Obama: More Sk0ol
September 28th, 2009Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto
“Thirty years of award-winning teaching in New York City’s public schools led John Gatto to the sad conclusion that compulsory governmental schooling does little but teach young people to follow orders as cogs in the industrial machine.”
Via: AP:
Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.
Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.
“Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas,” the president said earlier this year. “Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom.”
The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.
“Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
FBI Releases Edited OKC Bombing Tapes
September 28th, 2009Via: AP:
Long-secret security tapes showing the chaos immediately after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building are blank in the minutes before the blast and appear to have been edited, an attorney who obtained the recordings said Sunday.
“The real story is what’s missing,” said Jesse Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney who obtained the recordings through the federal Freedom of Information Act as part of an unofficial inquiry he is conducting into the April 19, 1995, bombing that killed 168 people and injured hundreds more.
Trentadue gave copies of the tapes to The Oklahoman newspaper, which posted them online and provided copies to The Associated Press.
The tapes turned over by the FBI came from security cameras various companies had mounted outside office buildings near the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. They are blank at points before 9:02 a.m., when a truck bomb carrying a 4,000 pound fertilizer-and-fuel-oil bomb detonated in front of the building, Trentadue said.
“Four cameras in four different locations going blank at basically the same time on the morning of April 19, 1995. There ain’t no such thing as a coincidence,” Trentadue said.
He said government officials claim the security cameras did not record the minutes before the bombing because “they had run out of tape” or “the tape was being replaced.”
“The interesting thing is they spring back on after 9:02,” he said. “The absence of footage from these crucial time intervals is evidence that there is something there that the FBI doesn’t want anybody to see.”
A spokesman for the FBI in Oklahoma City, Gary Johnson, declined to comment and referred inquiries about the tapes to FBI officials in Washington, who were not immediately available for comment Sunday.
The soundless recordings show people rushing from nearby buildings after the bomb went off. Some show people fleeing through corridors cluttered with debris. None show the actual explosion that ripped through the federal building.
FBI agents did not report finding any security tapes from the federal building itself.
The FBI in the past refused to release the security camera recordings, leading Trentadue and others to contend the government was hiding evidence that others were involved in the attack.
“It’s taken a lawsuit and years to get the tapes,” Trentadue said.
U.S. Job Seekers Exceed Openings by Record Ratio
September 27th, 2009Via: New York Times:
Despite signs that the economy has resumed growing, unemployed Americans now confront a job market that is bleaker than ever in the current recession, and employment prospects are still getting worse.
Job seekers now outnumber openings six to one, the worst ratio since the government began tracking open positions in 2000. According to the Labor Department’s latest numbers, from July, only 2.4 million full-time permanent jobs were open, with 14.5 million people officially unemployed.
And even though the pace of layoffs is slowing, many companies remain anxious about growth prospects in the months ahead, making them reluctant to add to their payrolls.
“There’s too much uncertainty out there,” said Thomas A. Kochan, a labor economist at M.I.T.’s Sloan School of Management. “There’s not going to be an upsurge in job openings for quite a while, not until employers feel confident the economy is really growing.”
The dearth of jobs reflects the caution of many American businesses when no one knows what will emerge to propel the economy. With unemployment at 9.7 percent nationwide, the shortage of paychecks is both a cause and an effect of weak hiring.
Unemployment Rate for Young Americans at Post-World War II High
September 27th, 2009Update: The New York Post Likely Has Made a Mistake About the Percentage of Unemployed Young People
Until Richard Wilner, the author of the New York Post piece below, can come up with a source of his information, I think we have to conclude that his 52.2% number is nonsense, at least from an official standpoint.
As far as I can tell, the official youth unemployment rate is 18.5%:
Unemployment
In July 2009, 4.4 million youth were unemployed, up by nearly 1.0 million from July 2008. The youth unemployment rate was 18.5 percent in July 2009, the highest July rate on record for the series, which began in 1948.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor: Employment and Unemployment Among Youth Summary
—End Update—
Warning: Government numbers ahead.
Via: New York Post:
The unemployment rate for young Americans has exploded to 52.2 percent — a post-World War II high, according to the Labor Dept. — meaning millions of Americans are staring at the likelihood that their lifetime earning potential will be diminished and, combined with the predicted slow economic recovery, their transition into productive members of society could be put on hold for an extended period of time.
And worse, without a clear economic recovery plan aimed at creating entry-level jobs, the odds of many of these young adults — aged 16 to 24, excluding students — getting a job and moving out of their parents’ houses are long. Young workers have been among the hardest hit during the current recession — in which a total of 9.5 million jobs have been lost.
“It’s an extremely dire situation in the short run,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute. “This group won’t do as well as their parents unless the jobs situation changes.”
Al Angrisani, the former assistant Labor Department secretary under President Reagan, doesn’t see a turnaround in the jobs picture for entry-level workers and places the blame squarely on the Obama administration and the construction of its stimulus bill.
“There is no assistance provided for the development of job growth through small businesses, which create 70 percent of the jobs in the country,” Angrisani said in an interview last week. “All those [unemployed young people] should be getting hired by small businesses.”
There are six million small businesses in the country, those that employ less than 100 people, and a jobs stimulus bill should include tax credits to give incentives to those businesses to hire people, the former Labor official said.
“If each of the businesses hired just one person, we would go a long way in growing ourselves back to where we were before the recession,” Angrisani noted.
During previous recessions, in the early ’80s, early ’90s and after Sept. 11, 2001, unemployment among 16-to-24 year olds never went above 50 percent. Except after 9/11, jobs growth followed within two years.
Get Your Flu Shot at Safeway and Save 10% on Your Next Grocery Purchase
September 27th, 2009Via: Safeway: Ingredients for Life:
We are in full swing with our fall routine – school, homework, dance class for the girls, and with back to school comes more germs for all of us. It seems crazy to have to start thinking about the flu shot so early but experts agree that you’re better off if you’re vaccinated before the height of flu season (although it can still help to protect you if you get it later in the season too). Safeway pharmacies have the seasonal flu shots available now and are offering the vaccine on a walk-in basis (some pharmacies will be scheduling clinics so check in your area. Depending on the store and time of day, there may be a slight wait time, similar to the time it takes to get a prescription filled. And, as a thank you for getting your flu shot with Safeway, they will give you a voucher for 10% off your next grocery purchase (must be used within 7 days of issue) along with some high value Super Price Coupons on health related items like facial tissues and hand sanitizer. Convenient, affordable flu shots PLUS bonus Super Price Coupons and a discount off groceries – you’ve got to love that!
G20 Post Mortem / Open Thread
September 27th, 2009A few people seem surprised that the U.S. is a police state.
Oh the cops. Oh the poor students. Oh boo hoo, we just want to wave our signs.
The don’t taze me bro generation is obviously going to have to figure this one out the hard way.
My position has always been that people who wave signs at fascists are clinically nuts; holy roller, speaking in tongues, batshit crazy nuts.
Sign waving is not resistance. Sign waving is part of the problem in the same way that voting is part of the problem. How’s that Change working out for the Obama supporters? (Some of those bozos are already talking about how they’re going to get it right in 2012…)
In the few video clips of the G20 protests that I watched, I saw a bunch of zombies with iPhones, running around like chickens with their heads cut off, as the Legion of Doom tested out its new sonic weapons and tear gas lobbing skills.
WTF is the matter with these people? Where does someone get the idea that the way to deal with Darth Vader is to wave a sign at him? Maybe a few, “Fuck the police” tweets will do the trick? Send out invites to join revolutionary sign waving groups on Facebook?!
The Twitbook aspect of this is, frankly, bizarre. Maybe I’ve been out here in the bush too long, but it looks like powerlessness is manifesting itself into a sort of flaccid, me-too technophelia, crossbred with a hamster wheel. This is more embarrassing than anything else.
The U.S. is no longer a country. It’s a company town. If waving signs at the company’s goon squad just makes people look stupid, what does twitbooking about it amount to?
Here are some other ideas:
Eliminate your debt. Take your money off the table. Stop buying stuff that you don’t need. Live well on very little. Grow your own food. Participate in alternative and/or outlawed food economies for what you don’t produce yourself. Barter, or use cash. Support people who do good work. Finally, draw a line in the sand. Don’t tell anyone where that line is, or what the consequences will be if it’s crossed. Don’t wave a sign about it. Don’t twitbook about it. Let the fascists figure it out the hard way.
Federal Reserve General Counsel Scott Alvarez Threatens the U.S. with Economic Terrorism
September 26th, 2009Some people may not like my headline. I don’t care. Make up your own headline, if you like. Call it whatever you want.
Barney Frank doesn’t want to rock the boat. Oh no. Appearances need to be maintained on the Ship of Fools.
Well, the only thing that’s certain is that the Ship of Fools is headed for oblivion. What’s not clear is how much time remains on the journey.
Via: Bloomberg:
Federal Reserve General Counsel Scott Alvarez said audits of monetary policy by the U.S. Congress could lead to higher interest rates and reduced confidence in central bank policy.
Congressional audits of monetary policy could “cause the markets and the public to lose confidence in the independence of the judgments of the Federal Reserve,” Alvarez told the House Financial Services Committee today in response to a question from Representative Dennis Moore, a Kansas Democrat. Alvarez said in his prepared remarks the audits would probably “chill” the central bank’s discussions on interest rates.
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his colleagues are trying to persuade lawmakers not to pass legislation sponsored by Representative Ron Paul of Texas that would repeal the central bank’s immunity to audits of monetary policy. Fed officials used emergency powers to protect creditors of Bear Stearns Cos. and American International Group Inc. during the financial crisis, prompting congressional scrutiny.
“We don’t want to give the rest of the world or, more important, domestic investors the impression that we are somehow in a formal way injecting Congress into the setting of monetary policy,” said Representative Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the committee. “That could have a very destabilizing effect.”
Frank added that “a lot needs to be done” on Fed transparency and said that Congress can accomplish that without interfering with the independence of monetary policy decisions.
Research Credit: oelsen
Change: Buy Obamacare or Face Jail or a $25,000 Fine
September 26th, 2009Via: Politico:
Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance.
Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty, Barthold wrote on JCT letterhead. He signed it “Sincerely, Thomas A. Barthold.”
The note was a follow-up to Ensign’s questioning at the markup.
‘Two Bodies’ on Mafia Waste Ship
September 25th, 2009Via: BBC:
Investigators in Italy examining a shipwreck containing possible radioactive waste say they may have found two bodies on board.
An underwater camera also showed pictures of orange barrels, with the word “toxic” on their side.
The boat lies in 500m of water off the south-western coast of Italy.
Officials say they believe the vessel may have been sunk by the Calabrian mafia as part of a racket to make money out of the waste disposal industry.
It was discovered after a mafia informant told the authorities he was involved in an operation to destroy vessels at sea containing radioactive and other waste.
Local prosecutors say it is possible some of the crew were either unaware of the intention to sink the ship or were deliberately killed by the mafia.
He says they will only know for sure once the ship has been recovered.
The mafia informant says he personally sank two other vessels and that he knew of at least 30 more ships sabotaged by the mafia.
The man, who is under house arrest, has told his interrogators that the toxic waste came from Italian and European pharmaceutical companies and the mafia was paid between $2m and $20m to sink the ships.
U.S. Large-Loan Bank Losses Triple to $53 Billion
September 25th, 2009Via: AP:
U.S. regulators said total losses from large loans at banks and other financial institutions nearly tripled to $53 billion in 2009, due to a deteriorating economic environment and continued weak underwriting standards.
According to an annual report released by the four federal bank-regulatory agencies on Thursday, credit quality deteriorated to record levels this year.
The report said total identified losses of $53.3 billion in 2009 surpassed last year’s total of $2.6 billion, and nearly tripled the previous peak in 2002, when losses totaled $19.1 billion.
“While we expected a year-over-year increase in problem assets, given the weak economic environment, declining (commercial real estate) values, and previously weak underwriting, we were surprised by the magnitude of the increase,” wrote FBR Capital Markets analyst Scott Valentin in a research note to clients Friday.
Since 2007, banks have been crushed by mounting losses tied to real estate. Rising mortgage defaults since have helped push the U.S. into a recession. While the economic downturn was first pegged to residential mortgage loans, banks and lenders are now having problems with commercial real estate.
The report, called the Shared National Credits Review program, is prepared and jointly released by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision. The report defines a “shared national credit” as any loan or formal loan commitment of at least $20 million that was financed by three or more banks.
Total loans across the institutions reviewed in 2009 was $2.9 trillion. The study looked at 8,955 loans given to about 5,900 different borrowers.
The report said foreign banks held about 38 percent of the $2.9 trillion in loans, while about 21 percent of the loans are held by hedge funds, insurance companies, pension funds and other entities.
