Here we go again… another week, another “unexpected” rise in new jobless claims: The number of U.S. workers filing new applications for unemployment insurance unexpectedly surged last week, while producer prices increased sharply in January, raising potential hurdles for the economic recovery. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 31,000 to 473,000, the Labor Department […]
WSJ: Andrew Cuomo has more to answer for than does Bank of America
Politicians love to blame the financial crisis and by extension the recession on greedy bankers, but as the Wall Street Journal notes today many of them, like New York Attorney General and former Clinton Administration Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Andrew Cuomo have much to answer for: With his fraud lawsuit last week against […]
Rep. John Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat, Dies at 77
Reuters is reporting that Congressman John “Jack” Murtha of Pennsylvania has passed away: Democratic Representative John Murtha, the chairman of the House of Representatives defense appropriations subcommittee who exercised enormous influence on defense issues, died on Monday. Murtha, 77, died peacefully at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington with his family by his side, a statement […]
Video: Sarah Palin’s Keynote Speech at National Tea Party Convention
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin delivers the closing keynote address at the first-ever National Tea Party Convention, held in Nashville, TN. February 6, 2010: Related Third party is the wrong party for Tea Partiers – Mark Tapscott, Washington Examiner Nashville Shows Tea Party Is America’s Third Great Awakening – Glenn Reynolds, Washington Examiner Breitbart, Farah […]
Holy Meteorological Meltdowns Batman
Every now and then in this job you come across something that just has to be shared far and wide… In this case it’s AccuWeather.com meteorologist Jim Kosek’s rather, umm, impassioned “Snowpocalypse” forecast: Oh boy… (H/T: LauraW @ AoSHQ)
Unemployment Rate Drops to 9.7%
I was going to post this yesterday, but there was something about the numbers that just didn’t make sense to me so I decided to hold off until I could dig through the report. Anyway, the Associated Press got to use it’s favorite adverb, “unexpectedly“, again today: The job market is lurching toward improvement. It […]
First-time Jobless Claims Rise Unexpectedly… Again
This is getting ridiculous, and as predictable as sunrise… Just how many times can new jobless claims rise “unexpectedly” before the Associated Press realizes there’s nothing unexpected about it: The number of newly laid-off workers filing initial claims for jobless benefits rose unexpectedly last week, evidence that layoffs are continuing and jobs remain scarce. The […]
Massachusetts Senator-elect Scott Brown Asks to be Seated Immediately
From The Washington Times: Massachusetts Sen.-elect Scott Brown on Wednesday demanded to be seated immediately, saying that while he is scheduled to be sworn in Feb. 11, “there are a number of votes scheduled prior to that date.” In a letter from his lawyers to Gov. Deval Patrick and Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, […]
Thoughts on President Obama’s First State of the Union Address
Let me preface this by saying I didn’t watch the President’s speech last night. Frankly I’ve been been watching him for roughly two years now and I’m tired of his hollow rhetoric. I did read through the transcript this morning though… it reads more like campaign speech than a State of the Union address. Worse […]
Massachusetts Miracle: Scott Brown Wins!
I have to confess I haven’t paid close attention to the special election in Massachusetts to fill the senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy… Frankly, I didn’t think there was even the slightest chance that a Republican could win there, in fact republicans haven’t won Senate race in the Bay State since the 1970s! […]
The Body Scanner Scam
Edward Luttwak, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, has a must read op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal… In short Mr. Luttwak lays way waste to the fallacy of body scanners in airport security screening: All males have a body cavity. Females have two body cavities. In prisons, these body […]
Danny Glover: Stuck on Stupid
What the frak is wrong with these people? Seriously what major dysfunction would cause a supposedly intelligent human being like Danny Glover to try and blame the Haitian earthquake on global warming? “When we see what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens, you know what […]
Train Wreck: Retail Sales Fall, Jobless Claims Rise, Foreclosures set Record and the Dollar Crisis
Whew, I can’t believe I got all that in headline! Anyone who has read this blog for any period of time knows I’m a pessimist on the economy, in short I don’t see any reason to be hopeful: Retail sales unexpectedly fell in December, leaving 2009 with the biggest yearly drop on record and highlighting […]
Pat Robertson: Idiot
Does anyone take Pat Robertson seriously anymore? Tragedy often brings out the best… and worst in people, yesterday while most of us were scrambling to find ways to help the Haitian people Rev. Pat Robertson was on The 700 Club saying the following: Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not […]
Scott Brown: It’s the People’s Seat
Damn right… It is the people’s seat… There a reason why the race to fill the senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts is apparently to close to call. This video clip from last night’s debate between Republican Scott Brown, Democrat Martha Coakley and Independent Joe Kennedy demonstrates it pretty clearly. It’s the […]