And the Pinocchio goes to the Fact Checkers at the Washington Post!

Normally I am a very big fan of the Fact Checker on the Washington Post. They do a great job of taking a statement by a politician and then checking the facts. They tend to be very transparent. However, I am very disappointed in their "fact check" today.
On May 4, 2012, on "Fox and Friends," Mitt Romney said,“We should be seeing numbers in the 500,000 jobs created per month. This is way, way, way off from what should happen in a normal recovery.”
So the Post went to check whether or not 500,000 jobs really is "normal."
His conclusion?
They pulled up Bureau of Labor Statistics for the past 65 years (Why 65? Because that is Romney's age, not exactly a scientific comparison.), for a total of 784 months to compare the claim to.
And well, no,what he found was only 14 times out of those 784 that the jobs rate hit 500,000. So they said Romney was wrong and gave him 2 Pinocchios.
Well... this is where my problem comes in. He used very faulty comparison and math, didn't he? Was the country "in a normal recovery" during all of those 784 months? No, not even close.
So the real fact that these so-called Fact Checkers should have checked was first, what months over the past 65 years, was the nation in a recovery? And then checked to see what the job growth rate was during those months, and then, it should have adjusted for population growth.
I'm tempted to sit down and try and figure out the numbers myself. It would be very time-consuming to say the least. But stay tuned, you never know. I just might do it anyway.

Source: Mitt Romney's new normal for job creation.

Keystone Pipeline- Who benefits? Who doesn't?

Keystone XL Pipeline Map, Linked to source at WashingtonPost.com

(From the Motley Fool)
The TransCanada (NYSE: TRP) Keystone XL pipeline project is a proposed 1,700-mile pipeline that would transport 830,000 barrels of oil from one of the largest oil reserves in the world in Alberta to the one of the world’s largest refining center in the Gulf Coast.
On Thursday the US Senate narrowly defeated an amendment that would have allowed the project to move forward. President Obama has personally taken action to stop the progression of the pipeline due to environmental concerns. The measure, which received 56 votes in favor, failed because Senate rules require 60 votes to include the amendment. Sen. John Hoeven (R., N.D.), whose state stands to benefit greatly from the pipeline, is at the helm of the cause for Republicans, and has vowed to keep the issue alive.
In January, Congress attempted and failed to attach the pipeline to a payroll tax bill. Instead an assessment was requested by the State Department (and President Obama) for alternate pipeline routes that avoid the Sandhills of Nebraska. The Sandhills are nearly 20,000 square miles of unbroken prairie with hundreds of transient lakes, with a very high water table running through it (Ogallala Aquifer). The potential for oil leaks along the pipeline into the water table have raised environmental concerns by the Obama Administration.
TransCanada has agreed to reroute the pipeline likely farther east, nearer an existing Keystone pipeline that already carries Canadian tar sands oil into the US. The company expects to announce the path of the reroute when they apply for a new permit in the fall.

See the rest of the article at Keystone XL Pipeline- who benefits? Who doesn't?

Unemployment Rate Drops - how will that effect the race for prez?

Ironic only if that is a Domino's pizza.

The Labor Department announced that the unemployment rate dropped in December. The country benefited from 200,000 new jobs in that time, for a total of 1.6 million jobs created in 2011.

What will this mean to the presidential nomination race where the economy and jobs creation is a major issue?

Obviously this is a big deal for the Committee to Re-elect the President- a major feather in their collective cap. When “the recession” hit, 2 million jobs were lost in just the first three months (January-March 2008). Over all, 8 million jobs have been lost over the course of the recession. Only 1.6 million jobs have managed to come back. So should President Obama sing “Yankee Doodle," put a feather in his cap, and call it macaroni? Well, he will, whether or not he should.

Manufacturing, health care and education industries all saw 20,000 jobs in their sectors. Construction jobs even rose with 17,000 new jobs. Retail and food services jobs rose as well, but holiday hiring seriously skews these numbers. The real retail and food services number will come out in January.(You can read about why the December Jobs Report is Useless at the Motley Fool.)
How did the GOP candidates respond to the 200,000 new jobs??
Mitt Romney reminded everyone that Obama said he would be a one term president if he (Obama) couldn't create more jobs. And then, Romney reminded everyone just how many jobs he has created. And because all responses require an equal and opposite response from the media, AC360 (CNN) ran some numbers on Romney's claims. And guess what? Romney told the truth.

Romney has repeatedly said that he created over 100,000 jobs while at Bain Capital- 89,000 at Staples, 15,000 at Sports Authority, and 7,900 at Dominos. His critics like to point out that 2,200 jobs were cut at other companies as well. (Sorry, sometimes bad companies happen. Join the club.) Romney also created 3,400 jobs as the governor of Massachusetts. AC360, who likes to “keep politicians honest” (and do a great job of it), pointed out that the Bain jobs are current numbers, and not the number of employees back in the 80s and 90s. But I'd just like to point out that who cares if those are current numbers? Isn't that a good thing? Long term success? Long term business viability? The real "story" here would be if he created 100,000 jobs and none of those companies were still in business today.

Meanwhile, because we cannot go for 10 minutes without a candidate invoking the name of Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich let anyone who was still listening that when he worked side by side with Reagan, that together they “praised people who created jobs” (stop! I do believe that would mean he praised Mitt Romney! But I digress.) and that together they created 1.3 million jobs in August of 1983.

I was in the third grade in 1983.

Way to relate to younger voters, Newt.

And Rick Santorum wore a sweater vest. 

President Obama Channels President Roosevelt on New Nationalism

President Barack Obama channeled his inner President Theodore Roosevelt yesterday while speaking before a crowd in Osawatomie, Kansas. Osawatomie was the site where Roosevelt delivered his "New Nationalism" speech in 1910, promising Americans a "square deal." (Read the text of Roosevelt's "New Nationalsim" speech.)

"This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class, and all those who are fighting to get into the middle class. At stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home and secure their retirement," said Obama.
The president pressed for action from Congress on an extension of payroll-tax cuts,a key part of his $447 billion jobs package. Congress is currently stalled on the payroll tax cut issues because the Tea Party feels they are a short-term solution that would worsen the federal deficit and take money away from Social Security. However, all of the GOP presidential nominee candidates have spoken out against payroll taxes completely. The GOP says they want to find a compromise with Democrats that would keep the payroll tax rate at 4.2 percent next year, rather than allowing it to revert to 6.2 percent, but are rejecting the Democratic plan to charge a surtax on people who make more than $1 million a year to pay for the tax cut, thereby taxing the rich to pay for the poor. Something the GOP has always been against. The GOP wants more tax cuts, not just the payroll tax cut.
Meanwhile the President is in Kansas speaking about more than just his jobs bill, and launching a broad defense of more government regulation and higher taxes on the wealthy. (Where is Robin Hood when you need him?)
While continuing to blame all of his budget and debt problems on George W. Bush tax cuts, the President also attacked conservatives' advocacy of a free-market economy as an idea that has "never worked." (And the Founding Fathers all rolled over in their graves.)