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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (101535)	3/17/2011 11:51:25 AM
From: JakeStraw	5 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224755

The BLS Employment Report only takes into consideration those individuals who are: (a) out of work; and (b) actively looking for work. If a person hasn’t worked in the past 12 months and has just given up for the time being and stopped actively looking for a job, the BLS doesn’t count that person as being “unemployed” for the purpose of its monthly survey. So if we’re not counting these people who are, indeed, unemployed, how accurate can the unemployment rate actually be? The bottom line is that the BLS “unemployment rate” quite literally means nothing. It is based on inaccurate data, incomplete information and faulty assumptions. Oh and remember the fact that roughly 125,000 new workers enter the American workforce each and every month. So 125,000 new jobs are needed each month just to keep pace with population growth.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (101535)	3/17/2011 12:28:58 PM
From: TideGlider	3 Recommendations Respond to of 224755

To: tonto who wrote (80394) 10/20/2006 12:29:19 PM From: Kenneth E. Phillipps Read Replies (3) of 168048 The UNEMPLOYMENT rate is artificially low because of the huge number of people who have decided to not participate in the labor force - either because they are too discouraged to look for work or because the rates of pay are so low for the available work or because they are incarcerated. Message 22928272

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (101535)	3/17/2011 12:33:39 PM
From: JakeStraw	3 Recommendations Respond to of 224755

D'oh!! Message 22049640 LOL!!

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (101535)	3/17/2011 12:42:23 PM
From: JakeStraw	1 Recommendation Respond to of 224755

Hmmm... Message 27244497 I guess those numbers only matter when a republican is president eh Kenneth..?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (101535)	3/17/2011 3:05:11 PM
From: locogringo	3 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224755

Gallup: One Out of Five American Workers Can’t Find Full Time Job One out of five American workers who wants a full-time job cannot find one, according to a Gallup survey released today. This news comes 25 months after President Barack Obama signed a stimulus law designed to keep the U.S. unemployment rate under 8 percent. Gallup derives what it calls the “underemployment” rate by combining the percentage of unemployed workers with the percentage of workers who are employed only part-time but want a full-time job. As of mid-March, Gallup reported in its new survey, 10.2 percent of American workers were unemployed and 9.7 percent were working part-time but wanted a full-time cnsnews.com

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (101535)	3/18/2011 12:24:37 AM
From: Hope Praytochange	1 Recommendation Respond to of 224755

As a thank-you to its most famous customer, Amtrak is renaming the train station in Wilmington, Del. after stimulus “sheriff” Vice President Joseph R. Biden — after the project received $20 million in stimulus money, and came in $5.7 million over the initial announced budget. Spokesmen for Mr. Biden, who said he personally fought for stimulus money for Amtrak, didn’t respond to messages Wednesday or Thursday. But Amtrak said it alone made the decision to rename the station in honor of the vice president. The company also said its own budget projection was always greater than the $32 million the White House announced back in 2009 - though Amtrak itself has listed the $32 million cost that year, later raising it to $37.7 million. “The Wilmington station is owned by Amtrak, and Amtrak on its own made the determination to name the station,” said spokeswoman Danelle Hunter. President Obama, soon after signing the Recovery Act in early 2009, designated Mr. Biden his “sheriff” overseeing the stimulus money, charging him with regularly checking in on governors and mayors to try to prevent waste, fraud and abuse in the $821 billion package. In that role, Mr. Biden himself traveled to the Wilmington station on May 4, 2009, to announce the $20 million in stimulus money as part of what the White House billed a “$32 million renovation and restoration” of the century-old station. “We would not be spending a penny on it today without the Recovery Act,” Mr. Biden said. “We have no time to wait. We cannot wait. That’s what the Recovery Act is about.” The vice president, who as a senator used to commute daily by train from his home in Delaware to Washington, bragged he’d made more than 7,000 round-trips on the track. He said he “heavily influenced the amount of money” that the stimulus sent to train projects. Renaming the station is apparently legal — and is fitting in this case, said Leslie Paige, spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste. “It’s an absolutely perfect monument to a guy whose entire history has been overspending and overpromising,” she said. “It would make sense his name would be slapped on a bloated, over-budget train station in Wilmington.”

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (101535)	3/18/2011 12:25:23 AM
From: Hope Praytochange	1 Recommendation Respond to of 224755

Union equates lavish benefits to black civil rights Madison is just the beginning!" AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka told a union rally in Annapolis on Monday. "Like that old song goes, 'You ain't seen n-n-n-n-nothing yet!' " Fresh from defeat in Wisconsin, union leaders are planning a new campaign not just to head off future challenges to their collective bargaining powers but also to make the case that organized labor's benefits and prerogatives -- wages, health care, and pensions that are more generous than those of comparable workers in the private sector -- are the moral equivalent of rights won by black Americans during the civil rights movement. To make the point, the AFL-CIO is planning a series of nationwide events on April 4, the 43rd anniversary of the day the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated after speaking in Memphis, Tenn., on behalf of striking black garbage collectors. The message: King's cause, and that of angry schoolteachers in Madison, are one. "April 4 [is] the day on which Martin Luther King Jr. gave his life for the cause of public collective bargaining," Trumka said in another speech, in Washington, on Wednesday. And on the AFL-CIO blog, there is this notice: "Join us to make April 4, 2011, a day to stand in solidarity with working people in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and dozens of other states where well-funded, right-wing corporate politicians are trying to take away the rights Dr. King gave his life for." Union officials are not planning a traditional mega-rally in Washington. Rather, they're encouraging locals across the country to stage shows of force in support of Wisconsin unions and the Democratic lawmakers who fled the state in a failed effort to stop Republican Gov. Scott Walker's budget plan. Throughout, the AFL-CIO is asking local leaders to tie the Wisconsin issue to the King assassination and civil rights. "A lot of people forget that what [King] was doing in Memphis was fighting for sanitation workers there," says Josh Goldstein, an AFL-CIO spokesman. "It's important for people to make the connection. Martin Luther King was so important to the labor movement. Workers' rights and civil rights go hand in hand. It's a time to remind people what he was fighting for." The AFL-CIO is advising member unions to come up with activities to stress ties between big labor and the civil rights movement. AFL-CIO planners suggest that local labor leaders team up with churches to make workers' rights a theme at worship services. Union bosses also advise asking churches "to consider organizing candlelight vigils, which could include the reading of Dr. King's 'I've Been To The Mountaintop' speech," which King delivered the night before he was killed. But was King fighting for the things that Trumka and his union forces are fighting for today? Is, say, the "right" for well-paid, unionized public employees to enjoy a health plan that includes coverage for Viagra ---- a cause for which Milwaukee teachers waged a protracted court battle -- the equivalent of King's work in Memphis, much less his efforts for the right to vote and access to public accommodations? "It is delusion, bordering on abomination, to try to equate what Martin Luther King was doing in Memphis to public workers getting Cadillac benefits for which they contribute very little, or nothing, at taxpayers' expense," says Peter Kirsanow, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights who has also served on the National Labor Relations Board. "The sanitation workers in Memphis were receiving wages that were so significantly below that which are enjoyed by middle-class teachers in Madison that to try to draw that comparison is offensive. Truly offensive." Whatever events take place on April 4, look for the effort to have the enthusiastic support of the Obama administration. "Union rights are no different than civil rights," Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told officials of the Communications Workers of America during a Wisconsin strategy conference call two weeks ago. "It's a part of our history, it's a part of our culture, it's a part of what has made this country so great." Will it work? After all the demonstrations, and all the speeches, will the public watch protests by angry, nearly all-white, middle-class school teachers with excellent health and retirement plans and think of Martin Luther King? Trumka's AFL-CIO and the big unions are very rich and very powerful. They have the ability to get their message out. But their April 4 strategy might be too ambitious even for them. Read more at the Washington Examiner: washingtonexaminer.com