint ‘USMC’ stamped on right side of slide, partial ‘United States Property’ wording is visible,” it continued. “The name ‘John J. McGinty USMC’ stamped on left side of slide. Very good.”
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