McDonald's April hiring spree could have accounted for half of May's job growth: report
The Labor Department's latest jobs report was already disheartening. And now it turns out half of the paltry number of jobs created in May could have been the result of McDonald's.
Fox News panel attacks Sesame Street for ‘liberal bias’ | Raw Replay
Did you know that “limousine liberals” are using Sesame Street, the popular children’s program on PBS, to undermine the moral values of America?
If that’s a surprise to you, well, you’re clearly not getting enough Fox News in your media diet.
How a Democracy Works - NYTimes.com
President Obama, who has spent two and a half years not delivering on his promise to fix immigration, gave a speech in El Paso last month and cloaked his failure in tough statistics — this many new border agents, that much fencing, these thousands of deportations.
As for the other parts of reform — where millions of immigrants get right with the law and get on with becoming Americans, where workers are better protected — he threw up his hands....
Sarah Palin Has No Idea Who Paul Revere Was, Or What He Did
Could Sarah Palin be stupider?
U.S. to Sell Chrysler Stake to Fiat - NYTimes.com
DETROIT — The Treasury Department on Thursday said it reached a deal to sell its stake in Chrysler to Fiat for $500 million. The move would end the government’s involvement in Chrysler but still leave taxpayers about $1.3 billion short of recovering their full investment in the carmaker.
...what?
It's Now Indisputable: We Have A Jobs Crisis | OurFuture.org
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an anemic number of new jobs created in May, 54,000. In other words, we're moving backward in terms of putting Americans back to work, as indicated by the uptick in the unemployment rate, to 9.1 percent.
For those who have been watching the other signs of economic slowdown in the past few weeks, from the continuing high level of weekly jobless claims to the double-dip recession now fully underway in housing, this is no surprise. Hours before today's jobs announcement, Bloomberg News noted: "Manufacturing grew in May at the slowest pace in more than a year...
Sarah Palin badly mangles the story of Paul Revere’s ride in statement | Raw Replay
In Boston, yesterday, former Alaska Governor and possible 2012 contender Sarah Palin kept mum about her plans to run or not run for President, but she did share some fairly jumbled thoughts on the story of Paul Revere’s famous midnight ride, “…he who warned the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms, uh, by ringin’ those bells and, um, makin’ sure as he’s ridin’ his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that were gonna be secure and we were gonna be free. And we were gonna be armed.”
UNDERNEWS: No child left behind in Russellville, Arkansas
Fox 16, AK - Open up the Russellville Middle School yearbook. You’ll see the students’ pictures, the administration, and a pretty controversial list that’s supposed to be covered with a piece of black tape …. The list is titled “Top 5 worst people of all time.” The top three, in order, are Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, and Charles Manson. Numbers four and five are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Superintendent Randall Williams calls the list “an oversight.”
Mittens Is In: Romney Officially Declares, Finally
Capping off perhaps the most exciting pre-campaign campaign since fictional candidate Tim Pawlenty’s campaign was accidentally announced on a website on a Sunday night, Mitt Romney today announced he was really doing that thing he has been doing non-stop since approximately 1996: running for president....
And for the record, it was a cold day.
Not destined for the official list any time soon, but JIC you feel the need to have a slim volume of poetry handy (as slim, at least, as the device you choose to read it on) whilst taking the sun, here's Matthew Arnold; or if your taste runs to more robust tales, 50 classic pulp fiction works for reading on your nook, Android, or Apple iOS device. And don't forget the sun screen.
Michele Bachmann on 2012 Presidential run: My 'strongest competitor right now is Barack Obama'
Bachmann's support from social conservatives and tea partiers is likely not enough to boost her nationally - she laggs [sic] in many polls.
There is no modern-day Goethe or Faust with the genius to even invent an anti-hero pathetic enough to not only try to sell his soul to the Devil, but fail!
Playing With Matches on the Debt Limit - NYTimes.com
No matter how they tried to spin it, 318 House members actually voted against paying the country’s bills and keeping the promise made to federal bondholders.
The happiest nations in the world are almost nothing like the United States, according to the business website 24/7 Wall Street.
ACLU sues South Carolina prison in Moncks Corner, wants porn for inmates: jail's lawyers
Well, actually, no, but summer is almost upon us.
This morning I watched CNN spend at least 15 minutes interviewing Andrew Breitbart about a congressman's penis...
With 45 Million Americans On Food Stamps, GOP Will Cut Food Stamps
And I'm waiting for, "This hurts me more than it hurts you."
UNDERNEWS: Obama gives key agriculture post to Monsanto man
Gary Ruskin, Global Research - President Obama announced that he will recess appoint Islam A. Siddiqui to the position of Chief Agricultural Negotiator, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Siddiqui is a pesticide lobbyist and Vice President for Science and Regulatory Affairs at CropLife America, an agribusiness lobbying group that represents Monsanto.
He can't recess appoint Elizabeth Warren but he can recess appoint this bimbo? What am I missing here?
Change of Subject: Medicare is going bankrupt! Again.
Chicago Tribune July 2, 1969: The Medicare hospital trust fund faces bankruptcy by 1976...
...And much, much more.
US ‘to view major cyber attacks as acts of war’ | The Raw Story
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Pentagon has adopted a new strategy that will classify major cyber attacks as acts of war, paving the way for possible military retaliation, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday....
"If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks," it quoted a military official as saying.
Millions Need Not Apply - NYTimes.com
Millions of Americans who lost their jobs to the recession and fell behind in payments to creditors are being penalized again, this time by companies that use credit records to screen job applicants....
Damaged ratings are often the result of irresponsibility. They can also be due to bad luck and hard times, including a layoff, divorce or catastrophic illness, which is a leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States.
And more...
Thanks to intensive marketing by the credit reporting industry, about 60 percent of employers now do credit checks on job applicants...
Facebook - the CIA conspiracy - Technology - NZ Herald News
Facebook has 20 million users worldwide, is worth billions of dollars and, if internet sources are to be believed, was started by the CIA.
Well, right, "Internet sources," blah blah but wait. What?
The CIA is, though, using a Facebook group to recruit staff for its very sexy sounding National Clandestine Service.
Sexy sounding National Clandestine Service? Really?
Here's a nice chart. What it says should be no news but the presentation is better than average.
Don't expect it to make much difference.
Bryan Sisco banned from Delta after flirting with another passenger; telling her he had poison gas
Bragging about having poisonous gas on an airplane is not an acceptable pickup line, a Delta passenger has learned....
Sisco, who admitted that he had a few to drink before he got on the plane...
...is "The Sojourn," a short, stark novel about World War One by Andrew Krivak (here from Barnes & Noble and also available, no doubt, from Amazon and elsewhere). Krivak belongs, says a reviewer for Library Journal, on the same shelf with Remarque and Hemingway where war (or, as the case may be, anti-war, since "The Sojourn" is hardly brimming with fanfares and bright parades) stories are concerned, to which I can only add Stephen Crane. It will appear on our list in a few days.
Meanwhile, tomorrow's temperature here is scheduled to hit 90 for a one-day stand before sliding back toward the mid-70's by the end of next week; a perfect forecast, I say, for the first day of a summer that isn't summer yet. There will be a small parade, maybe ice cream. And we will not expect to see another wool sweater for quite some time.
Republican States Push Revisions to Voting Laws - NYTimes.com
“If you have to show a picture ID to buy Sudafed, if you have to show a picture ID to get on an airplane, you should show a picture ID when you vote,” Gov. Nikki Haley said this month when she signed the [voter ID] bill into law in South Carolina, using a common refrain among Republicans.
Voting is a right. Buying Sudafed, flying on an airplane, or having a governor with more integrity than a pet rock is not.
UNDERNEWS: Indicators: Fox News is bad for your brain
Tim Rickinson, Rolling Stone - According to recent polls, Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of all news consumers....In fact, a study by the University of Maryland reveals, ignorance of Fox viewers actually increases the longer they watch the network.
