Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, fending off questions about whether she used her Native American heritage to advance her career, said today she enrolled herself as a minority in law school directories for nearly a decade because she hoped to meet other people with tribal roots.
“I listed myself in the directory in the hopes that it might mean that I would be invited to a luncheon, a group something that might happen with people who are like I am. Nothing like that ever happened, that was clearly not the use for it and so I stopped checking it off,” said Warren.
The Harvard Law professor argued she didn’t use her minority status to get her teaching jobs, and slammed her Republican rival U.S. Sen.Scott Brown for suggesting otherwise.
Warren is looking to shake off the story of her Native American background, which has hounded her since the Herald first reported that Harvard Law School has touted Warren as a minority hire. She also listed herself as a minority in a law school directory for nine years between 1986 and 1995.
“Being Native American has been part of my story I guess since the day I was born,” said Warren, who never mentioned her Native American heritage on the campaign trail even as she detailed much of her personal history to voters in speeches, statements and a video. “These are my family stories, I have lived in a family that has talked about Native American and talked about tribes since I was a little girl.”
Warren’s statements come as genealogists at the New England Historic Genealogical Society were unable to back up earlier accounts that her great great great grandmother is Cherokee. While Warren’s great great great grandmother, named O.C. Sarah Smith, is listed on a electronic transcript of a 1894 marriage application as Cherokee, the genealogists are unable to find the actual record or a photograhic copy of it, Society spokesman Tom Champoux said. A copy of the marriage license itself has been located, but unlike the application, it does not list Smith’s ethnicity.
Their excesssive demands squeeze local governments.
Terry List, a teacher in Saginaw Township, Mich., has a depressing lesson for her students: “I would not recommend to my pupils to become a teacher in Michigan.”
What’s discouraging her? A proposed pension-reform bill in Michigan would derail her plans to retire — at age 47.
After these rapacious reforms, List would have to work another 16 years, to age 63, in order to earn her retiree health-care benefits. “I understand we have to tighten our belts,” she laments, “but we don’t have to use a tourniquet and cut off the blood supply entirely.” Under the reforms, such a tourniquet means she could still retire now and have a guaranteed income for the rest of her life, but she’d have to pay for her own health care until age 65 — like, you know, most Americans.
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Until recently, employees of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority enjoyed “23 and out” pensions. No matter when they began their careers, they could collect nearly full pensions after 23 years on the job. (That has been raised to the a punishing figure of 25 years, and now with a minimum age of 55 before they can collect.) Perhaps the most famous member of the organization that negotiated these benefits, the Boston Carmen’s Union, is Patrick Bulger, son of longtime Massachusetts state-senate president Billy Bulger. The younger Bulger retired from the Carmen’s Union at 43 and began collecting an annual pension of $41,000. Plus cost-of-living adjustments. For the rest of his life.
It’s hard to justify such benefits when the rest of America relies on 401(k)s, Social Security, and Medicare, making their effective retirement age, on average, 63 — and soon to rise. Public employees retire still very much in their working years. Even though they’re guaranteed financial security for life, some of them in “retirement” go on to lucrative jobs in the private sector — or, more disturbingly, back in the public sector. Take retired MBTA manager Michael Mulhern, age 48, who now enjoys a $130,000-a-year pension — and earns $225,000 a year as executive director of the MBTA’s retirement fund.
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As a 2007 GAO report explains, rising health-care costs make these promises extremely difficult, almost impossible, to account for — when state and local governments even bother. They usually don’t. Few still rely on pay-as-you-go budgeting for pensions, though it remains common for health care.
By almost every measure, public-sector unions have managed to extract excessive levels of retirement benefits from governments, whose obligations have been vastly increased by the early ages at which the benefits can be claimed. That the benefits enjoyed by public employees already are more generous than anything the average American knows, and that they can enjoy them at an age when the average American is still working, isn’t just adding insult to injury. It’s adding kerosene to tinder.
Jobless rate at 3-year low as payrolls surge - Really? LOL. The report is a bad joke. I just cannot believe that such a spinning and twisting of the truth are done by the government and the media that once were hold as world wide example of freedom and democracy. We are really witnessing the fall of our great nation.
More pistons in the economic engine have begun to fire, pointing to accelerating economic growth. One of the happiest persons reading this job report is President Obama…
There are over 3 million “missing” workers who should be in the labor force, but are not.
If labor force participation were in line with demographic projections, the unemployment rate would be above 10 percent.
The possibility of large numbers of people reentering the labor force makes it very difficult for the unemployment rate to fall below 8 percent by Election Day.
US Bridges, Roads Built By Chinese Firms (ABC News – Video)
A nurse has recorded the most common regrets of the dying, and among the top ones is ‘I wish I hadn’t worked so hard’. What would your biggest regret be if this was your last day of life?
Never before in postwar America has either real per capita GDP or employment still been lower four years after a recession began. If in this “recovery” our economy had grown and generated jobs at the average rate achieved following the 10 previous postwar recessions, GDP per person would be $4,528 higher and 13.7 million more Americans would be working today.
California has a huge state debt and Washington has a huge national debt. But that does not discourage either Governor Jerry Brown or President Barack Obama from wanting to launch a very costly high-speed rail system.
Someone once said that government is the illusion that we can all live off somebody else…
The city of Atlanta launched work on a new, 12-stop downtown streetcar line Wednesday — and officials disclosed that the project’s estimated price tag has risen by more than $12 million. Much of that increase is paid for by outside grants.
Local and federal leaders at a kickoff event said the money will be well-spent, despite critics’ doubts that ridership will justify the costs.
“This is about jobs,” said Ray LaHood, U.S. Secretary of Transportation. “This is about creating an economic corridor. … This will be a magnet for tourism.”
Critics, however, say the project will not draw enough traffic to justify its cost.
“Since the day that I’ve met my husband, I’ve watched him work tirelessly to try make a difference in other people’s lives. He does that because for him, all of this is all very personal. You know Barack’s story,” the first lady said. “Barack and I both watched our families work hard to make ends meet.”
“That has been the direction of his choices through out his life,” Obama said. “How can he use his blessings and his gifts to help as many people as possible.”
“We are blessed to have someone not just of his intellectual caliber but with such a strong grounding of values that all of us identify with — these basic American values that have made our country great and will continue to make us the strongest country in the world,” the first lady said.
This winter has brought a useful tutorial on capitalism courtesy of the media, the Democratic party and President Obama. They have illustrated for us how the depredations of profit-seekers crush American aspirations.
Terry Williams borrowed about $7,000 to earn a degree from Spelman College 38 years ago. For her youngest child, a sophomore at Belmont University in Nashville, she will take on almost $40,000 in parental loans.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg says his budget plan for the coming fiscal year has closed a $2 billion budget gap. But he says the city is facing deficits in following years.
Ontario faces decade of deficits - Time to implement Obama-care in Canada. According to our White House, Obama-care will reduce the cost of healthcare …
And the Ottawa-based economic think-tank says the province will need to rein in health-care cost increases if it wants to balance the books by 2022.
Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., observed on the House floor today that General Electric appears to be one of China’s top sources of corporate tax revenue while paying no taxes in the United States in a speech critiicing GE and President Obama, who tapped GE’s CEO as his jobs czar.
After alluding to a New York Times report that GE paid no U.S. taxes in 2010, Wolf said that “the Congressional Research Service found that the October 2008 issue of China Taxation magazine published top corporate tax payers in the commercial services sector. The Beijing subsidiary of GE was number 32.”
“While we don’t yet have data regarding GE’s tax payments in China for 2010, it is noteworthy that GE, an American company,” Wolf continued, “paid no federal taxes in its home country last year, while being honored for being a significant source of tax revenue to China.”
Wolf took the opportunity to attack Obama. “Ironically, the head of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness is GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt,” he said. “Meanwhile half of GE’s workforce is overseas.”
Wolf suggested that a planned joint venture between GE and a Chinese firm “to develop avionics systems for jets” will damage national security. “The sensitive technology involved will be completely compromised by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA),” he argued.
In conclusion, Wolf touted a minibus appropriations bill he has been pushing that he believes “can help state and local governments better compete for these jobs” that might otherwise go overseas.
Obama: My Plan Makes Electricity Rates Skyrocket – Barack Obama: “Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.” (That video is from January 2008)
Now we have those news stories in May and June 2011 ….
Two new EPA pollution regulations will slam the coal industry so hard that hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost, and electric rates will skyrocket 11 percent to over 23 percent, according to a new study based on government data.
Overall, the rules aimed at making the air cleaner could cost the coal-fired power plant industry $180 billion, warns a trade group.
“Many of these severe impacts would hit families living in states already facing serious economic challenges,” said Steve Miller, president of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. “Because of these impacts, EPA should make major changes to the proposed regulations before they are finalized,” he said.
The EPA, however, tells Whispers that the hit the industry will suffer is worth the health benefits. “EPA has taken a number of sensible steps to protect public health, while alsoworking with industry and other stakeholders to ensure that these important Clean Air Act standards—such as the first ever national Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for coal-fired power plants—are reasonable, common-sense, and achievable,” said spokesman Brendan Gilfillan. [Read Rep. Darrell Issa: Obama's Bad Policy, Harmful Regulations Add to Gas Prices.]
What’s more, officials said that just one of the rules to cut sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions will would yield up to $290 billion in annual health and welfare benefits in 2014. They say that amounts to preventing up to 36,000 premature deaths, 26,000 hospital and emergency room visits, and 240,000 cases of aggravated asthma. “This far outweighs the estimated annual costs,” says an official on background.
You see they are doing it for our own good….Right?
We may not have jobs but we will live longer (presumably)
Never mind that on the other side of the globe, China is using 3 times more coal than America.
What is EPA going to do about that? How are they going to prevent Chinese pollution in the air from entering through the American borders?
The report says China’s consumption rose by 11.2 percent last year compared with 3.7 percent in the United States. China’s surge led a 5.6 percent increase in global energy demand, the biggest one-year jump since 1973.
China was by far the world’s largest consumer of coal, taking 48 percent
The Department of Agriculture (USDA)announced that it has awarded $17.4 million for pilot projects that will begin exploring how to establish a market for greenhouse gas (GHG) credits, a key component of a cap and trade system, to help reduce carbon and other emissions that apparently contribute to global warming.
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In a cap and trade system, farmers, ranchers, and other agriculture producers theoretically stand to make money by selling credits to other, GHG-intense businesses such as manufacturers and power companies.
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The Agriculture Department was getting involved in the establishment of carbon markets, which currently exist only in states like California and the Northeast, was to better integrate the federal government into regional cap and trade systems, so that the government has a better understanding of how GHG offset markets function.
But in reality what is happening in Europe that instituted the cap and trade? Millions of pollution permits in Europe’s emissions trading scheme do very little for the environment….Here is a story from January 2011
European emitters of greenhouse gases, mostly power companies, find it easier to buy in carbon credits from China and India to meet their targets than to cut the emissions of their own operations.
So who loses out? The environment, of course. Instead of the money going to schemes that genuinely tackle emissions and slow global warming, it pays for a scheme in which there is a massive incentive for industrial plants to keep producing the gases they are then paid handsomely to destroy.
What we are doing in America with the coal industry can be compared with what European Union is doing with their Airline industry…. Committing economic suicide
With the European Union’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) set to affect airlines next year, Lufthansa CEO Christoph Franz has warned the cap-and-trade plan will put Europe’s airlines at a competitive disadvantage.
Those additional costs couldn’t completely be passed on to customers because of intense fare competition in the sector, Franz explained. Chinese officials told him during a trip to the country this month they would consider imposing fees on European flights to counter the costs of ETS credits, he added.
Karin Holm-Müller, an environmental economist at the University of Bonn and a member of the German government’s advisory board on environmental policy, said airlines aren’t the first industry branch to fear cap-and-trade arrangements will dull their competitive edge.
“Considerations have been made to some degree about whether individual industries are too affected in competition [by cap-and-trade system],” she told Deutsche Welle. “One could consider how significantly air travel is affected… but in principle air travel should be included in the cap-and-trade system because it offers an additional opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
According to Michel Adam, environment manager for the Association of European Airlines (AEA) in Brussels, airlines from other continents are only affected when they touch down in Europe under the ETS plan.
“If you travel from North America to Asia and your journey includes a stopover at an EU airport, then the whole journey will be covered by the ETS and will have to include its price,” Adam said. “So flying via Dubai or North Africa would be cheaper than flying through the EU.”
China ratings house says US defaulting – Washington had already defaulted on its loans by allowing the dollar to weaken against other currencies — eroding the wealth of creditors including China….Heh-heh-heh…. Suckers!
Dow closes below 12 0000 – Investors were dour after U.S. May import prices showed a surprise rise of 0.2%, hinting at an inflation push coming into the U.S. from abroad. Surprised, eh?
JPMorgan Forecasts Another Drop in Home Prices – JPMorgan Chase is forecasting another 4 to 5 percent drop in home values over the next 12 months. The forecast number is low, if you ask me.
Home prices may drop another 25%, Shiller predicts – Home prices may drop as much as 25 percent, after inflation, over the next five years, economist Robert Shiller, co-founder of the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index, said Thursday
30% Of People With A 401(k) Have Taken Out A Loan Against It – One-in-seven people took out such loans last year — up by double digits from 2009, according to the consulting group AON Hewitt. More people not retiring and working into their 80s.
Ohio restaurant name-checked by Obama to close – The owners of an Ohio restaurant touted last week by President Barack Obama as an indirect beneficiary of the government’s Chrysler bailout said Thursday that tough times are putting them out of business. Obama is toxic any way you look at it.
States considering online lottery sales - Republican New York Assemblyman Clifford Crouch is sponsoring a bill that would allow online sales of Quick Draw and other games, with a goal of expanding the market. Legalising sin to boost revenue…soon to pass – lowering the drinking age to 14 and legalizing drugs and prostitution (I am not saying it is good or bad thing)
Americans’ equity in their homes near a record low – Falling real estate prices are eating away at home equity. The percentage of their homes that Americans own is near its lowest point since World War II, the Federal Reserve said Thursday. The average homeowner now has 38 percent equity, down from 61 percent a decade ago. And some realtors continue to say that the homes are supposed to be our pigi-banks to help our retirement?
US Is Nearing Even Worse Financial Crisis: Jim Rogers – In the last three years the government has spent staggering amounts of money and the Federal Reserve is taking on staggering amounts of debt. ”When the problems arise next time…what are they going to do? They can’t quadruple the debt again. They cannot print that much more money. It’s gonna be worse the next time around.” Why not?, Why not?
Job Plan With A Page From Marx – Presumably, if enough community college students can be trained for traditionally unionized manufacturers, employers will have no choice but to hire them. That’s a win-win-win-win for educational bureaucrats, unions, jobs and Obama’s political prospects. Below is a different prospective with which I agree more.We can have manufacturing here – high tech innovative manufacturing. Still do not agree with the part where the government gets to decide who is the winner and who is the looser in funding private businesses with grants
Less than half of African-American men now have full-time jobs, and less than half of all white men will have full-time jobs in 2018, according to post-2000 trends hidden in federal population and workforce data.
There are roughly 14 million people formally labeled as unemployed, but “there’s probably 22 million to 23 million people who are unemployed, mal-employed or underemployed,” said Andrew Sum, an economics professor at Northeastern University in Boston.
O-mama….”Less than half of African-American men now have full-time jobs, and less than half of all white men will have full-time jobs in 2018″
And see the above story should have been first page news everywhere….But what passes for news today are the distraction of the real problems – releasing 24 000 of Palin’s emails while she was governor (who cares?), that Weiner guy is probably going to keep his seat as our employee and we will continue to pay him to twitter his weine (I personally do not care about his private life, but boy if he lie so bluntly, can you trust him to represent you?), Obama to play golf with few other political hacks….probably discussing how to run America down the drain faster…
The Hidden Cost of Ethanol Subsidies – By mandating 40% of our corn crop be dedicated to ethanol, we’ve created domestic shortages that may turn the U.S. into a net importer of corn and destroy our dominance in one more area of the world economy. And as usual the bad news doesn’t come alone…It seems we will pay higher prices for the corn…and the ethanol
Tightening stockpiles drive up corn prices – Corn jumped to the highest price in almost three years after the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast tighter supplies, as adverse weather hurt crops
What’s up with the youth today in America….Oh, yeah – undereducated and out of work, no body is hiring right now so….-…so, they kill for joy….
Dozens Brawl Outside Downtown San Jose McDonald’s; 2 Stabbed – Witnesses told CBS5 that the brawl was so big it looked like a riot. That kind of behavior isn’t surprising to some. One man, who only identified himself as “Julio,” said the area looks like a “war zone” late at night with groups of youngsters looking for trouble.
NM teens tied up, smothered foster mom – Arrest documents say two 15-year-old girls accused of killing their foster mom in New Mexico put her in a chokehold, tied her hands and feet and then smothered her with a pillow.
Wash. residents warned of ‘bloodthirsty’ dog pack – You know what kind of countries usually have problem with bloodthirsty dog packs? Third world countries. In times of financial hardship some owners let the dogs go out to take care of themselves and feed with the garbage on the srteets. Few eventually will get together and start acting as their brothers the wolf in searching to kill a pray. Now the animal control cannot take care of the problem because the states and county budgets are in red, so they cannot care for them in the animal shelters because of lack of food and neither have enough people to hunt down the dogs. So what we did in my ex-third world country – the residents hunted them down themselves with poison meat and shotguns. May sound cruel, but I bet you do not want to see kids and old people eaten by dogs.
Obama’s Egghead Economic Saboteurs - Official motto of the White House economic team: Those who can, do. Those who can’t, fantasize in the classroom, fail in Washington and then return to the Ivy Tower to train the next generation of egghead economic saboteurs. Life is good for left-wing academics. Everyone else pays dearly.
Professor disaster – Rats, say goodbye to the ship of state: Gone are Christina Romer, Larry Summers, Peter Orszag. Headed out is Goolsbee, who abruptly announced his resignation Monday to return to teaching at the University of Chicago. With the water lapping over the gunwales, the lone holdout is Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, the former tax cheat, who sails grimly on. Heckuva job, guys.
O’Donnell: Most Voters “Don’t Really Know Anything About The Economy” – MSNBC’s LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: But a recent poll shows that a majority of voters–a majority of whom don’t really know anything about the economy–don’t believe that the economy is recovering and blame President Obama for the struggling economy
Illinois Tax Firesale – Illinois is proving what bookshelves full of studies have found: Handing out special favors one business at a time is politically corrupting and an ineffective economic development strategy. A sounder way to create jobs is to provide a welcome tax and regulatory climate for all businesses. Some states, such as Arizona, constitutionally prohibit politicians from granting special favors to a business or citizen.
New Jersey and New York Ranked as Worst States for “Individual Freedoms” -Freer states are attracting citizens from other states while less-free states are losing citizens — and their tax dollars. The study results also showed that a 0.25 unit increase in economic freedom increases the average annual growth rate in personal income by about 0.25 percentage points.
Fed survey: Economy falters in several US regions – Economy falters because of slower manufacturing and weaker consumer spending. Gee, how do you make consumers spend or manufactures produce if some of them believe we are heading to a depression….
