And the news is actually pretty good, with initial claims falling to the lowest level since February, 381,000, with the less volatile 4-week moving average falling to 393,250, and the continuing and extended claims fell as well.
Definitely good news. If we maintain this for the next 4 weeks or so, I’ll believe that this is neither an outlier or an artifact of misused correction factors.
.
Yeah, I’m a glass half full kind of guy
I read this analysis, which makes the very convincing case that Barack Obama does not object to the detention provisions of the defense authorization bill because he supports the rule of law, but because it classifies these detainees as prisoners of war, and so subject to the strictures of the Geneva Conventions:
However, on further reflection I conclude that the Obama regime’s objection to military detention is not rooted in concern for the constitutional rights of American citizens. The regime objects to military detention because the implication of military detention is that detainees are prisoners of war. As Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin put it: Should somebody determined “to be a member of an enemy force who has come to this nation or is in this nation to attack us as a member of a foreign enemy, should that person be treated according to the laws of war? The answer is yes.”
Detainees treated according to the laws of war have the protections of the Geneva Conventions. They cannot be tortured. The Obama regime opposes military detention, because detainees would have some rights. These rights would interfere with the regime’s ability to send detainees to CIA torture prisons overseas. This is what the Obama regime means when it says that the requirement of military detention denies the regime “flexibility.”
The Bush/Obama regimes have evaded the Geneva Conventions by declaring that detainees are not POWs, but “enemy combatants,” “terrorists,” or some other designation that removes all accountability from the US government for their treatment.
By requiring military detention of the captured, Congress is undoing all the maneuvering that two regimes have accomplished in removing POW status from detainees.
A careful reading of the Obama regime’s objections to military detention supports this conclusion.(See http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/legislative/sap/112/saps1867s_20111117.pdf)The November 17 letter to the Senate from the Executive Office of the President says that the Obama regime does not want the authority it has under the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), Public Law 107-40, to be codified. Codification is risky, the regime says. “After a decade of settled jurisprudence on detention authority, Congress must be careful not to open a whole new series of legal questions that will distract from our efforts to protect the country.”
In other words, the regime is saying that under AUMF the executive branch has total discretion as to who it detains and how it treats detainees. Moreover, as the executive branch has total discretion, no one can find out what the executive branch is doing, who detainees are, or what is being done to them. Codification brings accountability, and the executive branch does not want accountability.
Those who see hope in Obama’s threatened veto have jumped to conclusions if they think the veto is based on constitutional scruples.
(emphasis original)
Read the White House PDF. They flat out say that the reason that they object is because they want more “flexibility” (to torture, etc).
It’s not for nothing that I call Obama the “The Worst Constitutional Law Professor Ever”.
H/t Washington’s Blog.
This referring to the conviction of “Bad Hair Bob” Erhlich’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign manager of attempted vote fraud:
Paul E. Schurick, the 2010 campaign manager for former Maryland governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., was convicted Tuesday by a Baltimore jury of four counts stemming from a robocall that prosecutors said was intended to suppress the black vote.
The call, which Schurick acknowledged authorizing, was placed on Election Day to 112,000 voters in Baltimore and Prince George’s County, the state’s two largest majority-African American jurisdictions. Recipients were told by an unidentified woman that they could “relax” because Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) had been successful.
The guilty verdict not only sullied the three-decade career of one of Maryland’s best-known political operatives, it also served as a major embarrassment for Ehrlich, the state’s only Republican governor in a generation.
Although prosecutors have never suggested that Ehrlich approved the calls, he is pushing a new book that draws anecdotes from his four years in Annapolis and contends his failed comeback bid last year was “swamped” by the black vote.
The jury convicted Schurick — who got his start in politics working for Democrats — of trying to influence votes through fraud, failing to identify the source of the call as required by law and two counts of conspiracy to commit those crimes.
Schurick’s defense argued during the week-long trial that he relied on the judgment of a campaign consultant hired to reach out to black voters, who said the calls would make use of “reverse psychology” and motivate potential Ehrlich supporters to go to the polls.
This is where it gets interesting, because now that prosecutors have gotten a conviction, people are going to start thinking about rolling over.
While I think that prosecutors are probably right when they say that, “prosecutors have never suggested that Ehrlich approved the calls,” after all, when you break the law, you make sure that the candidate has no direct knowledge of it.
That being said, I think that he had to know that the central pillar of his campaign was suppressing the black vote, and he had to know that, and I’m hoping that this come out at trial.
No seriously, on the same day that Barack Obama gives a speech declaring his populist cred, we read this story about how his administration is going full Jihad over food stamp fraud.
So we have this:
Laying out a populist argument for his re-election next year, President Obama ventured into the conservative heartland on Tuesday to deliver his most pointed appeal yet for a strong governmental role through tax and regulation to level the economic playing field.
“This country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share and when everyone plays by the same rules,” Mr. Obama said in an address that sought to tie his economic differences with Republicans into an overarching message.
Juxtaposed with this:
The nation’s struggling economy and an uptick in major natural disasters in recent months mean more Americans than ever are using federal money to buy food.
More than 46.2 million people received a total of $75.3 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, in fiscal 2011, according to Agriculture Department statistics released Monday. Officials said participation spiked in the closing days of the fiscal year as Hurricane Irene caused destruction across a dozen East Coast states.
Year-to-year, the program gained more than 6 million new participants and distributed $7 billion in additional funds, officials said.
With more Americans relying on the program, the Obama administration on Tuesday plans to announce new steps to crack down on SNAP fraud amid estimates suggesting as much as $753 million in federal food aid is spent fraudulently each year.
Some “populist”.
It’s campaign time. If you want to know who Barack Obama really is, don’t look at what he says, look at what he does.
And what he does, while talking about the 99% is that he goes after poor people who might be selling food stamps so that they can buy shoes for their kids, while allowing rich people who did steal trillions skate.
And our alternative will be Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich.
I think that I am writing in Angela Merkel in 2012.
They are calling for George W. Bush’s arrest for war crimes while he is doing his foreign tour:
Amnesty International is calling for the arrest of former President George W. Bush while he is traveling overseas in Africa.
The human rights group issued a statement Thursday calling for the governments of Ethiopia, Tanzania or Zambia to take the former president into custody. According to Amnesty, the 43rd president is complicit in torture conducted by the United States during his administration and should be held pending an international investigation.
“International law requires that there be no safe haven for those responsible for torture; Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia must seize this opportunity to fulfill their obligations and end the impunity George W. Bush has so far enjoyed,” said Amnesty senior legal adviser Matt Pollard in a statement.
Bush is traveling overseas in Africa to raise awareness for HIV/AIDS, cervical and breast cancer across the continent. He participated today via satellite in a Worlds AIDS Day event put on by the ONE Campaign and (RED) where he was joined by President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton.
Amnesty commended the philanthropic nature of the president’s trip but said in a statement that does not excuse what they believe are breaches of international law.
Or US law for that matter, but Barack Obama has publicly stated that he intends to cover it all up, which, BTW, does put this under the purview of the ICC.
Let’s get his ass into the Hague.
Last night, I posted about what I though was a seriously cheeky and inventive way of tweaking the cops at Occupy Melbourne.
People wore tent costumes as a protest on the ban on tents.
What was the police response?
They stripped down a woman to her underwear in public, cutting her clothes off.
There are any number of people who give good justification to be called pigs.
You have, politicians (Newt, I mean you), sports figures (too many to name), reality TV stars (I try not to know their names), actors, musicians, the guy who cut me off in traffic today, overly aggressive telemarketers, etc.
This does not make all of these people pigs, it just makes the pigs who have those jobs pigs.
Well, these, “4 Melbourne City Council officers and 8 Victorian police officers,” are pigs.
I would not piss on them if they were on fire.
I hope Karma is real for these folks.
Seriously. They have taken to bundling malware with their download installers:
From: Fyodor
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2011 14:35:30 -0800Hi Folks. I’ve just discovered that C|Net’s Download.Com site has
started wrapping their Nmap downloads (as well as other free software
like VLC) in a trojan installer which does things like installing a
sketchy “StartNow” toolbar, changing the user’s default search engine
to Microsoft Bing, and changing their home page to Microsoft’s MSN.The way it works is that C|Net’s download page (screenshot attached)
offers what they claim to be Nmap’s Windows installer. They even
provide the correct file size for our official installer. But users
actually get a Cnet-created trojan installer. That program does the
dirty work before downloading and executing Nmap’s real installer.
Note that the author of this post is also the author of Nmap, and this violates his license.
Here’s some more background.
The fact that they (CNET/Download.com) also employ “Draw by Crayon Libertarian” Declan McCullagh, who is still proud of creating the “Al Gore created the Internet” lie provides a book end for this crap.
I’m not suggesting a boycott here. I’m suggesting that CNET, and more specifically Download.com, has crossed a line and is now a purveyor of malware.
It’s just not me saying this, it’s, “Panda, McAfee, F-Secure,” (top link) who are classifying their wrappers as spyware.
You can find the answer here.
While she is not a great beauty of her time, this is a rather surprising portrait, because it’s someone known for not being either passionate or attractive.
The Iranians are claiming that they brought down the Beast of Kandahar:
The official
IranIslamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) is reporting that national military forces have shot down a US Lockheed Martin RQ-170 stealth unmanned air system. The aircraft sustained “little damage” and is in the possession of the Iranian military, IRNA reports.Iranian news agency claims always have to be taken with some degree of scepticism.
The credibility of the online version of the IRNA article is not helped by the accompanying photo. The US Air Force has never released an official picture of the RQ-170, but we can be sure the the UAV in the IRNA article is not it. The IRNA photo instead is a stock image of the BAE Systems Raven delta wing demonstrator, an aircraft that was retired more than seven years ago.
NATO is admitting that it lost control of a drone, which, as David Axe notes would imply that it’s not an RQ-170, since it is designed to operate autonomously.
Of course, the question I’ve always had is why use an expensive stealthy drone in a theater where the opposition does not even have a radar.
If the Iranians have in fact brought down an RQ-170, and right now I would say it’s less than 30%, it happened because some moron in the Pentagon decided to deploy a system not required by the circumstances.
For the 2nd time in as many months, Alabama law enforcement has arrested a senior foreign auto executive in their state:
To arrest one foreign car-making executive under Alabama’s new tough immigration laws may be regarded as a misfortune; to arrest a second looks like carelessness.
A judge has acted to put a Japanese employee of Honda Motor Company out of his misery by dismissing immigration charges against him, three days after he was booked under Alabama’s new immigration laws that have been billed as the most swingeing in America. Ichiro Yada is one of about 100 Japanese managers of the company on assignment in southern state.
Yada was stopped in Leeds, Alabama, at a checkpoint set up by police to catch unlicenced drivers. He was ticketed on the spot, despite the fact that he showed an international driver’s licence, a valid passport and a US work permit.
Key parts of the new immigration law, HB56, came into effect in late September, including the driving provisions. Under them, the police are required to check up on the immigration status of anyone they stop who they suspect of being in the country illegally.
In addition, all drivers are required to carry a valid driver’s licence, either from a US state or from their native country if they are from abroad. The law is designed to trap undocumented immigrants – in practice, Hispanics largely from Mexico – who are no longer allowed to apply for driving licences.
Over the past two months thousands of undocumented Latinos have fled the state and many more have ceased driving for fear of being caught and incarcerated.
Yada is the second foreign car executive to fall foul of the new law. Last month police officers arrested a German director of Mercedes-Benz for failing to carry a valid driver’s licence. The move exposed Alabama to widespread criticism and ridicule.
What the Germans and Japanese don’t understand is that the compliant workforce, born of a vehement opposition of unions and worker protections, naturally leads to this, because hatred of the other is a way to deflect criticism for creating so many have-nots.
I believe in tough immigration enforcement, but effective immigration enforcement must raise the risks of employing illegal aliens, not simply this sort of security theater.
The Swiss Military has decided to purchase the Gripen for its air force:
Switzerland has chosen to replace its fighter jet fleet with Swedish defence and aerospace group Saab’s JAS-39 Gripen, Swiss newspaper Tagesanzeiger reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources close to the government.
Neutral Switzerland has wrangled for the past three years over whether to replace its ageing Northrop F-5E/F Tiger fighters, purchased in 1976 and 1981, with up to 33 new aircraft.
Saab shares were up 8.5 percent to 117.10 Swedish crowns by 1345 GMT after the newspaper report.
The newspaper said the cost of purchasing 22 jets would be about 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.3 billion), 1 billion less than the same number of rival models would cost.
I would also add that the Gripen is about ½ the weight and ½ direct operating costs.
When juxtaposed with the exemplary short and austere field performance, and the generally short distances involved, it’s the best choice for the Swiss.
Well, it’s the best choice except for not getting anything. After all, who’s going to attack them, the French, the Italians, the Germans? I don’t think so.
Stephen Trimble confirms this. Both SAAB and the Swiss government have confirmed the deal.
I am not sure if this is a function of my blogging, or of my work for Democracy for America 2004-2009, but I just got an email from the Maryland Democratic Party asking me to apply to be a pledged delegate for Barack Obama at the 2012 convention.
It appears that they don’t read my blog.
Needless to say, I will not be applying. Even if I were to be accepted (as in, how much can you bundle in donations for the party, Mr. Saroff), I could not in good faith be a pledged delegate, because I don’t want to be in a position to where I promised to vote for him.
From: David Sloan
Subject: I want to see you in Charlotte
Reply-To: mdconvention2012@gmail.com
To: msaroff@xxxxxx.xxxMatthew-
You only have one week left to submit an online application to become a delegate for President Obama in Charlotte. There is so much grassroots interest in the Convention, so I want to make sure you apply to join us before the deadline next Saturday.The President has called the 2012 Convention the “People’s Convention” because it is really about you. Yes, we will make history again as we renominate Barack Obama – but the Convention will also embody and celebrate the ideals, values and vision we share as Democrats. That is why I want you to take part in the delegate selection process.
Remember, in order to qualify to become a Maryland Delegate you must complete an online application by December 10, and file at the State Board of Elections between January 3 and January 11, 2012.
If you have any questions, make sure to sign-up for my last informational conference call on Sunday, December 4th at 6:00 PM. You can also check out our website or email me.
The Convention in Charlotte will be a special event for the thousands who attend and the millions who will be watching. That’s why the Party is committed to running an open process that will give as many people the opportunity to participate as possible.
Thanks so much,
David
David Sloan
Executive Director
Maryland Democratic Party
If any of you want to apply, feel free to click through for the links. I promise that they don’t lead to Goatse or Lemon Party.*
*If you do not know what Goatse or Lemon Party are, for all that is holy, don’t Google it. Seriously. You are better off not knowing. If you see them, it will change you. Forever.
Herman Cain has ended his campaign.
The loss of comedic material is a tragedy. Send a condolence card to The Daily Show.
It turns out that no one has every really tried to do a comprehensive census of child sex workers, and when researchers from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice conducted a census of those in New York City, they discovered that conventional wisdom on this problem is wrong:
The money quote here is, “In other words, the typical kid who is commercially exploited for sex in New York City is not a tween girl, has not been sold into sexual slavery, and is not held captive by a pimp.”
How does this involve the “Law Enforcement Industrial Complex”? Like this:
Curtis and Dank were amazed by what their research had revealed. But they were completely unprepared for the way law enforcement officials and child-advocacy groups reacted to John Jay’s groundbreaking study.
“I remember going to a meeting in Manhattan where they had a lot of prosecutors whose job was to prosecute pimps,” Curtis recalls. “They were sort of complaining about the fact that their offices were very well staffed but their workload was…not very daunting, let’s say. They had a couple cases, and at every meeting you go to, they’d pull out the cherry-picked case of this pimp they had busted, and they’d tell the same story at every meeting. They, too, were bothered by the fact that they couldn’t find any pimps, any girls.
“So I come along and say, ‘I found 300 kids’ — they’re all perky — but then I say, ‘I’m sorry, but only 10 percent had pimps.’
“It was like a fart in church. Because basically I was saying their office was a waste of time and money.”
As to what this means in terms of policy, what does this mean>
Well, the obvious is that staffing DA’s office on the basis of what you saw on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, is not a good policy.
What is also clear from this study is that these children need long term support, and not just transitional support:
For example, the John Jay study found that when asked what it would take to get them to give up prostitution, many kids expressed a desire for stable, long-term housing. But the widely accepted current social-service model — shelters that accommodate, at most, a ninety-day stay — doesn’t give youths enough time to get on their feet, and instead pushes them back to the streets. The findings also point to a general need for more emphasis on targeted outreach, perhaps through peer-to-peer networks, as well as services of all kinds, from job training and placement to psychological therapy.
One interesting question here is whether the numbers are different, particularly with regards to foreign sex workers, in countries with stronger social safety nets, because it sounds like this is largely being driven by our general lack of a meaningful social safety net.
Of course, there are a lot of problems in the US that would be solved by a better social safety net.
Well, we got around to seeing yet another movie on PPV, Thor (2011).
Chris Hemsworth … Thor
Natalie Portman … Jane Foster
Tom Hiddleston … Loki
Anthony Hopkins … Odin
Stellan Skarsgård … Erik Selvig
Kat Dennings … Darcy Lewis
Clark Gregg … Agent Coulson
Idris Elba … Heimdall
Colm Feore … King Laufey
Ray Stevenson … Volstagg
Tadanobu Asano … Hogun
Josh Dallas … Fandral
Jaimie Alexander … Sif
Rene Russo … Frigga
Adriana Barraza … Isabel Alvarez
This really isn’t a film. It’s a lead-in to the upcoming Avengers movie. Barely worth it as PPV, but I’m really glad I didn’t drop 40+ dollars on a movie tickets for the family, and lord knows what on drinks and snacks.
The two best performances are from Stellan Skarsgård, who does a really good job of portraying a Swede (go figure), and Kat Dennings, who embraces her inner sidekick when her wailings for her lost iPod sounds just like my daughter.
Chris Hemsworth’s Thor is an affable, though rather a thick oaf, which suits the script.
Natalie Portman is winsome and smart love interest, which is kind of her sweet spot of acting.
One of the truths of these movies is that the really interesting character is the villain. Well, not this time. Tom Hiddleston’s Loki is just weak.
I’m not sure how much of this is the script, which cannot decide whether or not he is misguided or malevolent.
Anthony Hopkins plays Anthony Hopkins playing Odin. (Meh)
The movie takes place in two places, Earth and Asgard/Jotunheim.
The Asgard/Jotunheim bits are dull. It’s stilted, and dull. At least they don’t to the “thee” and “thine” bit that I remember as the speech of Asgard when I last read the comic in the 1970s.
Basically the lands of the Gods and the Frost Giants seems to be little more than an excuse for excessive CGI.
There are a couple of funny bits, some car accidents and what can only be described as a “hammer time” party.
For most of the movie, S.H.I.E.L.D. seems to be more sinister than benevolent.
Overall, I would give a 5.5 out of 10, a firm “Meh”.
Pix after the break:
I had to explain it to my My post MS-DOS son though.
And it is cats:
And at first glance, they look pretty good on balance with the unemployment rate (U-3) falling below 9% for the first time since this March. (The more broadly defined U-6 fell as well)
Of course, the falling unemployment rate was largely the result of a decline in people looking for jobs, the increase in the non-farm payroll of 120K is less than the (roughly) 175K increase needed to accommodate natural growth in the labor force. (Private payrolls were pretty good, but state and local payrolls continue to hemorrhage)
I would still say that this more good than bad news, as are the latest ISM factory numbers, which point to continued growth.
On the other hand yesterday’s initial unemployment claims were back over 400,000.
It’s better, but we are still firmly in lost decade territory.
Seriously, some cultural icons should never be turned into advertisements.
I’m sure that Patrick McGoohan is turning over in his grave:
Yes, I know that this appears to be over 20 years old. The styling for the car is clearly 1980s, which implies that McGoohan approved, but I still do not approve.
