DADvocate

Friday the Bureau of Labor Statistics released seemingly encouraging numbers.

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 165,000 in April, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 7.5 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in professional and business services, food services and drinking places, retail trade, and health care.

The stock market reacted positively. But, the stock market runs as much on psychological factors as solid financial information. The government unemployment numbers are groomed to give a positive a picture as "reasonably" possible. Some think that employment still has a lot of improving to do.

James Pethokoukis at the American Enterprise Institute points out that "the report contained worrisome signs that President Obama’s health care reform law is hurting full-time, high-wage employment."

While the American economy added 293,000 jobs last month, according to the separate household survey, the number of persons employed part time for economic reasons — “involuntary part-time workers” as the Labor Department calls them – increased by almost as much, by 278,000 to 7.9 million. These folks were working part time because a) their hours had been cut back or b) they were unable to find a full-time job. At the same time, the U-6 unemployment rate — a broader measure of joblessness that includes discouraged workers and part-timers who want a full-time gig – rose from 13.8% to 13.9%.

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The University of Connecticut decided to update the image of its logo, a Husky Sled dog. Geno Auriemma, coach of the legendary UConn women's basketball team likes the logo:

[It] “is looking right through you and saying, ‘Do not mess with me.’ This is a streamlined, fighting dog, and I cannot wait for it to be on our uniforms and court.”

Little did he realize those eyes are the eyes of a rapist dog.Read more »

Before and after the gun control vote yesterday, ant-gun fanatics freely tossed around the 90% of Americans support increased background checks for gun purchases. While the 90% figure may be true for responses to a directly asked question, such as "Should all beef sold in grocery stores be inspected for safety of human consumption?" It doesn't mean that people necessarily care all that much.

When Gallup asked people the open ended question: “What do you think is the most important problem facing the country today?”, only 4% mentioned gun control. Economy in general Unemployment/Jobs, Dissatisfaction with Government, Federal budget deficit/Federal debt, Healthcare, Ethical/Moral/Family decline all ranked higher.

The question about background checks demonstrates a forced answer question, yes or no (maybe a "Don't Know - I couldn't find the actual survey.) In marketing research, which is all these polls are, these are the most commonly used type of question. But, we usually include the open ends to gather "unaided awareness," i.e. what does the respondent say/know/feel without prompting from us. We'll ask "What brands of potato chips are you aware of?" Then we'll follow-up with "Please tell me if you have ever heard of these brands of potato chips." and then read a list of brands of potato chips.

We also commonly use an importance rating scale. For instance, we'll ask respondents how much they agree a company does a good job on a variety of attributes or services. Then we'll ask them how important each of those attributes or services are. If an attribute/service isn't considered very important, it makes no sense to worry much about how well a company performs in that area.Read more »

From Mr. Teabagger himself on Anderson Cooper 360 last night:

Again, we're not reporting on this based on politics. We are just looking at facts...

LOL! Everything thing he does is political and this was a political story with the usual Democratic slant.

Keli Goff, political correspondent for TheRoot.com, appeared on CNN's Reliable Sources today as part of a discussion of John McCain's comments regarding Susan Rice and her qualifications for Secretary of State. Among other things, Goff had this to say:

No, not in and of itself. But in the historical context of our country, someone labeling a Jewish person cheap in a particular context, a black person lazy in a particular context could be perceived as racially inflammatory. So, when you have Senator McCain who tried to convinced us that Sarah Palin was qualified to be president, say that an African-American woman with a PhD, who is a Rhodes Scholar and a former assistant secretary of state is, quote, "not qualified" and not bright for what she said, it can open up questions of a cultural land mine that I think the media would be irresponsible not to cover and asking certain questions about where that's coming from, particular from a white man of a certain age. (Emphasis added.)

Goff states the belief that white men of a certain age should be held to a different standard, that we should assume them to be racist based on their race and age. Not only does Goff support racist stereotypes, she doubles up and pushes age discrimination.

Not that anyone should be surprised by this, discrimination and bigotry have been the tool of liberals and the left from the start. Feminists support and push discrimination against men. Lefties support job and educational discrimination against white males and various others. (See Steve's recent post. I was shocked that Steve was shocked. Where has he been the last 40 years?)

Naturally, no one at CNN batted an eye at Goff's comments. Bigotry against white males is so common among CNN types that it has no impact.

Fighting and bickering between news agencies, on air and otherwise, generally bores me to tears. It's news agencies not reporting news, but simply trying to make the competition look bad. The other day, Carol Costello out did herself.

Costello is the only TV/News person I follow on Facebook. I follow her because one day I wanted to comment on a post of her's and never bothered to unfollow. If I've ever watched her on CNN, I can't remember when. But, the other day, she decided to make a Facebook post about how horrible it was that Fox News was running a story about Twinkies when there bus bombing in Israel. She doesn't seem to remember she had posted about cooking turkey 11 minutes earlier.Read more »

Yep. Sad but true, another greedy, self serving company college cuts the "hours of 400 adjunct instructors, support staff, and part-time instructors to dodge paying for Obamacare."

"It's kind of a double whammy for us because we are facing a legal requirement [under the new law] to get health care and if the college is reducing our hours, we don't have the money to pay for it," said adjunct biology professor Adam Davis. On Tuesday, CCAC employees were notified that Obamacare defines full-time employees as those working 30 hours or more per week and that on Dec. 31 temporary part-time employees will be cut back to 25 hours. The move will save an estimated $6 million. "While it is of course the college’s preference to provide coverage to these positions, there simply are not funds available to do so," said CCAC spokesperson David Hoovler. "Several years of cuts or largely flat funding from our government supporters have led to significant cost reductions by CCAC, leaving little room to trim the college’s budget further." The solution, says United Steelworkers representative Jeff Cech, is that adjunct professors should unionize in an attempt to thwart schools seeking similar cost-savings efforts from avoiding Obamacare.

No problem. they'll all still have access to "free" healthcare.

Delving further and further into Petraeus' affairs of heart and body, the question arises, "Is General Petraeus Sheldon Cooper's father?



The resemblance is hard to deny. Where was Petraeus at the time Sheldon's mother conceived?

All the current expositions of the affair and related matters make this appearance by Broadwell on the Daily Show rather humorous.Read more »