Tag: 2 cents

No surprise with job numbers – buried reality in last line

2 cents: It would figure that this report would be as such. Over the past couple years many of the job reports have had to be adjusted to reveal even worse numbers than expected but received no MSM traction or headlines.

In addition is the key to the understanding some of the reality involved in this Reuters story is the fact buried at the last line of the story. Emphasis added.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent last month, dropping below 8 percent for the first time in nearly four years. The rate declined because more people found work, a trend that could have an impact on undecided voters in the final month before the presidential election.

The Labor Department said Friday that employers added 114,000 jobs in September. The economy also created 86,000 more jobs in July and August than first estimated. Wages rose in September and more people started looking for work.

The revisions show employers added 146,000 jobs per month from July through September, up from 67,000 in the previous three months. The unemployment rate fell from 8.1 percent in August, matching its level in January 2009 when President Barack Obama took office.

The decline could help Obama, who is coming off a disappointing debate performance against GOP challenger Mitt Romney.

Stock futures rose modestly after the report. Dow Jones industrial average futures, up 30 points just before the report came out, were up 45 points after it was released.

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note climbed to 1.73 percent from 1.68 percent just before the report, a sign that investors were more willing to embrace risk and moving money from bonds into stocks.

The job market has been improving, sluggishly but steadily. Jobs have been added for 24 straight months. There are now 325,000 more than when Obama took office.

The September gains were led by the health care industry, which added 44,000 jobs — the most since February. Transportation and warehousing also showed large gains. The revisions showed that governments actually added 63,000 jobs in July and August, compared with earlier estimates that showed losses.

Still, many of the jobs added last month were part time. The number of people with part-time jobs who wanted full-time work rose 7.5 percent to 8.6 million.

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First debate analysis

Apparently Romney did a great job in the debate last night.  I can’t stomach the CES so my viewing of recordings is limited.

From the exchanges I watched this morning I would agree with the commentary below. Very significant in fact since the debate was about the national economy.

I’m sure the next debate the CES will try to be extremely aggressive. Hopefully Romney & team will not rest on this apparent victory but work just as hard and smarter.

Smarter by determining how the CES will position himself and Romney and then have effective and powerful counter measures.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/oct/3/hurt-obama-debater-making-jimmy-carter-look-awesom/

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/10/03/chris_matthews_freaks_out_at_obama_after_debate_romney_was_winning.html

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/10/live-blogging-the-first-presidential-debate-2012.html

http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/04/carville-mitt-romney-came-with-a-chainsaw/

http://www.npr.org/2012/10/04/162265100/five-takeaways-from-the-first-presidential-debate

 

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Further revelation of foreign policy failures

Below is an article from this morning’s Debka website. I am including the full text because I have a suspicion that it will be pulled or altered.

I have added emphasis.

This could be filed under O’s foreign policy failure or his attempt at appeasement thinking all of them would love him.

Just five weeks before America’s presidential election, US intelligence reports signs that al Qaeda leader Ayman Zuwahiri is preparing a string of terrorist attacks as the sequel to the murders of US ambassador Chris Stevens and three other US officials in Benghazi on Sept. 11, according to evidence collected across Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

His twin goals are to influence the poll’s results and to build up his reputation as a master of spectacular terrorist operations. Eager to impress Al Qaeda’s franchise chiefs, Zuwahiri is reported to be celebrating his “Benghazi feat” – his first as Al Qaeda leader – and boasting of the harm to the Obama campaign caused by his administration’s stammering denials that it was an act of terror. The new terrorist chief claims his tactics had an instant, devastating impact on Washington and they were therefore superior to those of his predecessor, Osama bin Laden.

The Al Qaeda leader is now seen – not only by US intelligence experts, but by most experts in the West, the Middle East and Israel – to be impatient to capitalize on this success and so dramatically expose to the Muslim world America’s perceived weakness and his own worth as commander of the jihadist movement.

His planning for a new offensive has taken advantage of the Arab Spring upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa and turned them around to strike at the heart of the Obama administration’s Middle East policy objectives. The Arab revolutions have let Islamist extremist and fundamentalist Salafi groups off the leash in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, while Lebanon Jordan, Iraq and Syria teeter on the brink of chaos. The extremists now enjoy free rein to organize for political action while also gaining access to vast stocks of modern arms.

In the view of Western counterterrorism experts, Salafi groups have long maintained clandestine relations with al Qaeda, especially Ayman Zuwahiri, who joined al Qaeda in the first place as head of the violent Egyptian Islamic Jihad and stayed in close touch with its secret cells.

Al Qaeda planning also took advantage of the US counterterrorism focus in the last couple of years on the Arabian Peninsula franchise (AQAP) based in Yemen. Less US attention was devoted to the Islamist extremism simmering in North African and other Middle East arenas. It was there that Zuwahiri went to work to fashion new terrorist networks alongside Al Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) from the Salafi groups now rampant across a broad geographical area encompassing Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Mali and thrusting into the Middle East through Egyptian Sinai.

America is therefore confronted with a broad new al Qaeda front, armed with scanty intelligence. Worst of all, Washington can’t trust the new regimes and local military and intelligence organizations, thrown into power in the post-“Arab revolt” countries, for cooperation in fighting terror.

Instead of confrontation, the Obama administration has opted for retreat.

DEBKAfile’s exclusive sources report that an administration team has hurriedly put together a list of 20 endangered countries where US diplomatic, military and economic may be targeted for al Qaeda attack.

The list is prioritized according to the level of risk and US security capability for protection.

The highest-risk locations have been quietly evacuated – either to the US or West European countries – leaving only a skeleton staff behind for emergencies. A senior American source told DEBKAfle Tuesday that Tunisia, Libya, Mali, Nigeria and Egypt have been virtually denuded of a US presence.

Middle East intelligence observers have told DEBKAfile that they don’t recall US diplomatic military and intelligence personnel, businessmen and technical staff with their families being withdrawn from the region on this scale or at comparable speed.

President Obama made American retreat his order of the day after refusing to heed calls for a US military operation against AQIM and its head, Abdelmalek Droukdel. It was Droukdel, according to accumulating intelligence who, acting on behalf of Zuwahiri, orchestrated the Libyan Ansar al-Shariah militia’s murderous attack on the US Benghazi consulate.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday, Oct. 1, that Obama also decided against a punitive attack against al Qaeda’s stronghold in Mali.

article link

 

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Romney can’t just be the “not Obama” ballot choice – and win

Unfortunately for Romney, Krauthammer is correct.

Whomever Romney is listening to and following their advice, needs to be fired. The strategy is ineffective. Duplicating the Republican party nomination strategy is a game-LOSER. Romney made it to the top of the Republican ticket not because of his lofty ideas on policy but because the contestants in the race were worse than him for various reasons. He can not expect to win (and won’t) by simply being the “not O” ballot selection.

And he needs think about the possibility of his first term. Now is when platform is defined and the crucial first 100 days are shaped. Going in as “not O” will not position him or his administration for hitting the ground successfully.

Mitt – replace the voices in your head. America is in desperate need of top quality leadership which requires innovative and game-changing strategy.

Going into the debate scares me. He is not prepared for this. He does not have the year of solid preparation, principles and ideas formed to enter the debate. He is going in unprepared which with the MSM spinning and shaping the actual debate and then their commentary on its results —– he is all ready circling the drain.

Mitt – wake up! Step up!

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Syria: Missing chemical weapons?

It appears a important truth is being buried at the end of week news cycle, hoping it will not gain traction. I came across the story on Fox website but am surprised it is not in the major story bracket.  Panetta has shared that Syria has moved some of its chemical weapon stockpile in order to protect them but there is some question as to what exactly happened to some of them. “There has been intelligence that there have been some moves that have taken place. Where exactly that’s taken place, we don’t know,” Panetta told reporters. “I don’t have any specific information about the opposition and whether or not they’ve obtained some of this or how much they’ve obtained and just exactly what’s taken place.” 

Really?!  This of course means they could be in anyone’s hands, say AQ, Iran and so on. The article goes on to explain that Panetta is sure the main sites are secure, it is some of the other sites that are in question.

Again – really?!

This is NOT a non-story. This buried fact will show itself later. Just where and when?

Added: Curious, CNN has the story but has positioned it that everything is ok. Hmmm

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Netanyahu’s red-line speech

Jerusalem Post

Debka

New York Times

It is no surprise the volume of material being reported my MSM and alternative news outlets on the events of the last 24 hours. Netanyahu’s speech was successful for his ability for plainly stating his case why a “red-line” approach is needed by the world in reference to Iran’s nuclear proliferation. Some sources share the O’s administration was irked by Netanyahu’s remarks but I am sure that doesn’t concern him.

“Netanyahu made apparent reference to criticism that it was inelegant of him to make an issue of the red lines with the US so close to the November presidential election, saying he was speaking about the issue now ” because the Iranian nuclear calendar doesn’t take time out for anyone or for anything. I speak about it now because when it comes to the survival of my country, it’s not only my right to speak; it’s my duty to speak.””.

Not surprisingly Iran’s retort to Netanyahu’s speech was that Israel needed to come clean about its nuclear weapons arsenal. We will see this drum beating gain traction, I am certain of it.

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