StarrGazerr
StarrGazerr's JournalJobs Report: U.S. Economy Added 203K Jobs In November, Unemployment Down To 7%
Seems like no matter what the Republicans do to try to hobble the American economy, they can't stop the Obama Recovery.Employers added 203,000 jobs in November, above the 180,000 economists expected. The unemployment rate, which is drawn from a different survey of households, was down to 7% from 7.3% in October. The labor force participation rate was up slightly to 63% from 62.8%.
Following the news the S&P 500 added about 18 points to 1,800 in pre-market trading. The Dow added about 143 points to 15,960.
“On the broad brush it is obviously a good number,” said Steve Blitz, chief economist at ITG Investment Research. Blitz pointed out, however, that private sector payroll and average hourly earnings are up about 2% year-over year. He calls it “the 2% economy.” So when you dig into the numbers there are more questions.
Can a President Nominate Himself (or Herself) to the Supreme Court?
I was having a discussion with some friends about William Howard Taft. Doris Kearns Goodwin is out with a new book called "The Bully Pulpit" which is about the relationship between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. It turns out that Taft wasn't as interested in becoming President as most candidates have been, and actually was more interested in serving on the Supreme Court. Supposedly Roosevelt had assured Taft that if the Chief Justice chair became vacant while he was President he would appoint Taft to the seat. Unfortunately for Taft, there was no vacancy for a Chief Justice during TR's term. Ironically, while Taft was President, the Chief Justice chair did become vacant, but Taft didn't believe he had the authority to nominate himself to the seat.
So I decided to take a look at the Constitution. All the Constitution says on the subject (Article II, Section 2, paragraph 2) is:
(The President) shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to ... appoint ... Judges of the supreme Court"
There's nothing whatsoever in the Constitution that sets out who is eligible to serve as a Supreme Court Justice. Nothing requires him or her to be a citizen, a member of the Bar of at least one state, any given age, or any other qualification. In theory, a President could nominate Vladimir Putin to the U.S. Supreme Court. Of course, one would hope that Congress wouldn't 'advise and consent' if a President went totally off the rails.
But the bottom line seems to be that there's nothing in the Constitution that prevents a sitting President from nominating himself to the United States Supreme Court. Congress still would have to approve the appointment, and the person would have to convince the Senate that not only he or she was qualified to sit on the Court, but also that his or her Vice President was qualified to become President. But if Congress agreed to the nomination, it doesn't seem, to me at least, that the Constitution would be at all offended.
Iran invites UN inspectors to controversial Arak nuclear facility
This will come as disappointing news to the war hawks, but it looks like once again President Obama's leadership is yielding positive results for America and the world.Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, also said the IAEA was looking into how Sunday's agreement between Iran and six world powers to curb Tehran's nuclear activity could be "put into practice" concerning the U.N. agency's role in verifying the deal.
The IAEA will expand its monitoring of Iran's uranium enrichment sites and other facilities under the interim accord, reached after marathon talks between Iran and the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China.
"This will include the implications for funding and staffing," Amano told the IAEA's 35-nation governing board, according to a copy of his speech.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/11/28/iran-invites-u-ninspectorstocontroversialaraknuclearfacility.html
Breaking: Federal District Court Declares A Religious Income Tax Exemption Unconstitutional
U.S. District Court Judge Barbara B. Crabb of the Western District of Wisconsin ruled that the so-called “parish exemption,” which allows religious ministers to avoid paying taxes on the value of their housing granted to them by their religious employers, “violates the establishment clause” of the U.S. Constitution and must be discontinued.
The law, 26 U.S. C. § 107(2), has bee on the books since 1954.
The tax exemption was estimated to cost U.S. taxpayers $2.3 billion from 2002-2007 alone, likely more in the years since.
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/breaking-federal-district-court-declares-a-religious-income-tax-exemption-unconstitutional/politics/2013/11/22/79158#.UpDDguIliov
[Edited to add link]
Defying G.O.P. on Nominees, Reid Moves to Limit Filibuster
And it's about time!Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, set in motion a series of procedural steps that, if followed through, would eliminate the use of the filibuster against nominees to cabinet posts and the federal judiciary.
“The need for change is so, so very obvious. It is clearly visible,” Mr. Reid said as the Senate convened. “It is time to get the Senate working.”
Tensions between the two parties have reached a boiling point in the last few weeks as Republicans repeatedly filibustered Mr. Obama’s picks to the country’s most important appeals court, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The Senate has voted on three nominees to the court in the last month. Republicans have blocked them all, saying they would allow the president no more appointments to that court.
[link:http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/22/us/politics/reid-sets-in-motion-steps-to-limit-use-of-filibuster.html?hp&_r=0|
Exposed: The myth of the global warming 'pause'
A new study has found that global temperatures have not flat-lined over the past 15 years, as weather station records have been suggesting, but have in fact continued to rise as fast as previous decades, during which we have seen an unprecedented acceleration in global warming.
The findings will undermine the arguments of leading sceptics, such as the former Chancellor Lord Lawson, who have criticised scientists from the Met Office and other climate organisations for not accepting that global warming has stopped since about 1998.
Two university scientists have found that the “pause” or “hiatus” in global temperatures can be largely explained by a failure of climate researchers to record the dramatic rise in Arctic temperatures over the past decade or more.
[link:http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exposed-the-myth-of-the-global-warming-pause-8945607.html|
Report: Rise in health care spending lowest on record
Think any Republican will notice?An economy hobbled by the recession and 2008 economic crisis played a role in some of the reduced spending growth, officials said, but the report cited "structural change" caused, in part, by the law.
The report's release comes as President Obama and his administration struggle with the political fallout associated with the problem-filled opening of the federal health care exchange, the online marketplace where uninsured Americans can shop for and buy insurance. The exchange's website, HealthCare.gov, opened Oct. 1 and has been hampered by outages and delays, particularly in its first weeks of operation.
[link:http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2013/11/20/health-care-spending-growth/3650243/|
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