The Right Lane update 4.05.13

The pursuit of Constitutionally grounded governance, free markets and individual liberty

"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily." --George Washington

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U.S. Adds Only 88,000 Jobs; Jobless Rate Falls to 7.6% Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters

The nation’s employers increased their payrolls by 88,000 last month, compared with 268,000 in February, according to a Labor Department report released Friday. The unemployment rate, which comes from a different survey, ticked down to 7.6 percent from 7.7 percent.  The slight decrease in the unemployment rate occurred not because more unemployed people got jobs, but because the number of people active in the labor force — i.e., working or looking for work — fell. The labor force participation rate has not been this low since 1979, when it was also 63.3 percent, at a time when women were less likely to be working. Baby Boomer retirements may account for part of the slide, but discouragement about job prospects in a mediocre economy still seems to be playing a large role, economists say.  Don't listen to how the White House will spin this.  Their economic plan is NOT working. Period.

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People Not In Labor Force Soar By 663,000 To 90 Million, Labor Force Participation Rate At 1979 Levels

Things just keep getting worse for the American worker, and by implication US economy, where as we have shown many times before, it pays just as well to sit back and collect disability and various welfare and entitlement checks, than to work .The best manifestation of this: the number of people not in the labor force which in March soared by a massive 663,000 to a record 90 million Americans who are no longer even looking for work. This was the biggest monthly increase in people dropping out of the labor force since January 2012, when the BLS did its census recast of the labor numbers. And even worse, the labor force participation rate plunged from an already abysmal 63.5% to 63.3% - the lowest since 1979! But at least it helped with the now painfully grotesque propaganda that the US unemployment rate is "improving."

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Now For The Spin: The Employment Situation in March

While more work remains to be done, [are they joking?] today’s employment report provides further evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression. It is critical that we continue the policies that are helping to build an economy [tell that to the 90 Million] that creates jobs and works for the middle class as we dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the severe recession that began in December 2007. Today’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that private sector businesses added 95,000 jobs last month. Total non-farm payroll employment rose by 88,000 jobs in March. The February and March employment numbers were revised up by a total of 61,000 jobs. The economy has now added private sector jobs every month for 37 straight months, and a total of nearly 6.5 million jobs has been added over that period. The household survey showed that the unemployment rate fell from 7.7 percent in February to 7.6 percent in March, the lowest since December 2008. The labor force participation rate decreased by 0.2 percentage point to 63.3 percent in March.

Judge Orders Morning-After Pill Available for All Ages

A federal judge has ruled that the government must make the most common morning-after pill available over the counter for all ages, instead of requiring a prescription for girls 16 and younger.

The decision, on a fraught and politically controversial subject, comes after a decade-long fight over who should have access to the pill and under what circumstances. And it counteracts an unprecedented move by the Obama administration’s Health and Human Services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, who in 2011 overruled a recommendation by the Food and Drug Administration to make the pill available for all ages without a prescription.  In a decision in a lawsuit filed by advocates, the judge, Edward R. Korman of Federal District Court, ruled that the government’s refusal to lift restrictions on access to the pill was “arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable.”  Judge Korman ordered the F.D.A. to lift any age and sale restrictions on the pill, Plan B One-Step, and its generic versions, within 30 days. As I wrote yesterday.  Your marriage and children have NOW becoming chattel property of the government.  You will be gradually stripped of you parental rights to raise and be legal guardians over your own children.  Sadly, more to come.

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Backfire on Obama — Gun Control  by Gary North

How serious are Americans about buying guns? Enough to apply for a background check to buy one. How many Americans have applied for a background check since the day Obama was inaugurated?

Go on. Guess. The answer: over 70 million. Think about this. Over 70 million adult Americans went to the trouble of identifying themselves as gun owners. This sends a message to Congress: “Don’t mess with our guns.” This sends a message to gun control advocates: “You haven’t got the votes.” Talk about futility. Gun controllers say that they represent the true feelings of Americans on guns. But where is their evidence? How many voters have signed petitions against gun ownership? Not 70 million. How many Americans registered for background checks under all four years of Bush’s presidency? About 35 million. But the sign-ups are just getting started for Obama. He has over three more years. Will it hit 100 million? Let’s hope so. The gun controllers have pushed the hot buttons of 70 million Americans. They got the opposite reaction from what they expected. Keep it up, guys! You cannot win. You are making it easier for us Second Amendment voters. Send a message to Feinstein. Buy a gun. At least buy some ammo.

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Gun poll: background checks bring confiscation

A plurality of Americans believe the federal government could use information gleaned from expanded background checks to confiscate legally-owned firearms, according to a Quinnipiac survey released Thursday. But the poll also showed support for background checks remains nearly universal. According to the survey, 48 percent said they believed the government could use background check records to guns, while 38 said the government could not. Ninety-one percent favored background checks anyway, and only 8 percent are opposed.

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"We Cannot simply cut, we must have a ballanced approach!": Federal Govt. Spends $2.1 Million to Study ‘What Animals Really Think’

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $2.1 million grant over five years for a research project titled, “Wild Minds: What Animals Really Think.” The research project is designed to study how animals think and to promote “the evolutionary link between animals and humans,” as well as animal welfare “in the wild and in our homes,” according to the award abstract on the NSF Web site. The New York Hall of Science, the Institute for Learning Innovation, Hunter College of the City University of New York, and a consortium of five regional science center/zoo partnerships received $2,131,193 in funding, which began Sept. 1, 2009 and continues until Aug. 31, 2013. Sure, there is not fat or waste to cut!

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Disability Trust Fund Ran Record $31.2B Deficit in 2012; In Deficit Every Year Under Obama  By Terence P. Jeffrey

The federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund, which takes in money via a federal payroll tax and pays it out in disability benefits, ran a record $31.2 billion deficit in calendar year 2012, according to the Social Security Administration.  That means the trust fund has run a deficit in each of the first four years of the Obama presidency. For fifteen straight years before Obama took office—from 1994 through 2008—the Disability Insurance Trust Fund ran a surplus. In 2007, for example, it ran an $11 billion surplus and in 2008 it ran an $889-million surplus.

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Obama’s Comments on AG’s Good Looks Sexist?

President Barack Obama knows a good-looking attorney general when he sees one — but some think that his noting it publicly was not so gentlemanly. Obama sparked criticism when he spoke about California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris at a suburban San Francisco fundraiser Wednesday night. “You have to be careful to, first of all, say she is brilliant and she is dedicated and she is tough, and she is exactly what you’d want in anybody who is administering the law, and making sure that everybody is getting a fair shake,” Obama said of Harris. He then added, “She also happens to be, by far, the best-looking attorney general in the country.”  “In 2008, Obama referred to a female reporter as “sweetie,” drawing fire.

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Michelle Obama, Says She’s ‘Single Mother’

 See Above: First lady Michelle Obama in a local TV interview Thursday and called herself a “single mother.” “Believe me, as a busy single mother– or, I shouldn’t say single, as a busy mother. Sometimes, you know, when you’ve got a husband who is president, it can feel a little single. But he’s there. But as a busy working mom, and before coming to the White House, I was in that position, you know, as well. Working, driving kids to practice, not having enough time to shop or cook, not having the energy, you know, the resources weren’t the issue but time and energy is key,” she added. Slip or Freudian?

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One More Time: America is a Constitutional Republic – Not a Democracy

There seems to be ever increasing emphasis on democracy’s desirability as a form of government. The media and politicians keep talking about democratic government both here and abroad as the ideal. And an ignorant population buys into this deception.  Yet America was not founded as a democracy. In fact, democracy is not mentioned in any of the founding documents. America was established as a republic – a representative republic – not as a democracy. It is said the Founding Fathers feared democracy – rule by the mob – the much uninformed or under-informed populace.

Mob rule brings about unbelievable occurrences. Guys are elected with little or no experience or preparation for the task at hand. Certainly the election of Barack Obama is a prime example – when you consider his inexperience and background compared to that of his opponent. Democracy is leading to the decline of our once great country – as more and more takers vote for more and more politicians who promise more and more free stuff.

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Economic Fairness

44% See Conflict Between Economic Growth and Fairness

Most voters still believe policies that encourage economic growth are more important than those promoting economic fairness, but they’re slightly less convinced that there is a conflict between the two.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 71% of Likely U.S. Voters consider policies that encourage economic growth to be Very Important. That compares to 49% who say the same of policies that promote economic fairness.

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The trigger and the poison pill Charles Krauthammer.
Is a bipartisan immigration deal at hand? It’s close. Last week, the AFL-CIO and the Chamber of Commerce worked out a guest-worker compromise that allows in foreign workers on a sliding scale of 20,000 to 200,000, depending on the strength of the economy.  Nice deal. As are the other elements of the Senate’s bipartisan Gang of Eight plan – the expansion of H-1B visas for skilled immigrants, serious tracking of visa overstayers and, most important, a universal E-Verify system that would make it very risky for any employer to hire an illegal immigrant.

But there’s a rub. It’s the perennial rub.  Are Democrats serious about border enforcement? It’s supposed to be the trigger that would allow illegal immigrants to start on the path to citizenship.  Why is a trigger necessary? To prevent a repeat of the 1986 fiasco where amnesty was granted and border enforcement never came – giving us today’s 11 million living in the shadows.  Yet just a week ago, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, referring to border enforcement, averred that “relying on one thing as a so-called trigger is not the way to go.” Regarding legalization, “there needs to be certainty.” But not for border security?  And she’s the person in charge of securing that border.

Now listen to President Obama: “Given the size of the border, it’s never going to be 110 percent perfect. What we can do is to continue to improve it.” The usual Obama straw man. Who’s asking for 110 percent enforcement? And the need is for something a lot more than just improvement. The objective is to reduce a river to a trickle. It’s doable. The two sections with triple fencing outside San Diego have reduced infiltration by 92 percent.

To be sure, the Gang of Eight enforcement trigger is not ideal. The 11 million get near-instant legalization – on the day, perhaps six to nine months after the bill is signed, when Homeland Security submits a plan (with the required funding) to achieve within a decade 90 percent apprehension and 100 percent real-time surveillance. This plan triggers “probationary” legalization, which in reality is permanent, because once the 11 million register, it is inconceivable their status would be revoked. Let’s be clear. A mere DHS enforcement plan is a very weak trigger. I would prefer legalization to occur later, once the plan is actually carried out and some independent body certifies that the border is essentially closed. But that simply will not happen. Democrats control the Senate and the White House, and they will only agree to a weaker trigger. Which is?

Legalization first – i.e., living here openly without fear of deportation but nothing more until the border is controlled. Until then, no one even starts on the path to citizenship – no green card, no naturalization.
Why? Isn’t border control an elementary principle of sovereignty? What country deliberately forfeits the right to decide who gets to join its communal life? Why deliberately create the next immigration crisis? Is it because you coldly calculate that this wave and the next are destined to be partisans of your political party? Talk about placing party over country.  Or perhaps Obama intends this to be a poison pill: (1) Demonstrate unmistakable bad faith on enforcement. (2) Undermine the Gang of Eight’s already weak border-control “trigger.” (3) And thus force Republicans to defeat this “immigration reform” – as newly defined and newly defanged of enforcement.  Obama seems to want an issue, not a solution – a potent political issue for Democrats to demagogue in 2014 and 2016 and forever. If so, given the Democrats’ incessant and lachrymose expressions of compassion for those living in the shadows, this would be the ultimate in cynicism.

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"When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground."--Thomas Jefferson, Second Inaugural Address, 1805

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