Unemployment For Younger Workers Hits Lowest
Point Since January 2009

post from ThinkProgress on 12 March 2012 06:00:04 PM. © ThinkProgress

In the wake of the Great Recession, younger workers have had a significant amount of trouble entering the labor force, with unemployment for workers aged 25-34 hitting 10.5 percent back in May. But according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there is a glimmer of hope for younger workers, as their unemployment rate last month hit its lowest level since January 2009:

Jobs for 25-to-34-year-olds increased by 116,000 to 30.5 million in February. Their unemployment rate fell from 9% in January to 8.7%, the lowest since January 2009, according to the Labor Department.
Just as important, the portion of Americans in that age bracket who were employed ? known as the employment-to-population ratio ? rose to 74.7% from 74.5% and is up from a 29-year low of 73.2% in July. In a normal economy, about 80% of 25-to-34-year-olds have jobs.

Not only has the Great Recession been bad for workers entering the workforce, but as the Economic Policy Institute noted, the entire last decade has essentially been lost in terms of entry-level wages. As this chart shows, the entry level rage of college graduates today is below where it was in 2000:

And the picture is even worse for entry-level workers with just a high school degree. As the Wall Street Journal noted, “The drop in average wages for young adults is in contrast to U.S. government figures showing that average inflation-adjusted hourly wages for production and nonsupervisory workers of all ages and education levels are up 3% from a decade ago.”

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/03/12/443044/young-workers-unemployment/

Digg this

Romney: ‘I’ve Got A Lot Of Good
Friends’ Who Are NFL Team Owners

post from ThinkProgress on 12 March 2012 06:00:04 PM. © ThinkProgress

Late last month, Mitt Romney was the butt of many jokes after he said that although he is not a huge NASCAR fan, “I have some great friends that are NASCAR team owners.? But Romney’s friends are more diverse than just car racing owners — they include professional football team owners as well.

Appearing on Alabama sports commentator Paul Finebaum’s radio show this afternoon, Romney was asked about which team he thinks quarterback Peyton Manning will sign with. Romney said he wasn’t sure, but noted that he has some very good friends who own NFL teams:

FINEBAUM: You are a Patriots fan, I know that you’ve had a lot of support from that family. Having said that, the most coveted free agent in NFL history is Peyton Manning. I know you want him somewhere away from New England, where do you think he ought to go?
ROMNEY: Well, you know I’m surprised to hear that Denver’s thinking about him, they’re — I don’t want him in our neck of the woods, lets put it that way, I don’t want him to go to Maimi or to the Jets. But I’ve got a lot of good friends, the owner Miami Dolphins, and the New York Jets — both owners are friends of mine. But let’s keep him away from New England, so that Tom Brady has a better shot of picking up a championship for us.

Watch it:

Indeed, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross hosted a high-dollar fundraiser for Romney in June. New York Jets owner Robert Wood “Woody” Johnson IV also gave the maximum $2,500 to Romney’s campaign and another $5,000 to his leadership PAC.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/03/12/443115/romney-nfl-team-owners/

Digg this

Report: Number Of Anti-Muslim Groups Tripled In
2011

post from ThinkProgress on 12 March 2012 06:00:04 PM. © ThinkProgress

The number of anti-Muslim groups in the U.S. tripled in 2011 according to a new report released last week by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

The dramatic increase in anti-Muslim groups, according to SPLC Senior Fellow Mark Potok, occured as part of a rapid growth in “radical right” groups, “fueled by superheated fears generated by economic dislocation, a proliferation of demonizing conspiracy theories, the changing racial makeup of America, and the prospect of four more years under a black president who many on the far right view as an enemy to their country.”

Anti-Muslim groups, which jumped from 10 groups in 2010 to 30 in 2011, resulted from an growing political space for Islamophobia as politicians and anti-Muslim activists stirred up controversy over a planned Islamic cultural center in lower Manhattan.

While the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy pushed fringe anti-Muslim activists like Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer into the spotlight, the nationwide anti-Muslim movement gained more momentum with the “anti-Shariah” campaigns in various state legislatures. Anti-Shariah bills, which would forbid the use of Islamic Shariah law in state courts — “a completely unnecessary change, given that the U.S. constitution already rules that out,” writes Potok — have now been introduced in over twenty states.

Indeed, the SPLC is correct to point out the growth of anti-Muslim groups across the country. But, as discussed in the Center for American Progress’ report Fear Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America, many of the anti-Shariah initiatives are styled on model legislation drafted by anti-Muslim attorney and right-wing activist David Yerushalmi.

Potok also credits Rep. Peter King’s (R-NY) March 2011 hearings on the radicalization of U.S. Muslims and a “swelling of truly vicious propaganda” as demonizing American Muslims.

The SPLC also found sizable growth in anti-gay, black-separatist, Christian Identity, Klu Klux Klan, nativist extremist, neo-confederate, racist skinhead, and white nationalist groups.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/03/12/442973/report-number-of-anti-muslim-
groups-tripled-in-2011/

Digg this

Pro-GOP Pharmaceutical Front Group Running
Deceitful Attack Ads Against Senate Democrats

post from ThinkProgress on 12 March 2012 06:00:04 PM. © ThinkProgress

60 Plus Association national spokesman Pat Boone

The 60 Plus Association has launched a series of “issue ads” attacking Senate Democrats up for re-election this November. On the surface, they appear to be a concerned group of senior citizens worried about the future of Medicare — but a closer examination reveals that the ads are really dishonest hits by an industry front group.

Since 1992, 60 Plus has presented itself as a “seniors advocacy group with a free enterprise, less government, less taxes approach to seniors issues” and the “conservative alternative” to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). But unlike the 40-million-member AARP, 60 Plus is largely an “astroturf” front group for the pharmaceutical industry, with close ties to Republican direct mail pioneer Richard Viguerie, according to a 2003 AARP Bulletin report.

The series of ads — virtually identical in content — feature 1950s pop star Pat Boone criticizing Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and Jon Tester (D-MT). Boone, 77, a long time right-wing extremist, has previously compared liberals to cancer and called President Obama’s birth certificate a “photo-shopped fraud.”

The text of the anti-Tester spot:

Boone: Hi friend. I?m Pat Boone. Last year a lot of promises were made regarding healthcare reform. But America?s seniors knew forcing a bill through congress when Americans overwhelmingly opposed, it would be disastrous. And we were right.
Narrator: President Obama?s health care law cuts $500 billion from Medicare and creates a board of 15 unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats. It?s like a Medicare IRS, with the power to cut Medicare in order to pay for new government programs.
Boone: This IPAB board can ration care and deny certain Medicare treatments so Washington can fund more wasteful spending. Your choices could be limited and you may not be able to keep your own doctor. Medicare will be bankrupt in 9 years. But Washington politicians like Jon Tester are ignoring the problem, putting their own re-elections first. Call Senator Tester, urge him to support real Medicare reform and protect our seniors. Tell him unelected bureaucrats should never have the power to deny you the care you deserve.

Watch the ad:

Among the many problems with the ad:

The health care act passed two years ago, not last year.

Americans did not “overwhelmingly oppose” the law — most polls showed the nation closely divided on the bill at the time of passage.

The law did not cut $500 billion from Medicare, but rather slows the rate of future spending growth by that amount. PolitiFact has repeated called these claims false.

The IPAB board is nothing like the IRS and its proposed cuts can be rejected by Congress.

Even Republican Rep. Fred Upton (MI), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and a strong critic of the Affordable Care Act, says Medicare will not run out of money until 2024 — not in 9 years. Even the group’s own chairman said 10 years as recently as last month.

According to a study published by New England Journal of Medicine, the rate of spending growth for Medicare appears to have already gone significantly down since the passage of the healthcare reform law, making any cuts by the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) less likely.

The Affordable Care Act has already expanded choice for patients, rather than limit it.

On the one hand, Boone worries that Medicare will go bankrupt, but on the other, he worries about the possibility of IPAB cuts to the growth of Medicare. These “cuts” would, of course, be simply slowing the growth of the Medicare system, hardly a raid to pay for “more wasteful spending.”

Given 60 Plus’s history of backing a risky Social Security privatization scheme, they hardly have credibility on preserving the safety-net for America’s seniors. Last month, 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin said “Seniors don?t matter to Democrats, only scaring them to win elections does.” How sadly ironic that that is precisely what his group is attempting to do with these deceitful ads.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/03/12/442501/pro-gop-front-group-attack-ads/

Digg this

POLL: DADT Repeal Has ‘No Effect’ On
Sixty-Nine Percent Of Troops

post from ThinkProgress on 12 March 2012 06:00:04 PM. © ThinkProgress

Six months after the repeal of Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell took effect, a new survey shows that 69 percent of members of the armed forces feel that it has had ?no effect? on their units, compared to the 59 percent who expected it not to. Additionally, the number of troops who have actually seen a ?negative impact? is only 13 percent, lower than the 15 percent expectation. Asked what effect someone’s coming out might have on their unit, 73 percent said there would be “no impact,” with five percent even reporting there would be a “positive impact.” This shouldn?t come as a surprise, considering that one year after the repeal originally passed, gay and lesbian members of the military said that they were better able to focus on their mission, and that there had been few to no consequences from repealing the law. Currently, according to the report, only 13 percent of troops still oppose repeal.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/03/12/443081/dadt-repeal-has-no-effect-on-sixt
y-nine-percent-of-troops/

Digg this

Greenhouse Goal Has Disappeared From
Obama’s ‘Blueprint For A Secure Energy Future’

post from ThinkProgress on 12 March 2012 06:00:04 PM. © ThinkProgress

“Few challenges facing America, and the world, are more urgent than combating climate change,” President-elect Barack Obama said on November 19, 2008. “My presidency will mark a new chapter in America’s leadership on climate change that will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs in the process,” he promised.

Obama reiterated the pledge he made on the campaign trail and in his transition-team energy and environment agenda.

We will establish strong annual targets that set us on a course to reduce emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them an additional 80 percent by 2050.

Almost four years later, Obama’s rhetoric on climate change has disappeared. In the Blueprint for A Secure Energy Future: A Progress Report released today, prepared by Heather Zichal, Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, there’s only one mention of climate change other than Zichal’s title, in a voluntary international initiative on page 12. Last year’s Blueprint mentioned “global climate change” on page 37.

The blueprint does make several mentions of programs that reduce greenhouse pollution in individual sectors, but the Environmental Protection Agency’s work to regulate carbon pollution from power plants is not one of them.

Although the document does effectively explain that the Obama administration is working to moderately improve the health of our energy future despite intense partisan opposition, the abandonment of the goal of cutting carbon pollution in line with international obligations and scientific reality is a sad reflection of the power of the fossil fuel industry over American politics. It may also reflect the mistaken political calculation that Americans won’t support a leader who is willing to publicly fight the urgent challenge of climate change.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/green/2012/03/12/443112/greenhouse-goal-has-disappeared-
from-obamas-blueprint-for-a-secure-energy-future/

Digg this

Sen. Reid Plans Mass of Judicial Nomination
Fights in Senate

post from Firedoglake on 12 March 2012 05:55:27 PM. © Firedoglake

We heard that Harry Reid would make a last stand to deal with the crisis in the federal judiciary, and now we're getting it. Today, Reid announced he would spend the next two weeks seeking to confirm 17 federal judges who received unanimous or[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/l7KD4s6H3JU/

Digg this

It gets better

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/UJGEQletFLk/-It-gets-better

Digg this

Ken Cuccinelli's Quixotic War on Climate Science
Finally Ends

How much damage has Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli done with his baseless legal attacks on climate science? The Washington Post editorial board surveys the damage done by Cuccinelli's climate witch hunt:

This month, after nearly two years of legal proceedings, the Virginia Supreme Court halted the attorney general?s investigation of Mr. Mann, who used to teach at the University of Virginia. Twisting a law designed to root out embezzlement of state funds and the like, the attorney general had demanded oceans of documents ? including Mr. Mann?s e-mail correspondence ? from U-Va. But, along with some technical legal problems with his demand, Mr. Cuccinelli didn?t offer any reasonable suspicion that Mr. Mann had committed anything resembling fraud ? even as the attorney general proposed violating scientists? sacrosanct freedom to conduct research without political pressure. Multiple independent reviews of Mr. Mann?s record have found that the professor did little more than participate in the normal push-and-pull of scientific inquiry.

Now that the Supreme Court has shut Mr. Cuccinelli down, what?s left is a range of consequences that can only hurt the commonwealth. The university had to raise nearly $600,000 for legal fees ? money the cash-strapped university should have been able to use for something productive. On top of that are the public resources of the attorney general?s office that Mr. Cuccinelli wasted. Scientists in Virginia now have reason to wonder whether they will suffer similar pressure if they publish research government officials don?t like. And, because of some of the Supreme Court?s legal findings, the powers of the attorney general to pursue actual fraud have been clipped.

Tea Party activists claim to stand for fiscal restraint - then waste huge piles of taxpayer money on political witch hunts. Tea Party activists claim to stand for freedom - then bully scientists whose research contradicts Tea Party political beliefs. Tea Party activists claim to stand for limited government - then work to pass laws mandating the invasion of women's bodies.

Fraud like Cuccinelli's is exactly what they demand. If GOP activists continue to let the Tea Party inmates run the asylum, we should only expect more of it.

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheGreenMiles/~3/RcKPCJnQHbU/ken-cuccinellis-quixo
tic-climate-war.html

Digg this

Ken Cuccinelli's Quixotic Climate War Finally
Ends

This month, after nearly two years of legal proceedings, the Virginia Supreme Court halted the attorney general?s investigation of Mr. Mann, who used to teach at the University of Virginia. Twisting a law designed to root out embezzlement of state funds and the like, the attorney general had demanded oceans of documents ? including Mr. Mann?s e-mail correspondence ? from U-Va. But, along with some technical legal problems with his demand, Mr. Cuccinelli didn?t offer any reasonable suspicion that Mr. Mann had committed anything resembling fraud ? even as the attorney general proposed violating scientists? sacrosanct freedom to conduct research without political pressure. Multiple independent reviews of Mr. Mann?s record have found that the professor did little more than participate in the normal push-and-pull of scientific inquiry.

Now that the Supreme Court has shut Mr. Cuccinelli down, what?s left is a range of consequences that can only hurt the commonwealth. The university had to raise nearly $600,000 for legal fees ? money the cash-strapped university should have been able to use for something productive. On top of that are the public resources of the attorney general?s office that Mr. Cuccinelli wasted. Scientists in Virginia now have reason to wonder whether they will suffer similar pressure if they publish research government officials don?t like. And, because of some of the Supreme Court?s legal findings, the powers of the attorney general to pursue actual fraud have been clipped.