Hurricane Sandy

[10/29/12] A superstorm threatening 50 million people in the most heavily populated corridor in the nation gained strength Monday, packing winds of 90 mph just hours before it is expected to make landfall, forecasters said.

The National Hurricane Center said Monday morning that the Category 1 hurricane is moving north-northwest at 18 mph, and will soon turn northwestward. At 11:00 a.m. ET the storm was centered about 260 miles south-southeast of New York City. Hurricane-force winds extend up to 175 miles from the storm's center, with tropical storm-force winds extended outward up to 485 miles.

Maximum sustained winds of 90 mph, with gusts of up to 115 mph, were measured.

Gale force winds were reported over coastal North Carolina, southeastern Virginia, the Delmarva Peninsula and coastal New Jersey.

Hours before the storm made landfall, high winds had already knocked out power to more than 67,000 customers in several states Monday morning.

Flooding will be a huge threat, with many areas potentially seeing rainfall amounts between 5 and 8 inches over a 48-hour period.

a computer for every student

The Department of Education wants to provide every public school student with a laptop or computer tablet  by 2015 as part of an initiative that would also include training teachers on the devices and buying digital materials that reflect new national Common Core standards for math and reading.

The department is asking for $42 million over the next two years to kick off the ambitious plan, aimed at standardizing curricula across the state, modernizing classroom instruction and phasing out printed textbooks.

income inequality

WASHINGTON >> Income inequality has soared to the highest levels since the Great Depression, and the recession has done little to reverse the trend, with the top 1 percent of earners taking 93 percent of the income gains in the first full year of the recovery.

The yawning gap between the haves and the have-nots — and the political questions that gap has raised about the plight of the middle class — has given rise to anti-Wall Street sentiment and animated the presidential campaign. Now, a growing body of economic research suggests that it might mean lower levels of economic growth and slower job creation in the years ahead, as well.

“Growth becomes more fragile” in countries with high levels of inequality like the United States, said Jonathan D. Ostry of the International Monetary Fund, whose research suggests that the widening disparity since the 1980s might shorten the nation’s economic expansions by as much as a third.

Reducing inequality and bolstering growth, in the long run, might be “two sides of the same coin,” research published last year by the IMF concluded.

-- By Annie Lowrey, New York Times

*** [10/26/12]

While median net worth for the middle-class dropped by 28% following a decade filled with two nasty recessions, the median net worth of the upper-tier actually rose by 1% based on Pew Research's study.

According to a report in The New York Times from March, 93% of the income generated in 2010 ($288 billion) went to the top 1% of earners, producing an 11.6% rise in their 2010 income over the previous year. As for the remaining 99% -- middle-class included -- income for the average worker increased by just $80 over the previous year.

With basically no wage growth, no avenues to meaningful saving, discouraging employment opportunities, a black hole in the housing sector, and the rich getting richer, it's very easy to see why middle-income America is feeling so poor these days.

***

[see also the income gap]

left-wing (and right-wing) news

There's zillions of right wing news sites on the internet (not even counting Fox).  For example, NewsMax which keeps popping up on the sidebars of various web sites.

But to counter that, there's a bunch of left wing news sites too (not even counting MS-NBC).

Here's a couple I came across while googling medicare voucher.  I didn't know they were left-wing at first, but after glancing at their headlines for a split-second...

Think Progress
MediaMatters For America

I don't want to look much further, as it gets too depressing..

I couldn't help myself.  And found this interesting.  rightwingnews.com calls thedailybeast a liberal website (ok I guess it is).  And here's their listing of the most popular conservative websites.  And John Hawkins rates his 15 best.

Didn't realize that The Daily Beast merged with Newsweek.  Does that mean Newsweek is liberal?  [Apparently, they're a "little liberal".]

[10/18/12 - Newsweek will end print edition]

How about Time, I wonder?  Wikipedia says they're moderate.

***

And back to Medicare, here's wikipedia on The Path to Prosperity which was the Republican budget proposal for 2012.

Republicans for ObamaCare

Perhaps no other election has posed such a difficult personal decision for some conservatives: How do you vote if you're ideologically conservative, but you're benefiting, or stand to benefit, from the Affordable Care Act, often referred to as "Obamacare"?

Several groups of people would fare very differently under Romney's health care plan than they do under Obamacare, such as those with preexisting conditions, which can range from anything from back pain to cancer. Between 20% and 50% of all Americans have a preexisting condition, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Obamacare tells insurance companies they can't say no to people with preexisting conditions, or charge them more because of their health issues. According to his website, Romney's health plan calls for "preventing discrimination" against people with preexisting conditions as long as they've maintained continuous insurance coverage in the past, but does not define what "continuous coverage" means.

Young Republicans could also fare differently under Romney's plan. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, some 3.1 million young adults now have health insurance because of Obamacare, which requires insurance companies to allow young adults to stay on their parents' policies up until the age of 26. Before Obamacare, insurance companies in many states took young people off their parents' policies at age 18 or 19.

Romney has vowed to repeal Obamacare. In the presidential debate, the former Massachusetts governor said the "private marketplace" is already taking care of young adults who want to stay on their parents' plans so the United States doesn't need a government mandate.

However, it's not clear that insurance companies will allow young adults to stay on their parents' insurance up until age 26 without a mandate. If Obamacare is reversed, insurance companies "will make their own decisions about the coverage options they provide," according to a statement from America's Health Insurance Plans.

Jon Campbell may become one of the Republican "defectors" Traugott says could make a difference in battleground states.

Campbell, 49, has voted Republican in nearly every presidential election since he cast his vote for Ronald Reagan in 1980, but this year might be different. For two years his 22-year-old stepdaughter, a self-employed dog trainer, didn't have health insurance. Then Obamacare kicked in and she was allowed onto her father's insurance.

"If something had happened to her during those two years it would have been a disaster," Campbell says.

The Olathe, Kansas, resident is leaning toward Obama, but not just because of his stepdaughter. Campbell's wife, Barbara, has diabetes and is in the final stages of breast cancer treatment. She's now on his insurance, but if he ever lost his job, his wife would be faced with trying to buy insurance on her own and would surely be rejected.

"I'm really torn," he said. "Because of Obama, I now have a wife who can get covered. But really, at heart, I'm a limited-government kind of guy."

unemployment

Stocks gave up most of a rally today, but buying very late in the session pushed the Dow Jones industrials ($INDU +0.26%) to their best close in nearly five years.

The initial buying was set off when the Labor Department said the U.S. unemployment rate had dropped to 7.8% in September, its lowest level since 2009. September payrolls grew by 114,000, the department said, a touch below the consensus estimate of 120,000 jobs. But estimates for payroll growth in July and August grew by 86,000, suggesting that the summer slowdown wasn't as bad as thought.

The news of the falling unemployment rate cheered the White House, reeling from President Obama's performance in Wednesday's debate against Mitt Romney. It dismayed Republicans. "This is not what a real recovery looks like," Romney said in a statement. Former General Electric (GE +0.74%) CEO Jack Welch went so far as to accuse the Labor Department of cooking the numbers. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said she was "insulted" by the idea.

The unemployment rate is derived from a telephone survey of about 50,000 households (often called the "household survey").

Most economists had expected the rate to rise to 8.2%. It fell because the number of workers estimated to be working rose by 873,000, the biggest gain since June 1983. The number of unemployed fell by 456,000.

The number is famously volatile, in part because it includes people who are self-employed. It is not clear how it will be revised in the next two months. The report -- like many government reports -- is revised twice after its initial release to reflect the inclusion of more data.

Still, the household survey suggests that unemployment fell among just about all groups the Labor Department tracks. The alternative unemployment measure, which amalgamates those unemployed with those not looking for work or taking part-time work, was unchanged from August at 14.7% but was down from 15% in July and 16.4% a year ago.

The payroll gains weren't nearly so gaudy and probably reflect the economy more clearly. Private-sector employment grew by 104,000. But that gain reflects the upward revisions in July and August.

The biggest gains came in the education component of state government. There were also gains in health care, transportation and professional and business services.

Manufacturing declined, including automobile manufacturing. Construction employment grew by 5,000.

Residential construction employment at 564,800 was up 1,100 as evidence builds of a small but real housing recovery. But that's still down 457,200 from the peak of the housing boom in April 2006.

Two other areas cheered economists: The average workweek increased to 34.5 hours from 34.4 hours last month, and the average hourly earnings rose 7 cents to $23.58.

***

WASHINGTON—The U.S. unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in more than 3½ years in September as the economy continued to add jobs, a potential boost for President Barack Obama's campaign to win a second term.

The politically important unemployment rate fell to 7.8% last month from 8.1% in August. That was the lowest level since January 2009.

[coincidence?]


Nevertheless, the Republican Party today stressed that a 7.8 percent unemployment rate is hardly something to brag about."This is not what a real recovery looks like," Mitt Romney said in a statement.

"The choice in this election is clear. Under President Obama, we'll get another four years like the last four years," he said. "If I'm elected, we will have a real recovery with pro-growth policies that will create 12 million new jobs and rising incomes for everyone."

***

Romney provides few specifics to back up his claim. And a white paper by his economic advisers shows that it would mean growth of between 200,000 and 300,000 jobs per month, less than the 500,000 Romney has said would occur monthly during a "normal recovery.

***

As he has been saying for months, Mitt Romney, during Wednesday's presidential debate, promised to create 12 million jobs during his first term in the White House. Of course, as with his pledge to close loopholes and deductions to offset his $5 trillion tax cut plan, Romney was silent about how he'll actually do it. Worse still, most economists predict Romney's draconian budget cuts will cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, especially in his first two years on office.

As it turns out, Romney's secret plan to prime the job pump is a simple one: do nothing. As it turns out, Romney's lofty goal of 12 million new jobs over four years is what the Congressional Budget Office and other analysts have already been forecasting for the U.S. economy.

*** [ah, here's what I was looking for..]

Former General Electric Chief Executive Jack Welch charged Friday that the White House manipulated the sharp drop in the unemployment rate to help President Obama's reelection campaign.

Minutes after the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the September unemployment rate had surprisingly plunged to 7.8% from 8.1%, Welch took to Twitter to say that the numbers were cooked to give Obama a boost following what many analysts said was a poor debate performance on Wednesday.

"Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can't debate so change number," Welch tweeted.

Former White House economic aide Austan Goolsbee responded that Welch didn't know what he was talking about. "love ya jack but here you've lost your mind," Goolsbee tweeted.

***

Jack Welch on Kudlow

war in Afghanistan

[10/1/12] KABUL, Afghanistan » A suicide bomber driving a motorcycle packed with explosives rammed his bike into a joint Afghan-American patrol this morning in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 14 people including three U.S. troops and their translator, officials said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast, which came a day after the U.S. death toll in the war in Afghanistan reached 2,000 troops. Such joint patrols are considered key to the training of Kabul's security forces but have been cut back by a string of insider shootings of international troops by their Afghan allies.

[8/21/10] A majority of Americans see no end in sight in Afghanistan, and nearly six in 10 oppose the nine-year-old war as President Barack Obama sends tens of thousands more troops to the fight, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.

With just over 10 weeks before nationwide elections that could define the remainder of Obama's first term, only 38 percent say they support his expanded war effort in Afghanistan — a drop from 46 percent in March. Just 19 percent expect the situation to improve during the next year, while 29 percent think it will get worse. Some 49 percent think it will remain the same.

The numbers could be ominous for the president and his Democratic Party, already feeling the heat for high unemployment, a slow economic recovery and a $1.3 trillion federal deficit. Strong dissent — 58 percent oppose the war — could depress Democratic turnout when the party desperately needs to energize its supporters for midterm congressional elections.

A majority of Americans do welcome Obama's decision to end combat operations in Iraq. Some 68 percent approve, a number unchanged from earlier this year. The last American combat brigade began leaving Iraq on Thursday, ahead of Obama's Aug. 31 deadline for ending the U.S. combat role there.

Seven years after that conflict began, 65 percent oppose the war in Iraq and just 31 percent favor it.

[8/8/10] KABUL, Afghanistan — Their last meal was a picnic in the forest in the Sharrun Valley, high in the Hindu Kush mountains of northern Afghanistan.

Returning home from a three-week trek on foot to deliver free medical care to the remotest regions of the country, the aid workers — six Americans, a Briton, a German and four Afghans — had just finished eating when they were accosted by gunmen with long dyed-red beards, the police said.

The gunmen marched them into the forest, stood them in a line and shot 10 of them one by one.

The police found their bodies, seven men and three women, on Friday, the Badakhshan Province police chief, Gen. Aqa Noor Kentoz, said Saturday.

The attack, the largest massacre in years of aid workers in Afghanistan, offered chilling evidence of the increasing insecurity in the northern part of the country and added to fears that the insurgency has turned even more vicious in recent months.

[7/8/10] KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO pilots mistakenly attacked Afghan soldiers who had laid a trap for Taliban militants and killed at least five of the soldiers on Wednesday, a devastating case of friendly fire in a conflict still troubled by miscommunication among allied forces, Afghan officials said.

The attack in the Andar district of Ghazni Province, about 100 miles southwest of Kabul, suggested a serious lack of coordination between NATO troops and Afghan forces battling militants who hold sway in part of the district known as Rahim Khiel.

The Afghan soldiers “had made an ambush for the enemy” when they were attacked early Wednesday morning, said Gen. Zahir Azimi, the spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense. He said the “air force” had “bombarded” the Afghan soldiers; a NATO official later said a helicopter had fired a single rocket into the formation of Afghan troops.

“We condemn this incident,” General Azimi said. “Unfortunately this is not the first time this has happened, but we hope this would be the last one.”

***

[4/21/10] A NATO military convoy in eastern Afghanistan shot to death four unarmed civilians in a vehicle early Monday evening, including a police officer and a 12-year-old student, Afghan officials said Tuesday.

The killings in Khost Province, near the border with Pakistan, led to a dispute almost immediately between local Afghan leaders and NATO officials. Deaths of civilians from shootings by NATO forces near convoys and at checkpoints have emerged as a particular flash point with the Afghan public and government.

At least 35 civilians have been killed since last summer by NATO and American troops in such incidents — but military officials say that in no instance did the victims prove to be a danger to troops.