Friday Open Thread [5.3.13]
The U.S. economy added 165,000 jobs in April, which is a good not great number, but the better news is the revisions for February (a great month that is now Clintonian Great) and March (a Bushian bad month of low job growth that has now become Obamian Good).
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for February was revised from +268,000 to +332,000, and the change for March was revised from +88,000 to +138,000. With these revisions, employment gains in February and March combined were 114,000 higher than previously reported.
The Washington Post has a few things to say about Joe Biden’s paradox:
“[Biden] is beloved by grass-roots Democrats, but mainly as the avuncular No. 2 to Barack Obama. […] Biden clearly has the experience and gravitas to ascend to the presidency, but many Democrats say he may have been in Washington too long (since 1973) to win an election. He is President Obama’s governing partner yet is rarely seen as Obama’s heir apparent. For that mantle, and for the nomination, he is likely to face stiff competition in the form of Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former secretary of state and, according to most everyone, the 2016 front-runner.”
Obama nominates anti-labor, school privatizing, bankster heiress billionaire (and major donor) as Secretary of Commerce.
The suicide rate of people in their 50s has doubled:
This is the environment in which Tom Carper wants to raise the Social Security eligibility age.
If you are in your 40s or 50s and are economically secure, you would have to be extraordinarily empathetic for this to make any sense to you.
It is pathetic that I am hoping to vote for Hillary on the vague hope she will reinstitute and expand her husband’s prosperity policies.
Obama keeps talking about how recovery will be slow and it is a long road. That is just not good enough. We now have an entrenched expectation of high unemployment and low wages that is intolerable and needs to be reversed, not nurtured and perpetuated.
Ernesto gets nasty letter in mail, conflates it with those who support tolerance and peace.
https://www.facebook.com/LopezErnie?hc_location=stream
“Good evening friends,
I have been humbled to serve you in the Delaware State Senate and feel blessed and thankful to be in the position that I am in. For those of you who have been with us since the begining, you know we have been through much and attacked by both the far left and the far right and yet with faith and determination, we keep pushing forward.
I had to share this message with you all and ask that you share it with others so you can see the meanness right here in our backyard and hatred from those who claim tolerance and peace:
“I feel sorry for your children to someday find out that their own father is a bigot, shows hatred and discrimination. Sir, I will pray to god tonight that one of your children will struggle with the fact that he or she is gay and will go through fear coming out to you knowing your position on gay marriage and that you feel gays should be discriminated against. ”
My friends, this was just a portion of another disturbing message that came in today. Thank you all for your prayers and support as this kind of vitriol and hate must stop. We have had enough of it.
Thank you all for your support! Ernie”
Well, yes, Lopez is turning something anecdotal into something empirical.
However, it’s safe to say that a letter like that is not helpful to the cause. Remember, when it comes to HB 75, it’s all about getting to ‘yes’.
Consider that as you contact your senators this weekend.
A letter like this is not helpful. Posting the letter isn’t helpful, either.
In doing so, he becomes part of the “hate and vitriol” that he ironically claims he wants to put an end to.
Politicians receive hate mail all the time. Time to man up and get a thicker skin. I am sure the RINO letters are filling his email box about gun control and the death penalty, but I don’t see him posting those letters calling for civility.
Seems like a cheap political shot to me on Ernies part. And one does wonder that if Ernies children happen to be blessed with “the gay”, what will he tell them?
That sounds to me like “Yes he got hate mail, but geez, man up!” and “He gets other hate mail why didn’t he post those?”
Cheap political shot or not, someone sent him the bullet and now there there is umbrage about him using it?
Civility is a two way street. I’m not sure about everyone else’s value system, but saying that someone is a “bigot, shows hatred and discrimination” really doesn’t meet any standard for civility.
What a fraud Lopez is pulling that shit. He could easily have published some bullshit like that from a wingnut, but he chose to charachterize the left as full of vitriol. What a punk. My respect for him is gone.
But ya are, Blanche, ya are in that chair!
Such an angry, puffy, toady, wholly scrutable little man.
Lopez aides have confirmed to the Washington Blade that he is a no vote on HB 75. Marshall did not respond to the paper’s queries.
http://www.washingtonblade.com/2013/05/03/seven-delaware-senators-to-vote-against-gay-marriage-bill/
Awwwww poor Jason. He’s mad with Ernie. Grow up dude and quit acting like a sissyboy.