Puterbac News Network and Political Discussion Thread

[hedge]

Why let that stop you?

[Professor Tiger]

Haven't seen a Ukraine update here lately. I hope DSL is ok.

Ukraine is still being invaded by Russia.

That is all.

[Toemeesleather]

Ukraine is still being invaded by Russia.


Time to hit the links...

[Johnette's Daddy]

It's also a MASSIVE budget drain and many states - like mine - literally have to choose between schools and prisons. The most powerful union in this state is the Prison Guards, so we continually choose prisons.

In addition to the questionable morality of draconian sentences for first-time, non-violent drug offenders, you are correct: prisons are expensive. The feds budget around $25k per inmate. In places like Alabama and Mississippi, that's a starting teacher's annual salary.

I'm surprised that the correctional officers' union is so powerful in CA. In most places, it's the teachers' union that calls the shots. That's definitely the case in one place I lived near - Chicago.

40 years ago, yes, United Teachers of Los Angeles and California Teachers Association were huge, as was SEIU (gov't employees, mostly). But as unions have been de-nutted (and relative salaries gutted), the only unions with real bite are the cops, firefighters & prison guards. Politicians can't talk crap about locking everyone up if they don't have a nice cadre of uniformed (or T-shirted), mustachioed and sun-glassed cops in their photo-ops, so they routinely fellate the law enforcement unions at budget time.

[Professor Tiger]

Well, working at Pelican Bay and Compton is hard work.

[sardis]

The public has voted.

http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/l ... story.html

[Professor Tiger]

Electric cars aren't even good from an environmental wacko perspective. The electricity that powers them comes largely from coal - at least until Obama succeeds in his stated goal of killing the coal industry.

[Toemeesleather]

According to Brock and a few gobblers....this, like the IRS scandal, never happened. The ONLY way to rebuild America was through Prius and Solyndra.




After years of keeping the price of crude sold to the U.S. low enough to maintain market share, Saudi Arabia is losing ground as the shale boom leaves U.S. refiners with ample supplies of inexpensive domestic oil.

Arab Light crude for sale in the U.S. averaged 48 cents a barrel less than Light Louisiana Sweet, a Gulf Coast benchmark, in August, the narrowest discount in data compiled by Bloomberg back to 1991. The U.S. imported 878,000 barrels of Saudi crude a day in the first four weeks of August, the least since 2009.

Shale drilling has boosted U.S. oil output to the highest level since 1986. As refineries turn to lower-priced domestic oil to make fuel at a record pace, the Saudis and other foreign suppliers are left with dwindling slices of the market. In June, imports from Saudi Arabia accounted for the smallest share of crude processed at U.S. refineries since February 2010.

[BigRedMan]

I haven't nor do I want to watch the videos so explain a couple of things to me:

1. Do they just slit the throat or are they truly using a knife to cut the entire head off?

2. As the victim, why are they just sitting there. Again, I haven't watched the video but if you know they gonna cut your head off even with your arms tied behind your back, wouldn't you be a kicking screaming fool?

Like I said I have no desire to watch any of it, just curious if anyone has and can answer that.

[crashcourse]

I watched one a couple years ago I think alqueda but principles were the same. forgot the guys name but it was pretty high profile

they used a sawing motuion and he was screaming for awhile at least 10-15 seconds. seems like they had 3-4 other guys holding him when he started thrashing

I dont think he had a clue it was coming--just staring blankly ahead then realized it was for real

kind of the impression I get these two guys didnt know it was coming. I would have said something for my last words if I knew what was coming

but I choose not to watch--once was enufg

[Jungle Rat]

Won't watch it either but I'm sure had he fought they would have put multiple bullets in him.

[hedge]

I think I rather go that way...

[Jungle Rat]

I wish you would too.

[Toemeesleather]

Damn Bush...vortex...teaparty.....the rich....but hey, we got 6.1%.


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. job growth slowed down sharply in August and more Americans gave up the hunt for work, giving a cautious Federal Reserve more reasons to wait a bit longer before raising interest rates.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 142,000 last month, the smallest increase in eight months, the Labor Department said on Friday. The unemployment rate fell one-tenth of a percentage point to 6.1 percent as people dropped out of the labor force.

[bluetick]

Funny but under dubya, a 6.1 jobless rate was just peachy, listening to the Fox News Channel. "Dropped out of the labor force" meant baby boomers were retiring in droves, and a record number of adults were in school.

Nowadays it's about breadlines, selling apples on the street for a nickel apiece, and pitiful stories about former Blockbuster clerks.

Maybe Romney will run again and fix the economy, with his high ideals about the "47 percent" and "binders full of women."

[bluetick]

Former VA. governor's attorney vows to appeal http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/forme ... -to-appeal

The McDonnell's defense strategy depended in large part on convincing jurors that their marriage itself was a fraud and they were unable to speak to each other, let alone conspire to accept bribes.

Ah well. They took a shot.

[Toemeesleather]

The August jobs report is in, and as MSNBC admitted Friday morning, "it’s a disappointment, a big one.” Only 142,000 jobs were added in the last month, the “worst level of job creation all year long.”

Morning Joe’s Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough invited on CNBC reporter Sara Eisen to give her take on the new jobs report. She and her hosts, who are literally groaning in response to the news, were clearly not happy to report the 80,000 job shortfall:

Eisen: It’s a disappointment, a big one. The economy only added, guys, 142,000 jobs during the month of August. Economists were looking for a number above 200,000. 220,000 was the estimate... It is actually the worst level of job creation, in terms of the monthly number, all year long. We were going solid above 200,000.

Eisen tried to offer one positive from the report, the unemployment down-tick, but immediately dismissed it, citing the likelihood that it's just a result of more Americans dropping out of the workforce.

[bluetick]

Other economists speculated that the tepid data in August represented something of a timeout after six straight months of payroll gains of more than 200,000, the best run since before the recession.

"This looks like a breather, rather than a fundamental downshift," said Omair Sharif, senior United States economist at RBS.

[Toemeesleather]

While unemployment nationwide is 6.1%, the unemployment rate for black Americans at 11.4% is more than double the rate for white Americans, who have an unemployment rate of 5.3%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

[hedge]

"She and her hosts, who are literally groaning in response to the news, were clearly not happy to report the 80,000 job shortfall:"

Only people like Toe are happy about an 80,000 job shortfall....