Unemployment down to 8.5 percent

Good, but not great:

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 200,000 in December, and the unemployment rate, at 8.5 percent, continued to trend down, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in transportation and warehousing, retail trade, manufacturing, health care, and mining. — Via Employment Situation Summary

Ed Morrissey Notes:

There are a few interesting points to note. Even though the rate of initial weekly jobless claims has declined over the last few weeks, ther has been an increase of 150,000 people unemployed for five weeks or less. The numbers declined slightly in all other time frames, but that’s something to watch. The civilian population participation rate hasn’t changed at all from the 64.0% of last month, which remains the lowest level since the Reagan years and which keeps the jobless rate artificially low. The civilian labor force — all the employed and all those seeking employment — actually declined by 50,000 people since November. However, the U-6 measure of “real” unemployment dropped from 15.6% in November to 15.2% in December, which is the lowest in three years.
It’s a pretty good but not spectacular result. In order to gain jobs, we have to net more than 125,000 jobs added each month. At this rate, it would take 40 months to add 3 million jobs over and above population growth. I’d rather go in that direction than the opposite, but we need a lot more robust job creation than this to get people back to work.

Before I give my thoughts, you must remember this; I live here in Michigan, just outside of Detroit. The Detroit area, along with the rest of the State has suffered under a one-State recession that started much before the big recession that hit the rest of America. Now having said all of that, I say this. All of these numbers mean nothing. It is nothing more than window dressing; at least to me anyhow. I have not had a job now in six years — other than the meager Ad profit that I managed to squeeze out of my old blog. I hope that I will be able to continue that here with this blog. Yes, I have a “small Business“the emphases on small! 😛 😉 😀 😆

What happened was this; I took $120.00 out of my Christmas money and I bought a nice reseller-hosting package. I hope that I can sell some shared hosting to some people. If I sell a few packages and whip out a couple design jobs for a few guys over on Blogger, who want to get off there; and I happen to make my $120.00 back, I will be happy. The rest is just happy profit. I am not looking to become rich on this little venture. I just would like to make a little money. If it gets insanely busy — I will do my duty and go file the paperwork for a business. (Yes, Liberals, I will pay my taxes, if I make enough warrant paying any!)

It is not that I really do not want to work for someone else — I would love to. However, as any small business owner knows, it is somewhat hard to hire anyone at all. When you have an idiot Government breathing down your shirt collar and keeping you from making any profit.

Another little side note; as the son of a UAW member and GM retiree and a member of a middle class family — it feels so weird to be writing from the standpoint of an actual small business owner. I mean, I am not in an office and wearing a suit. However, I am offering a service to people. I do not know how good I will do in the business. However, that is the beauty of a business; it is a real risk. Sometimes, between you and I — risk can be a bit scary. Worried

Noted Anti-Semite Tom Boggioni belches forth Anti-Christian and Anti-Catholic Bigotry

Go Read

He also spews forth more of his Bush derangement syndrome.

To see his Antisemitism on full display, read here.

I still do not understand why this Jane allows this douche-nozzle to write on that blog of hers.

Mussolini would be proud.

Update: Think that is bad? Check out Tom’s unflattering picture and racist painting of one the Bush Administration’s most hated staff member. I tend to believe that the reason that he gets away this sort of stuff Is because, 1. He is a liberal and 2. He is a minority himself. Proving my theory that not only white people can be racists.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker: “Unions want me dead”

Just a showing of how bad it is gotten up in Winsonsin:

With a June recall election all but certain, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says the debate is no longer just about collective-bargaining rights for state workers. Union leaders and others, he said, have made it personal.
“They want me dead. I don’t think that’s an exaggeration,” Mr. Walker said in an exclusive interview with The Washington Times after a roundtable discussion Thursday at the American Enterprise Institute.
His opponents have until Jan. 15 to collect about 540,000 signatures and trigger another election, which would surely center around Mr. Walker’s successful but controversial efforts to strip many collective-bargaining rights from teachers and other government employees in his state, all in an effort to close budget gaps and put Wisconsin back on firm financial footing. — Via Wisconsin Gov. Walker: Unions ‘want me dead’ – Washington Times

I feel for the guy, but I have to say this; this above, is why Rick Snyder did not do anything drastic here in Michigan. Because I believe he happens to know, what I know — that actions always have consquences. There is also something else too; that little thing that the C.I.A. likes to call “Blowback.” Blowback is the adverse reaction to an action taken by someone in position or power; it always happens, especially in politics. It is Ron Paul’s favorite term. 🙄

There is something else too; there is a thing in politics called political capitial. Many Presidents have burned through it quickly. Bush did, Obama did and still is. When you have burned through it; you are quite screwed. Smart Presidents have slowly burned through it and went on to serve two terms and do well. The not-so-smart ones end up like Bush and Obama — hated before they even can really do anything.

I guess nobody told Scott Walker about this. You just do not make drastic changes, when first taking office without paying for it in the end. This is just how it works, and also long as we have a two party system in this Country, that is how it will be for a long time to come.

(H/T HotAir Headlines)

Liberal Tool of the Day: Eugene Robinson

(H/T HotAir)

There’s phrase that comes to mind to describe this man.

….and it is not “Smart Liberal Black Man” either.

Click the picture to watch the video:

That is about all I can truly say about this little incident. I made a promise that I would keep it out of the gutter on this new blog. I’m gonna try to stick to it.

Only other thing I will truly say is this; if the Democrats actually think this sort of tripe is going to help thier cause; they are very highly mistaken. Insulting the parents of a dead child, yeah you boys keep on plucking that little chicken and see what it gets you.

I’ll keep the rest of my thoughts to myself. 😡 …..least I get accused of being a racist, a Klansman or whatever else those mentally depraved buffoons call people like me. (blanco)

Others: Stop The ACLU, NewsBusters.org blogs, Whiskey Fire, Pundit & Pundette, The Daily Caller, Weasel Zippers, National Review, nation.foxnews.com, Big Journalism, Mercatornet, Big Journalism, Patterico’s Pontifications, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Ed Driscoll

As of now, I have zero respect for Jesse Ventura

Because of this: (H/T HotAir)

CONTENT WARNING! Language!

You want to know what a Ron Paul supporter acts like, want to know their mentality? Play the video.

This, my friends, is why I despise Ron Paul. Military or no Military; Ventura is a lying scumball.

More sectarian violence in Iraq

This is what happens when you invade a Country based on bad information. This is also what happens when you let the proverbial “Genie out of the bottle.”

BAGHDAD — Insurgents unleashed a fierce string of bombings against Iraq’s Shiites on Thursday, attacking pilgrims marching through the desert and neighborhoods in Baghdad in an attempt to stir sectarian violence amid a political crisis that has brought the government to a halt.
At least 60 people died in the attacks and at least 138 wounded, security officials said, in the second devastating and apparently coordinated attack in Iraq in less than a month.
No group claimed responsibility for the attacks but they appeared similar to ones conducted by Al Qaeda in Iraq, the Sunni insurgent group that has tried to plunge the country back to the brink of civil war by pitting the country’s sectarian groups against each other.— Attacks on Shiites in Iraq Kill More Than 50 – NYTimes.com

I don’t claim to be an expert in this department, but I see us going back there within a year or so.

Since when do we have to ask to defend ourselves?

This strikes me as rather odd.

Video 1:

Video 2: (Via HuffPo )

The Story:

(CNN) — Home alone with her 3-month-old son, Sarah Dawn McKinley of Blanchard, Oklahoma, said she decided to make a stand when two men tried to break into her home on New Year’s Eve.
McKinley, who had been widowed less than a week before, placed a couch in front of one door and went to the bedroom and put a bottle in her baby’s mouth before calling 911, she said on HLN’s “Dr. Drew” on Wednesday.
A 911 operator calmly spoke with McKinley, who asked if it was permissible to shoot an intruder, officials said.
“I’ve got two guns in my hand. Is it OK to shoot him if he comes in this door?” asked McKinley, 18.
“Well, you have to do whatever you can do to protect yourself,” dispatcher Diane Graham responded. “I can’t tell you that you can do that, but you do what you have to do to protect your baby.” — Via Oklahoma mom calling 911 asks if shooting an intruder is allowed – CNN.com

My friends, my question to you is simple this; since when, do we as Americans, who are guaranteed the right to own a gun to defend ourselves against such things, as presented in this story — ask for permission to defend ourselves from the Government? This is not a criticism of this woman at all, but of the mentality of the Government must make all decisions for us. Whatever happened to telling a 9/11 operator, “I am going to kill this idiot and I hope you got plenty of body bags, because when I get done, y’all going to need a few.” Whatever happened to mentality of doing for yourself, and not waiting the Government to do your work for you?

It is a sad state of affairs in this Country, when its own citizens are too scared to defend themselves and feel the need to have to ask the Government for permission to do so. This is what happens, when progressives are allowed to govern, control our media and our schools.

No American citizen, at any point, should ever have to ask permission to defend his or her personal property. This is not a mentality of a free American citizen, this is a mentality of a slave to Government, and it is what the progressives promote — in their media, in the schools — everywhere.

My hat goes off to this young woman, for having the courage to defend herself, when it counted most.

Others: The Gateway Pundit, Rod Dreher, The Raw Story and Jammie Wearing Fools

Update: Vote this story up over on Reddit for me please. Thanks!

Update #2: AllahPundit seems to like this story too. But, of course, misses the bigger point.

Ha! Newt says he is “not rich”

Man, this is bad.

AllahPundit calls it “laying it on with a trowel”. I was thinking more of a 12 horse motor pump into a 10 inch hose fitting myself. I’m talking about a cement pump.

What am I talking about?

This:

CONCORD, N.H. — Less than 12 hours after finishing in fourth place in the Iowa caucuses, Newt Gingrich opened a new, more aggressive chapter in his campaign, taking pointed shots at rivals Mitt Romney and Ron Paul, who both finished ahead of Gingrich. At one point, Gingrich hinted he would make Romney’s personal wealth an issue, telling a reporter “I’m not rich.”
Speaking to reporters shortly after arriving in New Hampshire, Gingrich dismissed Romney’s razor-thin victory—the former Massachusetts governor ended the night with 25 percent of the vote and only eight more votes than Rick Santorum. “The fact is, three out of four Republicans rejected him,” Gingrich said.
When asked why he chose to congratulate Santorum and not Romney on his caucus success, the former House speaker said, “I find it amazing the news media continues to say [Romney’s] the most electable Republican when he can’t even break out of his own party.… The fact is, Gov. Romney in the end has a very limited appeal in conservative party.”
Later, in a campaign stop in Laconia, Gingrich’s kept up his attack – and it got personal. Asked by a local reporter if he would buy a home in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, where Romney has a summer home, Gingrich replied, “No, I can’t afford things like that, I’m not rich.” His wife, Callista, added a jab at Romney as well. “We have one home,” she demurred. The Romneys own two summer homes, including one in California.

This coming from a dude who made 1.6 million from Freddie Mac . 🙄

Over to you AllahPundit:

Surely a man eligible for a six-figure line of credit at Tiffany’s has the means to buy himself a cottage in the sticks. Or maybe more: I’ll bet $1.6 million from Freddie Mac would get you something nice and airy in Hanover. This is the second time that Gingrich has taken a dig at Romney’s wealth, do note, but the first time came with caveats: Romney had already taken a dig at his Freddie earnings in that case, and Gingrich wasn’t sniffing then at the fact that Romney’s rich but rather what he did to become that way. Tonight’s little aside is more of a pure class pander, which is yet more evidence of just how bitter Newt is about that beating he took on the air in Iowa.

Indeed.

My question is simply this — if Newt is poor, what the heck am I?!? 😯

Oh and also; pandering?!? That doesn’t even begin to describe it. The dude is flinging poo at Romney desperately hoping something — anything will stick.

Thus another reason why I am not very big on Newt. Him, the heir to the Reagan mantle — yeah right! 🙄

Honestly why does anyone care what this stupid woman thinks?

No, No… I don’t mean Tina Korbe.

I mean this woman, Megan McCain…:

Ugh, it’s like listening to a valley girl talk about politics. Like gag me with a spoon man. 🙄

This is why I am not that big on Newt

Because of silly stuff like this right here:

Newt Gingrich still won’t congratulate Mitt Romney for winning the Iowa caucuses.
At a news conference in Concord, N.H., Gingrich was asked by CBS correspondent Dean Reynolds why he congratulated Rick Santorum but not Romney.
Gingrich stared at the reporter and raised his eyebrows in silence, eventually drawing laughter from some of the reporters.
“Because I know you would be a man of great professionalism, I know that’s a rhetorical question. And a good one,” Gingrich said.
During his speech in Des Moines last night, Gingrich visibly seethed at mention of Romney, who along with his supporters ran a barrage of attack ads against the former speaker.
Romney said he’d spoken with every GOP rival last night except Gingrich.

Because when you do stuff like this; you come off as an old bitter curmudgeon. Last night, while watching Newt’s speech, I was not impressed at all. Because instead of being gracious, he came off as angry. Newt starting punching up, and attacking Romney and attacking Ron Paul. Whatever happened to just thanking your supporters and the others who also competed with you in the caucases?

Either way, this will not go over well for those in New Hampshire. Because it makes him sound ungratful, not to mention the fact that Newt is a bomb thrower, who is not good at thinking on his feet. All of this will flush itself out during the caucas process — hopefully.