Labor stats: another week and more gamesmanship. Wages are down; unemployment is up; reporting misinforms except at Midknight Review.

Unemployment is rising (again)

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.5 percent for the week ending January 26, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending January 26 was 3,224,000, an increase of 8,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,216,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,211,000, an increase of 13,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,197,250. (advisorprespective.com) 

First time claims are rising (again) 

In the week ending February 2, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 366,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 371,000. 

 

Last week,  seasonally adjusted benefit claims fell to 335,000 from 375,000 the week before.  This week’s report found first time claims rising back to

Time for a third party. Time to put Karl Rove in his place.

Commenting on Karl Rove’s decision to use his Crossroads organization to weed out those candidates (mostly from the teaparty) who are not experienced in the ways of politics,   Ben Shapiro of Townhall,  complains about this,  asserting that Rove is no conservative and wondering why Crossroads did not set out to train and condition conservative representatives instead of working to exclude them from the process. 

Why didn't Rove and company tell the Times that they were interested in training conservative candidates in media fluency? Why didn't they approach the Tea Party instead, and offer their get-out-the-vote services and electoral strategies?

Because, at root, there is a clash at the heart of today's Republican Party. The Tea Party wants to change tactics. The establishment wants to discard principle.

The question is whether this will be the party of Ronald Reagan or the party of George W. Bush. The establishment opposed Ronald Reagan in 1980; they backed George H.W. Bush, convinced that Reagan was too extreme, not quick enough on his feet, no match for the more intellectual Jimmy Carter. Thank God they lost.  (go to Townhall.com for the full article).

What is the “Sequester” and how to stop its implementation.

In short,  the Sequester cuts 500 billion out of the military budget and 500 billion out of entitlement spending as a matter of law.    It was the big idea of Obama and pushed through a weak-kneed GOP House of Representatives. 

It is due to go into effect on March 1st of this year.  While the Democrats are whining about services being cut in this sequester,  the facts of the matter are these:   no services will be cut and; two,  the Democrats have no one to blame except themselves since this was their big idea.  

What you might not know is this --  all line items in the budget increase automatically,  to the tune of 5 to 8 percent,  each and every year.  That represents an 80% increase to some agency,  over the course of the next ten years.  

The total increase over ten years,  in dollar amounts,  is somewhere north of 47 trillion dollars,  with a “t.”   The Sequester will cut a total 1.16 trillion over the course of the next ten years.  

Obama is losing his influence with his own people.

Editor’s notes:  finally,  after four feckless years of presidential pretense,  we have Politico writing a very critical review of H. Obama’s presidential tactics.  In short,  regardless of the issue  (gun control, contraception, etc.),  his rhetoric and political strategies are the same . . .   and it is not working all that well.  Read these comments:  

From Politico:  President Barack Obama’s speeches have a familiar ring these days — no matter if it’s guns, immigration or the budget.

Tout what he’s already done. Say the public’s in his corner. Demand Congress do something. Lament Washington dysfunction. Lay out his own plan. Avoid details. Urge voters to keep up the pressure. Warn it won’t be easy. Bask in the applause.
It’s the fill-in-the-blank approach to selling a presidential agenda: same template, just adjusted for the topic.

But the White House is betting this particular formula will help push Obama’s ideas through, against a resistant Republican House and a skittish Democratic caucus in the Senate.

He struggled during most of his first term to balance competing interests, focusing on the legislative deal-making inside Washington instead of selling his vision beyond the Beltway. Obama has laid out a clear communications strategy to kick off his second term — but without the kind of crisis-inducing deadline that averted the fiscal cliff, his challenge is figuring out how to translate that into actual action on the deeply controversial issues ahead.

Congressional Budget Office brief on the the economy of the next decade:

read complete document  (pdf, 847 kb)

Economic growth will remain slow this year, CBO anticipates, as gradual improvement in many of the forces that drive the economy is offset by the effects of budgetary changes that are scheduled to occur under current law. After this year, economic growth will speed up, CBO projects, causing the unemployment rate to decline and inflation and interest rates to eventually rise from their current low levels. Nevertheless, the unemployment rate is expected to remain above 7½ percent through next year; if that happens, 2014 will be the sixth consecutive year with unemployment exceeding 7½ percent of the labor force—the longest such period in the past 70 years.
If the current laws that govern federal taxes and spending do not change, the budget deficit will shrink this year to $845 billion, or 5.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), its smallest size since 2008. In CBO’s baseline projections, deficits continue to shrink over the next few years, falling to 2.4 percent of GDP by 2015. Deficits are projected to increase later in the coming decade, however, because of the pressures of an aging population, rising health care costs, an expansion of federal subsidies for health insurance, and growing interest payments on federal debt. As a result, federal debt held by the public is projected to remain historically high relative to the size of the economy for the next decade. By 2023, if current laws remain in place, debt will equal 77 percent of GDP and be on an upward path, CBO projects (see figure below). 

Hey, global warmists : Moscow is having its heaviest snows in a century and the globe stopped warming 16 years ago.

The Moscow Times  reports record snow. 

Source for chart and story:  The DailyMail.co.uk

In 2007, Obama spoke out against Bush and the killing of civilians in combat areas. Obama has drone killed 50 terrorist leaders and more than 4500 civilian women and children while Marxist Media ignores this calamity. (video).

ICE officers complain about the Administration's lack of concern for their safety. How many have died under Obama? 17 Navy Seals in Afghanistan; 4 diplomats and Seals in Benghazi; a doctor in Pakistan, two border agents in the US; Federal agents in Yemen and now, this.

“Death or serious injury to ICE officers and agents appears more acceptable to ICE, DHS, and Administration leadership, than the public complaints that would be lodged by special interest groups representing illegal aliens,” Chris Crane, president of the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement 118, told the House Judiciary Committee this afternoon.  Reported by the Washington Examiner.  

Dick Morris is out at Fox. No doubt his predictions for a landslide conservative victory is part of the problem. The other part of the problem? Roger Ailes and his vindetta against teaparty types.

  It is no accident that Morris,  Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck,  all excluded from Fox in recent days,  are supportive of teaparty conservatives. 

 

Beginning today (Feb 5), this Review will offer updated features at DickMorris.com.  

 

Carbon emissions are at their lowest levels since 1994 - only Dick Morris is telling us this.

Why All The Fuss? U.S. Carbon Emissions Lowest Since ’94

 

By Dick Morris on February 4, 2013

We don’t need more regulation of energy use, cap and trade, carbon taxes, or any of the range of new measures President Obama is pushing to deal with climate change. According to Bloomberg News, US carbon emissions are down 13% over the past five years and that they are now the lowest since 1994. Continue reading…