Friday, October 5, 2012

Barker's Newsbites: Friday, October 5, 2012


Just sayin', folks...

Explain this, will you...

(*SMIRK*)

Folks... I'm begging ya... please read today's newsbites (which are found in the comments section of this post)!

Posted by at

9 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-jobless-rate-falls-7-123110416.html

The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7.8% last month...

* DID IT...? (*SNORT*) HMM... WHAT AN AMAZING... er... COINCIDENCE...

* FUNNY... THE U6 RATE DIDN'T MOVE ONE IOTA!

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

...dropping below 8% for the first time in nearly four years and giving President Barack Obama a potential boost with the election a month away.

* YES... AGAIN... AMAZING "COINCIDENCE," WOULDN'T YOU SAY? AND ALL WHILE THE U6 RATE DIDN'T FRIGGIN' BUDGE. (MAYBE "FIXING" THAT RATE IS SIMPLY HARDER; HECK... MAYBE THEY JUST FORGOT!)

The rate declined from 8.1% because the number of people who said they were employed soared by 873,000...

* WHO... "SAID...?!?!"

* WHO... "SAID...?!?!"

* NOW LET'S SEE... I'M A SOPHISTICATED DEMOCRAT... AN OBAMA SUPPORTER... AND I'M ASKED IF I'M EMPLOYED...

(*GUFFAW*)

* HELL... FORGET PARTISAN IDENTIFICATION AND LEVEL OF SOPHISTICATION OF LACK THEREOF! I'M ASKED IF I'M UNEMPLOYED... DO I SAY YES OR NO? MANY FOLKS WOULD SAY "YES" SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY'D BE EMBARASSED TO SAY "NO." JUST SAYIN'...

The number of unemployed Americans is now 12.1 million, the fewest since January 2009.

* YEAH, YEAH... BUT EVEN IF THAT'S TRUE - WHICH I DOUBT IT IS - THE REAL QUESTION IS HOW MANY AMERICANS ARE UNEMPLOYED... WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE ADULT "WORKING AGE" POPULATION IS NOT WORKING. (FOLKS... WE'VE BEEN OVER THIS BEFORE! THIS IS WHY THE U6 NUMBER DIDN'T BUDGE!)

The Labor Department said employers added 114,000 jobs in September. It also said the economy created 86,000 more jobs in July and August than the department had initially estimated.

Wages rose in September. And more people started looking for work.

* HMM... FUNNY HOW ALL OF A SUDDEN ALL THE ROMNEY TALKING POINTS ARE BEING "OFFICIALLY" COUNTERED.

(*SMIRK*)

* FOLKS... SERIOUSLY... IF YOU'VE BEEN READING NEWSBITES YOU KNOW WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING.

(*SHRUG*)

The decline in the unemployment rate comes at a critical moment for Obama...

(*LITERALLY GIGGLING*)

* YEAH... FUNNY HOW THAT HAPPENED, HUH?

(*ROLLING MY EYES*)

The job market has been improving, sluggishly but steadily. Jobs have been added for 24 straight months. There are now 325,000 more than when Obama took office.

* FOLKS... AGAIN... LOOK AT THE U6 NUMBERS... NOTE THIS REPORT IGNORES THEM... NOTE THAT THIS REPORT DOESN'T NOTE POPULATION GROWTH WHICH I'M GUESSING IS FAR MORE THAN 325,000... MEANING... (*SHRUG*)

* FOLKS... THE MSM IS STILL A POTENT WEAPON IN OBAMA'S ARSONNAL. DON'T EVER FORGET THAT.

The September job gains were led by the health care industry, which added 44,000 jobs...

* FOLKS... ASSUME THIS IS TRUE... IS THIS REALLY GOOD NEWS? IF HEALTHCARE COSTS ARE OUT OF CONTROL AND YET WE'RE ADDING MORE INFRASTRUCTURE TO A SYSTEM WHICH IS A GROWING BURDEN ON BOTH INDIVIDUALS AND THE ECONOMY AS A WHOLE...

(*SHRUG*)

* THINK ABOUT IT.

* OH... HA! HA! H!... YOU'RE GONNA LUV THIS:

Still, many of the jobs the economy added last month were part time. The number of people with part-time jobs who wanted full-time work rose 7.5% to 8.6 million, the most since February 2009.

* YEP. THAT'S FROM PARAGRAPH 20 OF A 22 PARAGRAPH STORY.

(*SNORT*)

* FOLKS... REMEMBER WHO AND WHAT WE'RE DEALING WITH HERE. HONOR? INTEGRITY? NAH... NOT SO MUCH.

(*WINK*)

October 5, 2012 at 10:28 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/10/05/number-employed-people-rises-873000-september-highest-december-2008

* LISTEN... FOLKS... NOTE I RARELY POST "NEWSBUSTERS" STUFF... BUT THIS ONE LINE DESERVES HIGHLIGHTING:

The (official Labor Department) Household Survey showed a gain of 873,000 people employed in September - resulting in the surprise drop in the unemployment rate - while the (also official Labor Department) Establishment Survey only showed a rise of 114,000.

* FOLKS... YA CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP!

October 5, 2012 at 10:33 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/05/world/africa/fbi-agents-scour-ruins-of-attacked-us-compound-in-libya.html?partner=MYWAY&ei=5065&_r=0

Escorted by several dozen Special Operations forces, F.B.I. agents on Thursday entered the ruins of the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, as part of their investigation into the killings there of ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

* YEP. THIS IS FROM LAST NIGHT'S NYT ONLINE UPDATE. AND, YES... SEPTEMBER 11, 2012 WAS... er... SEPTEMBER 11, 2012 WHEREAS YESTERDAY WAS OCTOBER 4, 2012.

(*SMIRK*)

The officials said the agents flew from Tripoli in a C-130 military transport plane and were then driven to the compound in armored cars. The officials did not say how many F.B.I. agents were involved or precisely how long they were on the ground. The Pentagon press secretary, George Little, would only say at a briefing that the agents and their military escorts were in Benghazi “for a number of hours” before returning to Tripoli.

* AH... "A NUMBER OF HOURS." UH-HUH...

It is unclear how much can still be gleaned from the site, which a senior American law enforcement official has described as so badly “degraded” that linking evidence to the attackers will be difficult at best.

* YA THINK...?!?! (GOTTA LUV THE MATTER OF FACT TONE OF THE NYT WRITER...)

Already looters, curiosity seekers and reporters have been through the site, which is only protected by two private security guards hired by the compound’s Libyan owner, The Washington Post reported Thursday. On Wednesday, a Post reporter at the site discovered loosely secured sensitive documents about American operations in Libya, some of which were turned over to the State Department. Last month CNN discovered Mr. Stevens’s diary in the wreckage.

(*SHRUG*)

It appears that the F.B.I. spent little or no time interviewing residents in Benghazi. Typically they would spend weeks, rather than hours, at a crime scene as important to national security as this site.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

The F.B.I., which always investigates the deaths of American overseas under suspicious circumstances, has agents from its national security division and New York field office in Libya. They have been operating largely out of the American Embassy in Tripoli, now guarded by a force of 50 elite Marines trained to protect American diplomatic posts in crisis.

* THE KEY WORD... "NOW." (ANYONE CAN LOCK THE BARN AFTER THE HORSES GET OUT!)

But even in Tripoli the investigation has been hobbled by the tenuous security in Libya after the overthrow of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. Late last month investigators were so fearful about the risks of taking some potential Libyan witnesses into the American Embassy that they resorted to questioning people in cars outside the embassy.

The agents are also operating without any help on the ground from the C.I.A., which had about a dozen intelligence operatives and contractors in Benghazi until the attacks, conducting surveillance and collecting information on militant groups in the city. They were among more than two dozen American personnel evacuated from Benghazi after the attack.

* FOLKS... SERIOUSLY... WHAT MORE CAN I SAY...?! THIS IS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IN ACTION!

October 5, 2012 at 10:46 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/10/the-sickly-stagnant-september-jobs-report/

The sickly, stagnant September jobs report... is this the Obama October Surprise?

* WE'LL SEE...

Only in an era of depressingly diminished expectations could the September jobs report be called a good one. It really isn’t. Not at all.

The broader U-6 rate — which takes into account part-time workers who want full-time work and lots of discouraged workers who’ve given up looking — stayed unchanged at 14.7%.

* AS... I'VE... BEEN... NOTING...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

The shrunken workforce remains shrunken. If the labor force participation rate was the same as when President Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be 10.7%.

(*SHRUG*)

* FOLKS... AGAIN... HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I CALLED *REPUBLICANS* OUT FOR BULLSHIT? LOTS! SO BELIEVE ME WHEN I CALL THE DEMS AND THE MEDIA OUT FOR THEIR BULLSHIT.

* AND, FOLKS... YOU CAN GO BACK AS FAR AS YOU WANT IN THE USUALLY RIGHT ARCHIVES AND SEARCH FOR EVERY POST I'VE EVER MADE ON UNEMPLOYMENT AND HOW THE STATS AND USED AND MISUSED AND YOU'LL SEE I'VE BEEN CONSISTENT ALL ALONG. I'VE POINTED OUT THIS TYPE OF BULLSHIT MANY, MANY TIMES BEFORE. NOTHING HAS CHANGED.

[O]ver the last year the employment-population ratio has risen to only 58.7% from 58.4%.

* PRIOR TO THE START OF THE RECESSION THAT FIGURE WAS 63%. (YEAH... WHEN BUSH WAS PRESIDENT.)

* FOLKS... IN JUNE 2009 WHEN THE RECESSION OFFICIALLY "ENDED" THE NUMBER STOOD AT 59.4!

Where’s the progress? Here is RDQ Economics: "Such a rapid decline in the unemployment rate would be consistent with 4%–5% real economic growth..."

* AND, FOLKS... WE KNOW THIS HASN'T BEEN HAPPENING!

* CONTINUING...

"...much of the decline is accounted for by people dropping out of the labor force...

* AGAIN, FOLKS... THIS IS THE TRUTH... I'VE BEEN REPORTING IT ALL ALONG AND IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND IT'S THE TRUTH THEN IT'S BECAUSE YOU SIMPLY DON'T WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE REALITY!

* CONTINUING...

"We believe part of the drop in the unemployment rate over the last two months is a statistical quirk (the household data show an increase in employment of 873,000 in September, which is completely implausible and likely a result of sampling volatility).

* SEE MY PREVIOUS NEWSBITE COMMENTARY CONCERNING SELF-REPORTING... SURVEY DATA vs. HARD NUMBERS BASED UPON PAYROLL.

(*SHRUG*)

* CONCLUDING...

"Moreover, declining labor force participation over the last year (resulting in 1.1 million people disappearing from the labor force) accounts for much of the rest of the decline."

(*SHRUG*)

* FOLKS... THIS 7.8% NUMBER... IT'S BULLSHIT... IT'S BASICALLY "LYING" (MISLEADING... SETTING A FALSE PREMISE) WITH STATISTICS!

The 114,000 jobs created would have been a good number … but for 1962, not 2012. The U.S. economy needs 2-3 times that number every month to close the jobs gap (which is the number of jobs that the U.S. economy needs to create in order to return to pre-recession employment levels while also absorbing the people who enter the labor force each month.)

* AGAIN, FOLKS... REFER TO MY COMMENTS ON A PREVIOUS NEWSBITE CONCERNING RISING POPULATION NUMBERS vs. "NEW JOBS CREATED."

(*SHRUG*)

We are still on pace to create fewer jobs this year than last year. In 2012, employment growth has averaged 146,000 per month, compared with an average monthly gain of 153,000 in 2011.

* FOLKS... ARE YOU FOLLOWING THIS...?! THE AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE ISN'T MAKING THIS SHIT UP - THIS IS REALITY!

October 5, 2012 at 12:38 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/this-is-no-jobs-recovery/2012/10/05/75174676-0eec-11e2-bb5e-492c0d30bff6_blog.html

* EVEN THE WASHINGTON POST...

(*SNORT*)

Pretty soon we will have only a few million people employed and “full employment” in this country.

Well, not quite. But you get the point.

The economy is creating so few jobs that millions are staying out of the labor market, thereby preventing the unemployment rate from soaring.

The Romney campaign’s initial statement summed up the general reaction on the right:

“This is not what a real recovery looks like. We created fewer jobs in September than in August, and fewer jobs in August than in July, and we’ve lost over 600,000 manufacturing jobs since President Obama took office. If not for all the people who have simply dropped out of the labor force, the real unemployment rate would be closer to 11%. The results of President Obama’s failed policies are staggering – 23 million Americans struggling for work, nearly one in six living in poverty and 47 million people dependent on food stamps to feed themselves and their families. The choice in this election is clear. Under President Obama, we’ll get another four years like the last four years. If I’m elected, we will have a real recovery with pro-growth policies that will create 12 million new jobs and rising incomes for everyone.”

October 5, 2012 at 12:46 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/10/email-shows-state-department-rejecting-request-of-security-team-at-us-embassy-in-libya/

ABC News has obtained an internal State Department email from May 3, 2012, indicating that the State Department denied a request from the security team at the Embassy of Libya to retain a DC-3 airplane in the country to better conduct their duties.

* WHAT'S THIS HAVE TO DO WITH PROTECTING THE AMBASSADOR AND HIS STAFF... READ ON.

Copied on the email was U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was killed in a terrorist attack on the diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, Sept. 11, 2012, along with three other Americans. That attack has prompted questions about whether the diplomatic personnel in that country were provided with adequate security support.

No one has yet to argue that the DC-3 would have definitively made a difference for the four Americans killed that night. The security team in question, after all, left Libya in August.

But the question – both for the State Department, which is conducting an internal investigation, and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is holding hearings next week – is whether officials in Washington, D.C., specifically at the State Department, were as aware as they should have been about the deteriorating security situation in Libya, and whether officials were doing everything they could to protect Americans in that country.

(*SHRUG*)

The subject line of the email, from Miki Rankin, the post management officer for Libya and Saudi Arabia, reads “Termination of Tripoli DC-3 Support.”

Rankin informs Stevens and the others on the email, whose names have been redacted, that Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy “has determined that support for Embassy Tripoli using the DC-3 will be terminated immediately. Post’s request to continue use of the plane in support of the SST was considered. However, it was decided that, if needed, NEA will charter a special flight for their departure.”

(*SHRUG*)

Shown the email uncovered by ABC News, a spokesman for the House Oversight Committee said "the document is consistent with what the Oversight Committee has been told by individuals who worked in Libya. Ambassador Stevens and the diplomatic mission in Libya made multiple security related requests that were turned down by Washington based officials. Security related transportation has been identified as one of the particular items where embassy personnel did not receive the support they sought.”

(*SHRUG*)

The U.S. government official who provided the email to ABC News – and wanted to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the matter – described the small DC-3 plane as an asset for a security team to more freely and safely move throughout the country, and to more easily transport arms and other security equipment. In short, having the plane allowed the security team to better perform its duties, the official said.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

* ALTHOUGH I HAVEN'T HEARD FROM... er... "LATRINA" IN AWHILE... I HOPE "SHE" HAS BEEN KEEPING UP WITH THE BLOG AND ESPECIALLY NEWSBITES.

(*SHRUG*)

October 5, 2012 at 12:55 PM
William R. Barker said...

* DISTURBING TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2012/10/04/protect-our-troops-not-wasteful-defense-programs/

A good leader can take something that works and build upon it. But it takes a great leader to realize that something is not working, admit defeat and find an alternative solution, especially when the lives of Americans are at stake.

It is time for members of Congress to be great leaders, and end the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) program. This fledgling international missile program among the United States, Italy, and Germany was originally conceived as the replacement to the popular Patriot missile, but has ended up being nothing more than another benchmark for waste and misplaced priorities at the Department of Defense.

The reason for eliminating the MEADS program is simple – it just does not work and does nothing to benefit our warfighters stationed across the globe.

* (By Colonel JV Venable, USAF Retired -- Venable is a graduate of the USAF’s Fighter Weapons School and has flown fighter aircraft all over the world. He led a Group comprised of 1,100 personnel and $5 billion in aircraft assets flying combat missions for a year in Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom. Most notably, however, was his time as the Commander and Demonstration leader of the USAF Thunderbirds.)

Unfortunately, our government has already spent billions of dollars on MEADS since 1996, and although it was originally expected to be completed in 2008, the latest projections indicate it wouldn’t come online until 2018, at the earliest.

[President Obama's] Secretary of the Army, John McHugh, has flatly said, “The Army has invested over $2 billion and that’s only the partial cost of the program. Frankly, it was under performing.”

Worse yet, even if it were to be operational, military leaders say it would take more costly modifications to equip the MEADS system to handle our current and emerging military threats.

The Department of Defense decided last year that they would not field the MEADS program, because of its ballooning price tag and poor performance. But in a head-scratching move in early August, the Senate Appropriations Committee poured another $380 million into MEADS to develop a “proof of concept.”

* HMM... THE SENATE... THE SENATE THAT'S CONTROLLED BY HARRY REID (D) AND HIS DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY...? THAT SENATE?

* TO BE CONTINUED...

October 5, 2012 at 1:33 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

The idea is that even though the MEADS system will never defend American troops, allies or interests, we need to spend nearly $400 million more to determine whether it works and how parts or concepts can be salvaged for later use.

That may sound good on paper, but the benefits of a “proof of concept” are fleeting for those on point. Throwing more good money into a failing system may prop up congressional and corporate relationships, but what will it do for those in harm’s way?

Staying focused on the right priorities is especially important as Congressional leaders decide whether to implement the mandatory “defense sequestration” cuts that are to go into effect next year. Rather than an across-the-board axe that would gut valuable programs and services for our military, our leaders should focus on trimming the budget fat, including the baffling work still scheduled for MEADS.

Even the MEADS project’s lead contractor has suggested the latest round of funding is unnecessary. (A Lockheed Martin spokeswoman told Inside the Army that the 2012 funding, approved in a controversial move by Congress last year, provided sufficient resources to complete test and integration activities for the MEADS and to conduct the first intercept test.)

With budget cuts looming, the U.S. government should focus its resources on programs and systems that have proven to be effective, and this includes the more reliable alternative to MEADS: the modernized Patriot missile. Patriot played a significant, and very effective role in both Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom, is currently deployed around the world, and is employed by 11 American allies.

However, more significant improvements to Patriot are on hold because our government is continuing to fund MEADS.

* JEEZUS... FUCKING... CHRIST...

Just last year the Pentagon claimed that it could not afford Patriot and MEADS purchases simultaneously in the current budget environment. The Pentagon then admitted the consequences: “the U.S. is willing to accept some risk in our air defense portfolio in the near term.”

But it shouldn’t[!]

By funding a modernized Patriot, our military will own a system that is interoperable with many other missile defense systems in our own arsenal and in the arsenals of our allies, allowing the United States to maximize its threat response capability. And perhaps most important to those of us who have relied on its protective umbrella, we know Patriot works.

It is time for our lawmakers in Congress to be great leaders and move the MEADS funding to a program that has a proven track record of protecting American troops.

Our first priority must be the safety and security of these brave men and women in uniform, not contractors who have proven to be anything but good stewards of precious defense dollars.

October 5, 2012 at 1:34 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-05/us-foodstamp-usage-rises-new-record-high

While the 0.4% perfectly unmanipulated and totally coincidental swing in the unemployment rate in an Obama favorable direction one month before the election...

(*SNORT*) (*GUFFAW*) (*HIGH FIVE TO THE AUTHOR*)

...came at a prime time moment for the market, one hour ahead of the open, setting the market mood for the rest of the day (which despite all best efforts still closed red, valiant efforts by Simon Potter and the FRBNY's direct pipe to Citadel notwithstanding)...

* I GUESS THE MARKETS DON’T TRUST THE NUMBERS ANY MORE THAN YOU SHOULD. (EITHER THAT OR IT'S SIMPLY FEAR THAT OBAMA WILL BE RE-ELECTED IF NOT BY HOOK THAN BY CROOK.)

...there was one other, far more important data point released by the government's department of agriculture, sufficiently late after the market close to impact no risk assets.

* WAIT FOR IT... WAIT FOR IT...

That data point of course was food stamps (or the government's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a.k.a. SNAP), and we are confident that no readers will be surprised to learn that food stamp usage for both persons and households has jumped to a new all time record.

* ONE MORE TIME...

...we are confident that no readers will be surprised to learn that food stamp usage for both persons and households has jumped to a new all time record.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

* IS THIS REALLY THE AMERICA YOU WANT, LATRINA...? REALLY...?

At 46.7 million the persons hooked on SNAP, the July number crossed the previous record posted a short month before, as the food stamp curve continues plumbing newer and greater heights each month.

* CHANT IT WITH ME, FOLKS... O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A!

* ACTUALLY... DON'T. BECAUSE IT'S NOT FUNNY. IT'S A TRAGEDY. AND WORST OF ALL, IT'S DELIBERATE. THE STANDARDS WERE INTENTIALLY LOWERED... WIDENED... SO AS TO ACTUALLY ENCOURAGE (AND YOU KNOW THEY ACTUALLY DO... THEY LITERALLY MARKET FOOD STAMPS) DEPENDENCY ON GOVERNMENT AND THUS UPON THE PARTY OF GOVERNMENT. YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE, FOLKS. IN YOUR HEARTS... YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE.

More disturbing is that in the same month, the number of US households reliant on food stamps rose by a whopping 99,493 to 22,541,744. Assuming a modest 2 persons per household, the increase means that more people went on food stamps in the month of July than found jobs (181,000 according to the latest revised NFP data).

* JEEZUS...

* AND, FOLKS... THIS WAS NEVER A PROGRAM DESIGNED (AT LEAST ORIGINALLY) TO FEED ABLE-BODIED MALE ADULTS. REMEMBER... IT USED TO BE W.I.C. - WOMEN, INFANTS, AND CHILDREN.

* SERIOUSLY, LATRINA... IS THIS THE AMERICA YOU WANT YOUR CHILDREN TO INHERIT?

Furthermore, it appears that buying votes has become a tad more expensive in the past month. After the benefit per household dipped to a record low in April at just $275.81, this has since retraced some of its losses and is now at an inflationary $277.92. Oh well: inflation.

Adding the number of disability recipients in the month of July, which in that month rose by 20,474, and one can see why the government is quite happy with dumping this particular release long after everyone was on their way back home for the weekend.

[P]utting it all into perspective... since December 2007, or the start of the Great Depression (Version 2.0) the number of jobs lost is 4.5 million...

(*PURSED LIPS*)

...while those added to food stamps and disability rolls, has increased by a unprecedented 21 million.

October 5, 2012 at 6:44 PM

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