Usa Thread

[Flashermac]

 

I want to vote for you!

 

 

[Flashermac]

 

 

 

Why the Jobs Situation Is Worse Than It Looks

 

 

 

[color:red]The Great Recession has now earned the dubious right of being compared to the Great Depression. In the face of the most stimulative fiscal and monetary policies in our history, we have experienced the loss of over 7 million jobs, wiping out every job gained since the year 2000.[/color]

 

[color:red]From the moment the Obama administration came into office, there have been no net increases in full-time jobs, only in part-time jobs. This is contrary to all previous recessions. Employers are not recalling the workers they laid off from full-time employment.[/color]

 

The real job losses are greater than the estimate of 7.5 million. They are closer to 10.5 million, as 3 million people have stopped looking for work. Equally troublesome is the lower labor participation rate; some 5 million jobs have vanished from manufacturing, long America's greatest strength. Just think: Total payrolls today amount to 131 million, but this figure is lower than it was at the beginning of the year 2000, even though our population has grown by nearly 30 million.

 

The most recent statistics are unsettling and dismaying, despite the increase of 54,000 jobs in the May numbers. Nonagricultural full-time employment actually fell by 142,000, on top of the 291,000 decline the preceding month. Half of the new jobs created are in temporary help agencies, as firms resist hiring full-time workers. [Check out a roundup of political cartoons on the economy.]

 

[color:red]Today, over 14 million people are unemployed. We now have more idle men and women than at any time since the Great Depression.[/color] Nearly seven people in the labor pool compete for every job opening. Hiring announcements have plunged to 10,248 in May, down from 59,648 in April. Hiring is now 17 percent lower than the lowest level in the 2001-02 downturn. One fifth of all men of prime working age are not getting up and going to work. Equally disturbing is that the number of people unemployed for six months or longer grew 361,000 to 6.2 million, increasing their share of the unemployed to 45.1 percent. We face the specter that long-term unemployment is becoming structural and not just cyclical, raising the risk that the jobless will lose their skills and become permanently unemployable.

 

Don't pay too much attention to the headline unemployment rate of 9.1 percent. It is scary enough, but it is a gloss on the reality. These numbers do not include the millions who have stopped looking for a job or who are working part time but would work full time if a position were available. And they count only those people who have actively applied for a job within the last four weeks.

 

Include those others and the real number is a nasty 16 percent. The 16 percent includes 8.5 million part-timers who want to work full time (which is double the historical norm) and those who have applied for a job within the last six months, including many of the long-term unemployed. And this 16 percent does not take into account the discouraged workers who have left the labor force. The fact is that the longer duration of six months is the more relevant testing period since the mean duration of unemployment is now 39.7 weeks, an increase from 37.1 weeks in February. [see a slide show of the 10 best cities to find a job.]

 

The inescapable bottom line is an unprecedented slack in the U.S. labor market. Labor's share of national income has fallen to the lowest level in modern history, down to 57.5 percent in the first quarter as compared to 59.8 percent when the so-called recovery began. This reflects not only the 7 million fewer workers but the fact that wages for part-time workers now average $19,000—less than half the median income.

 

Just to illustrate how insecure the labor movement is, there is nobody on strike in the United States today, according to David Rosenberg of wealth management firm Gluskin Sheff. Back in the 1970s, it was common in any given month to see as many as 30,000 workers on the picket line, and there were typically 300 work stoppages at any given time. Last year there were a grand total of 11. There are other indirect consequences. The number of people who have applied for permanent disability benefits has soared. Ten years ago, 5 million people were collecting federal disability payments; now 8 million are on the rolls, at a cost to taxpayers of approximately $120 billion a year. The states today owe the federal insurance fund an astonishing $90 billion to cover unemployment benefits.

 

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[allistar]

Let me know when you see an ad by a hospital that shows comparison pricing. The only time I see it is for lasic and plastic surgery, both of which are largely not covered by insurance. When Americans finally realize that there is no "free lunch," and price should be a major consideration (along with the doctor's track record)in deciding which medical care is appropriate for each person. In the meantime, I'll vote with my feet and take my elective medical care overseas.

[Steve]

Let me know when you see an ad by a hospital that shows comparison pricing. The only time I see it is for lasic and plastic surgery, both of which are largely not covered by insurance. When Americans finally realize that there is no "free lunch," and price should be a major consideration (along with the doctor's track record)in deciding which medical care is appropriate for each person. In the meantime, I'll vote with my feet and take my elective medical care overseas.

 

The medical culture has to change. Dentists are now competing. The same can be done with hosptials and doctors. There are websites for the best rates and service of airline (FlyerTalk), as well as other industries. Eventually, if there aren't already, online forums set up to discuss your experiences at hostpials or with certain doctors.

 

I don't see how difficult it is for a hosptial to say what the average cost of certain types of surgeries are? Wait times for certain types of surgeries. Etc. Doctors like this exalted, "I am God" reputation that they are above certain things.

 

The neighborhood doctor who had his own office and made house calls got killed off. Partially by insurance companies who charged him a king's ransom in malpractice insurance, partially the medical industry who moved all these doctors to HMOs and hosptials. (HMOs were originally fought against by the AMA, along with Medicare and any attempt at natinalized healthcare and its not because it wasn't good for you, it was financially bad for them). Having worked once for a medical technology company for a year, they developed a 'best practice' guideline that hospitals used. This company basically took all the latest info from medical journals. Doctors (and nurses) really have no time to gleam this stuff and this company summarized it all and made it available to hospitals electronically for a fee. If a doctor or nurse (they did it for both) followed best practices this could be used to combat malpractice lawsuits that are not worthy.

 

I'd love to see a program to encourage local clinics for basic medical, non invasive service. Major surgeries can be refereed to at major hospitals and HMOs for more detailed testing, etc. if its serious enough, but a return in part to the neighborhood doctor via a small clinic. Simple things that could take care of the average families needs which usually are not major. Flu, sprained ankles, grandma's arthriitis, early pregnancy care, etc. Medical school students undersurpervision can do part of their practice there. Learn some friggin' bedside manor. Bring some of the residency stuff to the masses.

 

You're right about us (Americans). We don't realize there is no free lunch.

Edited June 22, 2011 by Guest

[Steve]

I want to vote for you!

 

 

Thanks Flash, but I wouldn't vote for me. lol...

[Flashermac]

 

 

Lawmakers to introduce bill to legalize marijuana

 

 

A group of US representatives plan to introduce legislation that will legalize marijuana and allow states to legislate its use, pro-marijuana groups said Wednesday.

 

The legislation would limit the federal government's role in marijuana enforcement to cross-border or inter-state smuggling, and allow people to legally grow, use or sell marijuana in states where it is legal.

 

The bill, which is expected to be introduced on Thursday by Republican Representative Ron Paul and Democratic Representative Barney Frank, would be the first ever legislation designed to end the federal ban on marijuana.

 

Sixteen of the 50 states as well as the District of Columbia have legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

 

But planting, selling or commercially distributing marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

 

Last year, California citizens voted not to legalize recreational marijuana use, although the debate continues in about half a dozen other states.

 

Three weeks ago a group of ex-presidents of Latin America as well as former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan denounced the failure of the global war on drugs and called for urgent changes, including the legalization of cannabis.

 

Between 1998 and 2008, worldwide consumption of opiates increased 35 percent, with cocaine use growing 27 percent and marijuana use growing 8.5 percent, according to the Global Commission on Drug Policy.

 

June marks the 40th anniversary of the "War on Drugs" launched by President Richard Nixon in 1970, the first major US anti-drug initiative.

 

 

 

Link

[Flashermac]

 

Obama Gets 30% of Americans Certain to Support Re-Election in Economy Poll

 

 

Americans are growing more dissatisfied with President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy and say it will be hard to vote to re-elect him without seeing significant progress over the next year and a half.

 

By a margin of 61 percent to 37 percent, a Bloomberg National Poll conducted June 17-20 shows Americans say they believe that Obama will have had his chance to make the economy “substantially better†by the end of 2012.

 

Only 30 percent of respondents said they are certain to vote for the president and 36 percent said they definitely won’t. Among likely independent voters, only 23 percent said they will back his re-election, while 36 percent said they definitely will look for another candidate.

 

“As far as the economy goes, I don’t see that he has delivered on the change that he promised,†said Sharon Ortiz, a 38-year-old independent voter from Hampton, Virginia, who supported Obama in 2008. “The jobs that he promised -- I haven’t seen it.â€

 

At the same time, Americans are skeptical that Republican control of the White House and Congress will be a better prescription for their economic wellbeing. Sixty percent said that any Republican candidate will need to move so far to the right on fiscal and social issues to win their party’s nomination that it will be very hard to back the nominee.

 

Voter Intensity

 

Even so, the intensity among respondents who strongly agreed about judging Obama on his record of job creation was higher -- 45 percent versus 33 percent -- than those worried about a Republican nominee pushed to the right.

 

With unemployment and jobs ranking as the most important issue facing the country and lawmakers mired in debates to cut the nation’s long-term debt, the poll’s findings underscore a central challenge for Obama’s re-election team: making the 2012 campaign a choice between competing visions for the country’s future rather than a referendum on his job performance.

 

“So far Obama’s doing an OK job, not as great as I was hoping for,†said Pam Kaltenbach, 62, a Democratic voter from Chillicothe, Ohio, who supported Republican presidential candidate John McCain in 2008. “But now the Republicans don’t understand the working man. They don’t tax the rich more, they just want to take away the programs that are needed by the middle class.â€

 

Medicare Worries

 

In the poll, 49 percent of respondents said they’re worried about Republicans gaining control of the White House and Congress and following through on pledges to slash funding for benefit programs like Medicare and Medicaid, outnumbering the 40 percent who said they are concerned about another term for Obama and a continuation of current spending policies. Among independents, 47 percent said they are worried about a Republican takeover compared with 37 percent who are concerned about maintaining the status quo.

 

“I still want them to cut the deficit and debt, but it’s been growing for years,†said Mark Rawls, 44, an independent voter from Orlando, Florida. “If you cut the deficit now, you might cut the legs of people who are trying to get jobs and on Medicare.â€

 

The poll of 1,000 adults was conducted by Selzer & Co., a Des Moines, Iowa-based firm. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

 

 

 

Link

[Flashermac]

Has O.J. Simpson confessed murder to Oprah?

 

 

 

O.J Simpson has confessed to Oprah Winfrey that he murdered his former wife, it has been reported.

 

The talk show host made headlines recently saying that one of her regrets was never having got the shamed former sportsman to confess to the killing.

 

And it appears her wish may well have come true with reports Simpson has already told one of her producers in an interview from jail that he knifed ex-wife Nicole in self-defence - a confession he will now repeat to the talk show queen during a spectacular televised sit down interview.

 

The chat, which would be held in prison, would be a huge coup for Oprah, whose network, OWN, has suffered a massive hit in ratings recently.

 

Simpson is currently serving a nine-year sentence at Nevada’s Lovelock Correctional Centre, after he was convicted of robbery and kidnapping in Las Vegas in October 2008 after a botched heist to retrieve his memorabilia he said was stolen by dealers.

 

He was famously acquitted in October 1995 of the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman despite huge amounts of evidence against him.

 

According to the National Enquirer, the interview is set to be filmed after Simpson confessed he killed the pair in self-defence to a producer from inside prison.

 

Oprah has been in touch with O.J. for the past year,' a source told the magazine. She contacted him in prison to explore the possibility that he might give her an interview.

 

'He has always been a big fan of hers, but for a long time he was reluctant to say he did the crime or give the details of how it happened.'

 

According to the insider, Simpson recently decided to go through with the confession after he was contacted again by one of Oprah's producers.

 

'He told the producer: "Tell Oprah that yes, I did it. I killed Nicole, but it was in self-defence. She pulled a knife on me and I had to defend myself",' the insider was quoted as saying.

 

He reportedly then went on to give a full account of what happened on the night of the murders on June 12 1994.

 

The former couple had got into an argument after Nicole was said to have snubbed Simpson when he interrupted a meal she was having at a restaurant with their children.

 

'O.J. said he went home and kept getting angrier and angrier and worked himself into an absolute rage,' the source told the Enquirer.

 

Simpson allegedly told the producer he 'didn't like the way she treated me in front of the kids at the restaurant. I didn't like that she was routinely having guys have sex with her at her condo with the kids there.

 

'I went over there to give her a piece of my mind,' he was quoted as saying.

 

When he arrived and no one answered at the house, he started pounding the door and shouting, according to the report.

 

The door allegedly then swung open and Nicole was standing there with a kitchen knife in her hand.

 

'O.J. told the producer, "she was yelling go away! Go away! And waving the knife around at me. At one point she was lunging at me with the knife and I was just trying to talk to her. Nicole stepped out of the apartment - slashing the knife in the air.

 

'"I was in such a rage that something just snapped. I couldn't take her constant taunting of me with other men or her using drugs and drinking while my kids were living with her. I went beserk.

 

'"Before I knew what I was doing I took the knife away from Nicole and started slashing at her. I cut her over and over again until she was lifeless. I was shocked at my own anger - I had killed the woman I had loved for so long."'

 

He allegedly went on to tell the producer he also knifed Ron Goldman in self-defence as he tried to attack Simpson when he turned up at the home soon after and spotted Nicole's body on the floor.

 

The shamed former sportsman was acquitted on October 3, 1995 of stabbing to death his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman after perhaps the most famous trial in modern history.

 

After the bodies were found in a pool of blood on her driveway in Los Angeles driveway, Simpson, who has until now maintained he did not commit the murders, began a bizarre slow speed car chase with police.

 

Almost 100 million people are thought to have watched the events live on television as the sports star held a gun to his head while being driven by a friend.

 

He was allegedly headed for the Mexican border with $5,000 dollars and his passport when he was tracked by authorities.

 

Eventually, 27 police cars trailed him until he surrendered on his mansion's driveway an hour and a half later.

 

Despite huge amounts of evidence against Simpson, including bloodstains in his car, a glove holding DNA from the three, a sock engrained with traces of his victims' blood on his bedroom carpet and tapes of a terrified Nicole begging police for help as Simpson hit her - he was acquitted of the murders.

 

If the confession is made to Oprah on television, Simpson will not suffer legal consequences.

 

Under the law of double jeopardy, a second trial is forbidden following an acquittal.

 

 

 

Wonder why Ron Goldman was found outside with his throat cut from behind.

 

 

[Bangkoktraveler]

 

Lawmakers to introduce bill to legalize marijuana

 

 

A group of US representatives plan to introduce legislation that will legalize marijuana and allow states to legislate its use, pro-marijuana groups said Wednesday.

 

The legislation would limit the federal government's role in marijuana enforcement to cross-border or inter-state smuggling, and allow people to legally grow, use or sell marijuana in states where it is legal.

 

The bill, which is expected to be introduced on Thursday by Republican Representative Ron Paul and Democratic Representative Barney Frank, would be the first ever legislation designed to end the federal ban on marijuana.

 

Sixteen of the 50 states as well as the District of Columbia have legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

 

But planting, selling or commercially distributing marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

 

Last year, California citizens voted not to legalize recreational marijuana use, although the debate continues in about half a dozen other states.

 

Three weeks ago a group of ex-presidents of Latin America as well as former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan denounced the failure of the global war on drugs and called for urgent changes, including the legalization of cannabis.

 

Between 1998 and 2008, worldwide consumption of opiates increased 35 percent, with cocaine use growing 27 percent and marijuana use growing 8.5 percent, according to the Global Commission on Drug Policy.

 

[color:red]June marks the 40th anniversary of the "War on Drugs" launched by President Richard Nixon in 1970,[/color] the first major US anti-drug initiative.

 

 

 

Link

 

 

A real long war and they haven't gotten anywhere.

[Hugh_Hoy]

Everybody already knows the truth. It was laid out during the trial. Enough evidence to convict 10 people. His lawyers weren't especially brilliant. His "innocense" was only the result of a judge not taking command and a rigged/biased jury.

 

HH