Firms to cut health plans as reform starts: survey

30% of companies say they’ll stop offering coverage

Thank God for Hope and Change, huh?

From Market Watch:

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Once provisions of the Affordable Care Act start to kick in during 2014, at least three of every 10 employers will probably stop offering health coverage, a survey released Monday shows. 

While only 7% of employees will be forced to switch to subsidized-exchange programs, at least 30% of companies say they will “definitely or probably” stop offering employer-sponsored coverage, according to the study published in McKinsey Quarterly. 

The survey of 1,300 employers says those who are keenly aware of the health-reform measure probably are more likely to consider an alternative to employer-sponsored plans, with 50% to 60% in this group expected to make a change. It also found that for some, it makes more sense to switch. 

The Little Green Book of Ayatollah Khomeini

The foundational Fatwas of the Islamic Revolution.

Click here.

Sample Fatwas (sorry about the strange spacing of the words):

A woman may legally belong to a man in one of two ways; by continuing marriage or temporary marriage. In the former, theduration of the marriage need not be specified; in the latter, it must be stipulated, for example, that it is for a period of an hour, a day, amonth, a year, or more. - (Page 53)

A woman who has contracted a continuing marriage does not havethe right to go out of the house without her husband’s permission;she must remain at his disposal for the fulfillment of any one of hisdesires, and may not refuse herself to him except for a religiously  valid reason.-(Page 56)

If a man sodomizes the son, brother, or father of his wife after theirmarriage, the marriage remains valid. - (Page 56)

Any man or woman who denies the existence of Allah, or believes inHis partners [the Christian Trinity], or else does not believe in HisProphet Muhammad, is impure (in the same way as are excrement,urine, dog, and wine). He is so even if he doubts any one of theseprinciples. - (Page 28)

By the way, I have read repeatedly, though the years, that the Ayatollah's Little Green Book says it is ok to have sexual pleasure with a child, and that sex with animals is ok as well.


Far as I can tell, it says no such thing.


Anyone able to account for these apparent untruths which have been spread around by the counter-Jihad blogosphere (including this site, if I am not mistaken)?
 
More:

On Sex and Women

Finally, there's a source of quotes from Tahrir al-Vasileh that's spread throughout the internet to anti-Islamist and anti-Islamic websites. They can be traced back to the website of the "Dr. Darabi Foundation” (a secular, anti-Khomeini non-profit named after a prominent Iranian woman physician woman of the same name who set "herself on fire in a crowded square in northern Tehran, on February 21, 1994 ... to protest the oppression of women.”) The foundation declares itself dedicated to combating "all violations of human rights focusing on defending the rights of women against religious, cultural and social abuse.”
Many of the quotes are similar to one's above from Resaleh Towzih al-Masael, but a couple are even creepier.
Supporters of Khomeini cast doubt on the credibility of the Dr. Darabi Foundation site, pointing out that it also quotes from something called "Tahrir-ol-Masael,” a book allegedly by Khomeini that does not appear to exist. (It's not listed in very complete database of books found in libraries called WorldCat (http://www.worldcat.org/)).
http://www.homa.org/Details.asp?View=Detail&ContentID=2137352818&TOCID=2083225348
(Perhaps it's a cross between Resaleh Towzih al-Masael and Resaleh Towzih al-Masael!)
With that caution, here are some translations from
http://www.homa.org/default.asp?TOCID=2083225445

A man can have sex with animals such as sheep, cows, camels and so on. However he should kill the animal after he has his orgasm. He should not sell the meat to the people in his own village, however selling the meat to the next door village should be fine.

From Khomeini's book, Tahrirolvasyleh, fourth volume, Darol Elm, Gom, Iran, 1990

(Note: This quote is found many places on the Web, often citing www.homa.org, but is no longer at www.homa.org itself as far as I can tell.)

"Yes, but that’s because they hate wimmin AND latinos, and those schvartzahs”

Welcome to the vicious mad cow news:

GOP WANTS TO -“Drag Us All The Way Back To Jim Crow”

“[I]f you go back to the year 2000, when we had an obvious disaster and - and saw that our voting process needed refinement, and we did that in the America Votes Act and made sure that we could iron out those kinks, now you have the Republicans, who want to literally drag us all the way back to Jim Crow laws and literally - and very transparently - block access to the polls to voters who are more likely to vote Democratic candidates than Republican candidates. And it’s nothing short of that blatant,” DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL) told TVOne’s “Washington Week.”

This freak will be driving polarization to new ratios.

The nation is NOT SERVED HERE.

Muslim cop lied about his U.S. citizenship in applications to be a jailer, a police officer and, most recently, an FBI agent,wanted to attend WMD training

From Will at The Other News:

A Fair Oaks Ranch police officer who wanted to join the FBI has been charged with lying about his citizenship to get a job there. 

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force opened a full-blown investigation last year of Pejman Amrollah Majdabadi, 30, for his “aggressiveness” in wanting to join the FBI and his e-mailed request to the agency seeking to attend weapons of mass destruction training being taught by the JTTF, according to a criminal complaint affidavit unsealed Monday.

The Iranian-born officer, now a U.S. citizen, was taken to federal court in San Antonio late Friday on a charge of making false statements about his citizenship to get a job in law enforcement. He was released on $50,000 unsecured bond following a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge John Primomo.

If convicted, Amrollah could face up to five years in prison.Amrollah has worked for the Fair Oaks Ranch Police Department since April 30, 2007, and has been “a good officer,” said Police Chief Scott Rubin.

The affidavit said that since 2003, Texas law requires police officer applicants to be U.S. citizens, and Rubin said Amrollah was a citizen “as far as I knew” when he applied. Amrollah is now on unpaid administrative leave, Rubin said.

The FBI claims Amrollah lied about his U.S. citizenship in applications to be a jailer, a police officer and, most recently, an FBI agent. In April 2010, the affidavit said, Amrollah e-mailed the FBI expressing interest in attending WMD training, and about joining the JTTF.

In May 2010, he e-mailed again “stating he would be a good asset for the JTTF due to his language abilities and connections he had to the local Persian community,” the affidavit said.

Read the full story here.

One-Time Darling Of the Anti-War Left, Cynthia McKinney Wants a Libya-Style Government for the USA

WikiLeaks Cable Discusses North American [economic] Integration Strategy

Another example of our Government initiating major policy on which we never had the opportunity to vote.

 

From Good Shit:

 

As part of the Security and Prosperity Partnership, left to right The Hon. Maxime Bernier, Canadian Minister of Industry; the Hon. Stockwell Day, Canadian Minister of Public Safety; Condoleezza Rice, United States Secretary of State; and the Hon. Peter MacKay, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs met in Ottawa on Friday, February 23, 2007.Leaked U.S. cable lays out North American ‘integration’ strategy National Post:

The integration of North America’s economies would best be achieved through an “incremental” approach, according to a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable.

The cable, released through the WikiLeaks website and apparently written Jan. 28, 2005, discusses some of the obstacles surrounding the merger of the economies of Canada, the United States and Mexico in a fashion similar to the European Union.

“An incremental and pragmatic package of tasks for a new North American Initiative NAI will likely gain the most support among Canadian policymakers,” the document said.

“The economic payoff of the prospective North American initiative … is available, but its size and timing are unpredictable, so it should not be oversold.”

Many different areas of a possible integration are discussed throughout the cable, but the focus is on improving the economic welfare of the continent. It suggests one of the main benefits to Canada would be easier access across the U.S. border, calling it a “top motive” for this country.

CONTINUED

RFK provides answers to why the "al-nakba" propaganda came up

Israel National News provides some info about Robert F. Kennedy, who was murdered by an Arab terrorist in 1968, which may give some insight to how the Islamic world came up with the al-nakba propaganda:

On June 6, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy succumbed to gunshot wounds inflicted a day earlier by an Arab terrorist, Sirhan Sirhan. His daughter later said that this was because of his support for the Jewish state.

Lenny Ben-David, former head of AIPAC, writes in his blog that “Years later his daughter told me, ‘My father was killed by a Palestinian terrorist [Sirhan Sirhan] because of his strong support for Israel.’ He was killed on the first anniversary of the 1967 Six Day War."

Ben-David links to another blog that contains excerpts from a series of articles written by RFK for a now-defunct Boston newspaper, after his visit to “Palestine” in March 1948.

Be sure to check those out. Among the things told, here's what RFK had to say about the British and their hostility to Israel:

The British government, in its attitude towards the Jewish population in Palestine, has given ample credence to the suspicion that they are firmly against the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.

When I was in Cairo shortly after the blowing up of the Jewish Agency [March 11, 1948] I talked to a man who held a high position in the Arab League. He had just returned from Palestine where he had, among other things, interviewed and arranged transportation to Trans-Jordan for the Arab responsible for that Jewish disaster. This Arab told him that after the explosion, upon reaching the British post which separated the Jewish section from a small neutral zone set up in the middle of Jerusalem, he was questioned by the British officers in charge. He quite freely admitted what he had done and was given immediate passage with the remark “Nice going.”

I'm glad someone from America recognized the British for what they've been, and so far, still are in their approach to Israel, and their congratulation to that horrorist at the border post certainly tells something.

GM not selling small cars? No prob, get DADDY TO UP TAXES ON GAS

Thanks Jim Taggart, Orren Boyle and Wesley Mouch.

A government-imposed tax hike, Akerson believes, will prompt more people to buy small cars and do more good for the environment than forcing automakers to comply with higher gas-mileage standards.

Are we sure this guy’s is not John Malcolm?

GM chief pushing for higher gas taxes

David Shepardson and Christina Rogers/ The Detroit News

Detroit — General Motors Co. CEO Dan Akerson wants the federal gas tax boosted as much as $1 a gallon to nudge consumers toward more fuel-efficient cars, and he’s confident the government will soon shed its remaining 26 percent stake in the once-bankrupt automaker.

“I actually think the government will be out this year — within the next 12 months, hopefully within the next six months,” Akerson said in a two-hour interview with The Detroit News last week.

He is grateful for the government’s rescue of GM — “I have nothing but good things to say about them” — but Akerson said the time for that relationship to end is coming because it’s wearing on GM.

“It’s kind of like your in-laws: It was a nice long weekend. We didn’t say a week,” Akerson said with a laugh.

And while he is eager to say goodbye to the government as a part owner of GM, Akerson would like to see it step up to the challenge of setting a higher gas tax, as part of a comprehensive energy policy.

A government-imposed tax hike, Akerson believes, will prompt more people to buy small cars and do more good for the environment than forcing automakers to comply with higher gas-mileage standards.

“There ought to be a discussion on the cost versus the benefits,” he said. “What we are going to do is tax production here, and that will cost us jobs.”

For the years 2017-25, federal officials are considering 3 percent to 6 percent annual fuel efficiency increases, or 47 mpg to 62 mpg. That could boost the cost of vehicles by up to $3,500.

“You know what I’d rather have them do — this will make my Republican friends puke — as gas is going to go down here now, we ought to just slap a 50-cent or a dollar tax on a gallon of gas,” Akerson said.

“People will start buying more Cruzes and they will start buying less Suburbans.”

With gas already over $4 a gallon in parts of the country, a higher gas tax is a hard sell.

Rebecca Lindland, an analyst with IHS Global Insight, said higher gas taxes in Europe did lead consumers to buy more fuel-efficient cars.

But she acknowledged that’s virtually impossible to see in the United States.

“It’s career suicide for a politician to call for raising gas taxes,” Lindland said.

Akerson isn’t the first auto exec to float the idea of a gas tax to encourage consumers to buy fuel-efficient vehicles. Ford Chairman Bill Ford Jr. has previously advocated a gas tax increase.

On Monday, a Ford spokeswoman said the company “will leave the policy decision to Congress”; in 2009, GM CEO Rick Wagoner called a higher gas tax “worthy of consideration.”

Stock boost sought

Akerson believes the Treasury’s continued ownership stake in GM — 500 million shares — is dragging down its stock price, which has fallen 23 percent this year, and closed Monday at $28.56. That’s well below the $33-per-share it fetched in November’s $23 billion initial public stock offering.

“I think that it is an overhang — to have 500 million shares sitting out there — it’s a problem,” Akerson said, adding that unrest in the Middle East and oil prices also are depressing GM’s share price. “They don’t know when (the Treasury is) going to come out. Investors hate uncertainty.”

David Whiston, an auto analyst at Morningstar, agrees that government ownership is impacting investors’ interest in GM.

“There are a lot of money managers that are waiting for the government to exit before jumping in,” Whiston said.

The Treasury, which rescued GM with a $49.5 billion bailout and once held a 61 percent majority stake, “will likely look at another (stock) sale in August, after second-quarter earnings are announced, Akerson said.

The Obama administration has made clear it is eager to exit GM — but hasn’t laid out a precise timetable.

Asked if GM is considering buying back its stock, Akerson paused for eight seconds before declining to answer directly. “But we have a lot of cash,” he added.

At the current stock price, U.S. taxpayers would be out more than $12 billion on GM’s bailout.

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110607/AUTO01/106070368/GM-chief-pushing-for-higher-gas-taxes#ixzz1ObSsrEA7

There are NO WORDS

Elliot Spitzer interviews James Carville about Anthony’s Wiener…

AND DOESN’T EVEN HAVE THE DECENCY TO BLUSH

Actually there are words

The words are arrogant entitled chutzpah

CNN should be the one ashamed, and Carville probably took unlimited shit at home.

I hope you gave him absolute unending sarcasm, Mary

Bioengineered E Coli?

(With a hat tip to 12iggymom)

Please tell me that THIS isn't possible. Excerpt:

Forensic evidence emerges that European e.coli superbug was bioengineered to produce human fatalities

...There's really only one way this happens (and only one way) -- you have to expose this strain of e.coli to all eight classes of antibiotics drugs....

...[C]reating a strain of e.coli that's resistant to eight classes of antibiotics requires repeated, sustained expose to those antibiotics. It is virtually impossible to imagine how this could happen all by itself in the natural world. For example, if this bacteria originated in the food (as we've been told), then where did it acquire all this antibiotic resistance given the fact that antibiotics are not used in vegetables?...

Watch the video below:

Myself and 45,000+ Other Pennsylvanians No Longer Unemployed As Of June 11, 2011

Federally Funded Extended Benefits Payments
to End on June 11, 2011

Federal guidelines determine eligibility for extended unemployment benefits and, as a result of a drop in Pennsylvania's unemployment rate for the three-month period ending in April 2011, the state no longer qualifies for the extended benefits program.

Under these federal rules, maximum duration for benefits for unemployed Pennsylvanians will drop to 73 weeks.

If you are among those with a remaining balance in their extended benefits, those benefits cannot be paid after June 11, 2011.

While state governments are required to function under federal rules, we want to assure you that Pennsylvania maintains several programs to help unemployed citizens return to the workforce. We will do everything in our power to help you and others during the transition back to employment.

If further extensions become available, the department will notify you and all individuals who may qualify for them.

If you have questions about your claim, visit www.uc.pa.gov online or call the Unemployment Compensation Service Center at 1-888-313-7284. The Service Center is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

PROGRAMS TO ASSIST YOU

From meeting basic needs for food and shelter to upgrading professional skills to find a new job in a high-demand industry, the commonwealth has a variety of programs to help people get through tough times. Please take advantage of these free programs.

HereToHelp

Through HereToHelp, you can get information about finding a new job, health insurance options, food and utility assistance, housing assistance, personal finance information, family support and more. To learn more, go online to www.HereToHelp.pa.gov.

------------------------------------------

That's the letter I received today from the Pa. Department of Labor and Industry.

What it means is that I am no longer eligible for unemployment benefits. Not because I have expired my full 99 weeks -- I haven't -- but because the Pa. unemployment rate has fallen below whatever the state and federally proscribed amount is (8.5%). Myself and tens of thousands (45k to 90k estimated) of other Pennsylvanians have very suddenly lost what lifeline they had left. And it will start to happen to other states as their unemployment rates go down.

Well whoopie! you say. The jobs picture is improving!

Not quite and you know it. Reference last week's pile of bad news. Then consider this.

According to this chart it really started falling apart for jobs in April of 2009. That's when we first crossed the 8.5 % mark (and haven't been back there since).

Now, count 99 weeks from then and you wind up back in April, 2011. When the unemployed who reached their 99 weeks began running out of their benefits and, although they had not found jobs, were no longer counted as unemployed.

I have no doubt some people are back to work, but not enough to account for this, certainly not with so few jobs created lately.

But the government now gets to report a lower unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted, of course) in Pennsylvania. And can stop paying the extended benefits.

Know what that does?

It removes a whole bunch of other people from the unemployment rolls, although they have not found jobs. And Pa. in particular and the federal government as a whole can report a drop in unemployment.

Woo hoo! I'm no longer considered unemployed. Wish I had a job to go to in my spare time.

The reality, of course, is that many families suddenly find themselves with far more trouble and hardship than they woke up with. How are they going to pay the mortgage this month? Buy the groceries? Pay the electric and the gas and the water?

Many of them, for one reason or another, may not be relocatable to look for jobs far afield. So what happens as they begin to default on their mortgages, are turned out of their homes? When the banks begin to lose money from the defaults? When there is even less and less money going into the local economies if just for food and clothing?

So it is for a bunch of people who live in the 6th most impoverished city in the nation.

This is not just Pennsylvania, it's going to start happening all over. And we'll have politicians and pundits standing there saying "We don't understand. Why is everything else seeming so bad. Why so many homeless? Why so little spending? The jobs reports are improving!"

As for myself, I'll be here as long as I can although I don't know how long that will be.

This very long journey has just turned down a bad road.

The Glenn Miller Orchestra
American Patrol

Little Brown Jug

Chris Matthews Says Maybe Huma Is Partially Responsible For Weiner's Behavior

Wow, that's even stupider than Breitbart's lie: "I'm doing this to save his family."

LOL

My Own Worst Enemy

Lit



Can we forget about the things I said when I was drunk
I didn't mean to call you fat

Just Like Heaven

AFI

Stupid art is objectively pro-Nazi

From Zombie:

Tell me: How could the French government countenance this art installation, which manages to be both juvenile and deeply insulting at the same time? :

Exhibit marks 67th anniversary of D-Day landings

An installation of 1,000 casts of Russian, German and American combat helmets of WWII which also represent turtles, to denounce global violence, created by French artist Rachid Khimoune, is seen on Omaha Beach in Colleville sur Mer, western France, Sunday, June 5, 2011 at the eve of the D-Day Anniversary. Photo: Vincent Michel / AP

COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France (AP) — French artist Rachid Khimoune has installed 1,000 sculptures shaped like sea turtles on Omaha Beach to mark the 67th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy.
The turtles’ “shells” are molded from American, Russian and German combat helmets, sprouting flippers and long-necked heads. The sculptures were arranged Sunday along the sandy expanses of Omaha Beach — where the Allies won a pivotal victory against the Nazis.

I ask you: So, would the artist prefer that the Allies had refrained from committing any icky violence and instead not invaded Normandy, so as to preserve peace? In which case, France would to this day be called Frankenreich, the western province of Greater Germany?

Go read the whole thing from Zombie.

Vinnie at Jawa appropriately responds:

... of course he prefers that we had refrained. If you read his bio on his website that I won't link to it says that he was born of Kabyl parents. Kabyl is a region of Algeria.

So I'm going to go out on a limb and guess he's also Muslim, and we all know how well the Muslims and Nazis got along.

Ynet News:

Syrian opposition: Anti-Israel rioters paid $1,000

Protestors at northern border promised $1,000 reward by Assad's regime, Reform Party of Syria claims; Israeli officials: Damascus encouraged rioters. Syria says IDF killed 23 people, wounded 350; army says figures inflated

Protestors for hire? Demonstrators along the Syria-Israel border were paid thousands of dollars by President Bashar Assad's regime to take part in Sunday's riots, Syrian opposition activists charge.

Israeli officials later reinforced the claims, accusing the Syrian regime of encouraging protests along the northern border.

Sunday’s riots were an attempt "to divert attention away from the massacre in Syria,” one official charged. "The Syrians will be held accountable for these events.”

Late Sunday, Syrian officials claimed that 23 people were killed and 350 were wounded after the IDF fired at protestors aiming to rush the border fence earlier in the day. However, the army dismissed the figures, claiming that they were inflated.

Washington-based members of the Reform Party of Syria said intelligence sources close to the Syrian government in Lebanon informed them that the protesters on the Syrian side of the Druze community of Majdal Shams were in fact poverty-stricken farmers paid by the Assad regime.

According to the sources, the farmers migrated over the last few years from drought-stricken northeast Syria to the south. They reached the Israel-Syria border on Sunday in the aims of reenact "Nakba Day" events, the sources said.

The Syrian opposition group claimed that each farmer was promised $1,000 for showing up at the rally and $10,000 to their families if they are killed by IDF fire.

According to the report, the average salary of a Syrian citizen is about $200 per month, meaning that participation in Sunday's demonstration could provide a protester and his family with five months worth of financial relief.

'Such tactics used by Saddam'
Opposition activists noted that such tactics were previously used by Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein when the Ba'ath Party leader offered a $25,000 reward to the families of Palestinians who died while hurling stones at Israelis during the Intifada.

Reform Party members added that Assad's payments were aimed at diverting attention away from his regime's barbaric oppression of opposition members in the last three months and the killing of more than 1,000 citizens.

The opposition group stressed that while it believes that the Golan Heights belong to Syria, it wishes to return the land through peaceful negotiations.

"If Assad really wanted the Golan Heights, he would walk the same peaceful path Anwar Sadat walked long before him," the group said in a statement.

IDF fears regular Syria protests
IDF officials said that forces along the Syrian border showed restraint Sunday during clashes with rioters aiming to breach the border fence.

“We could have taken the easier route of uncontrolled fire, but we decided to operate in a very limited manner,” one army official said.

Meanwhile, army officials fear that the border with Syria will turn into a regular protest and riot site, similar to weekly Palestinian and leftist demonstrations at West Bank villages.

Military officials say that should riots continue in the area on a regular basis, the IDF will have to change its deployment in the region. “At this time already we have several regiments that are here instead of following their regular plans,” a military source said.

Notably, the border area with Syria also offers greater operational challenges in containing riots compared to similar events in Judea and Samaria. For example, the firing of tear gas across the border is limited by law and cannot be used as a collective means of crowd control.

Ynet News:

Researcher: Iran can produce nuke within 2 months
Airstrikes can no longer stop nuclear program, US can do nothing short of military occupation, says report
Yitzhak Benhorin Published: 06.06.11, 09:04

The Iranian regime is closer than ever before to creating a nuclear bomb, according to RAND Corporation researcher Gregory S. Jones.

At its current rate of uranium enrichment, Tehran could have enough for its first bomb within eight weeks, Jones said in a report published this week.

He added that despite reports of setbacks in its nuclear program, the Iranian regime is steadily progressing towards a bomb. Unfortunately, Jones says, there is nothing the US can do to stop Tehran, short of military occupation.

The researcher based his report on recent findings by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), published two weeks ago. Making the bomb will take around two months, he says, because constructing a nuclear warhead is a complicated step in the process.

Jones stresses that stopping Iran will require deploying forces on the ground, because airstrikes are no longer sufficient. The reality is that the US and Israel have failed to keep Iran from developing a nuclear warhead whenever it wants, Jones says.

It's time to recognize that this policy has failed and decide on the following steps, based on realistic assessment of Iranian uranium-enrichment efforts, he adds.

According to Jones, Tehran has produced 38.3 kg of uranium enriched at 19.7%. If its centrifuges continue to work at the current capacity, it will take around two months for the Iranian regime to produce the 20 kg of uranium enriched to 90% required for the production of a nuclear warhead.

Infidel Babe of the Week

Huma Weiner

I figure since Anthony has treated her so poorly, maybe she might need some comforting from an Infidel like me.

Huma Weiner is hot, isn't she?

Oh yeah, baby.

And with a name like hers, who needs to write jokes?

Uh, make that, with a husband like hers, who needs to write jokes?

Earlier this morning, BigGovernment.com and BigJournalism.com revealed that a woman had come forward with what she claims are intimate photographs, chats, and emails that she allegedly exchanged with Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY).

The following photograph was allegedly sent to the young woman from AnthonyWeiner@aol.com via BlackBerry on Wednesday, May 4, 2011, under the subject, “Me and the pussys” (note cats in background):

June 6 1944

Roosevelt's Radio Address

Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.

And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest--until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home--fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them--help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

Give us strength, too--strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keeness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment--let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace--a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

Thy will be done, Almighty God.

Amen.

Franklin D. Roosevelt--June 6, 1944

Churchill's Address to The House Of Commons

I have also to announce to the House that during the night and the early hours of this morning the first of the series of landings in force upon the European Continent has taken place. In this case the liberating assault fell upon the coast of France. An immense armada of upwards of 4,000 ships, together with several thousand smaller craft, crossed the Channel. Massed airborne landings have been successfully effected behind the enemy lines, and landings on the beaches are proceeding at various points at the present time. The fire of the shore batteries has been largely quelled. The obstacles that were constructed in the sea have not proved so difficult as we apprehended. The Anglo-American Allies are sustained by about 11,000 frontline aircraft, which can be drawn upon as may be needed for the purposes of the battle. I cannot, of course, commit myself to any particular details.

Reports are coming in in rapid succession. So far the Commanders who are engaged report that everything is proceeding according to plan. And what a plan! This vast operation is undoubtedly the most complicated and difficult that has ever taken place. It involves tides, wind, waves, visibility, both from the air and from the sea standpoint, and the combined employment of land, air, and sea forces in the highest degree of intimacy and in contact with conditions which could not and cannot be fully foreseen.

There are already hopes that actual tactical surprise has been attained, and we hope to furnish the enemy with a succession of surprises during the course of the fighting. The battle that has now begun will grow constantly in scale and in intensity for many weeks to come, and I shall not attempt to speculate upon its course. This I may say, however. Complete unity prevails throughout the Allied Armies. There is a brotherhood in arms between us and our friends of the United States. There is complete confidence in the supreme commander, General Eisenhower, and his lieutenants, and also in the commander of the Expeditionary Force, General Montgomery. The ardour and spirit of the troops, as I saw myself, embarking in these last few days was splendid to witness. Nothing that equipment, science or forethought could do has been neglected, and the whole process of opening this great new front will be pursued with the utmost resolution both by the commanders and by the United States and British Governments whom they serve.

I have been at the centres where the latest information is received, and I can state to the House that this operation is proceeding in a thoroughly satisfactory manner. Many dangers and difficulties which at this time last night appeared extremely formidable are behind us. The passage of the sea has been made with far less loss than we apprehended. The resistance of the batteries has been greatly weakened by the bombing of the Air Force, and the superior bombardment of our ships quickly reduced their fire to dimensions which did not affect the problem. The landings of the troops on a broad front, both British and American - Allied troops, I will not give lists of all the different nationalities they represent - but the landings along the whole front have been effective, and our troops have penetrated, in some cases, several miles inland. Lodgments exist on a broad front.

The outstanding feature has been the landings of the airborne troops, which were on a scale far larger than anything that has been seen so far in the world. These landings took place with extremely little loss and with great accuracy. Particular anxiety attached to them, because the conditions of light prevailing in the very limited period of the dawn - just before the dawn - the conditions of visibility made all the difference. Indeed, there might have been something happening at the last minute which would have prevent airborne troops from playing their part. A very great degree of risk had to be taken in respect of the weather.

But General Eisenhower's courage is equal to all the necessary decisions that have to be taken in these extremely difficult and uncontrollable matters. The airborne troops are well established, and the landings and the follow-ups are all proceeding with much less loss - very much less - than we expected. Fighting is in progress at various points. We captured various bridges which were of importance, and which were not blown up. But all this, although a very valuable first step - a vital and essential first step - gives no indication of what may be the course of the battle in the next days and weeks, because the enemy will now probably endeavour to concentrate on this area, and in the event heavy fighting will soon begin and will continue without end, as we can push troops in and he can bring other troops up.

It is, therefore, a most serious time that we enter upon. Thank God, we enter upon it, with our great Allies all in good heart and all in good friendship.

Now warning from the left:The latest jobs numbers and the very real chance of another Great Depression

TNR:

Disaster Not Averted

The latest jobs numbers and the very real chance of another Great Depression.

• Dean Baker
• June 6, 2011 | 12:00 am

When the financial system was on the edge of melting down back in the fall of 2008, there was much talk in the punditocracy of a second Great Depression. The story was that we risked repeating the mistake at the onset of the first Great Depression: allowing a cascade of bank failures that both destroyed much of the country’s wealth and left the financial system badly crippled. Instead, however, we acted, and these days the accepted wisdom is that the TARP and other special lending facilities created by the Federal Reserve Board prevented a similar collapse that saved us from a second Great Depression. But this view badly misunderstands the nature of the first Great Depression—and may, in fact, result in the country suffering the second Great Depression that the pundits claim we have averted.

Allowing the cascade of financial collapses at the start of the first Great Depression was a mistake. However, there was nothing about this initial collapse that necessitated the decade of double-digit unemployment that was the central tragedy of the Great Depression. This was the result of the failure of the federal government to respond with sufficient vigor to mass unemployment. Indeed, the economy only broke out of the Depression when the federal government undertook massive deficit spending to fight World War II. Deficits peaked at more than 25 percent of GDP. This would be the equivalent, in today’s economy, of running annual deficits of $4 trillion.

There was no economic reason that the government could not have spent on this scale in 1931, as opposed to 1941; the obstacles were political. Then, as now, politicians in Washington were obsessed with the budget deficit. They never would have countenanced such spending, apart from the threat to the nation posed by Hitler and the Axis powers. The New Deal deficit spending helped boost the economy and bring the unemployment rate down to single-digit levels, but fear of deficits limited the scale of New Deal programs and caused Roosevelt to reverse course and cut back on spending in 1937, just as the economy was gaining momentum.

Unfortunately, the country seems destined to follow the same course in the current slump as it did in the 30s. The May jobs report should have provided the sort of stiff kick that is needed to revive discussion of additional stimulus. Instead, it seems to have barely shaken Washington’s ongoing obsession with deficits.

In policy circles, there seems to be an absurd faith that demand in the economy will arise out of nowhere if we are just virtuous enough in reducing the deficit. That is not the way the economy works. Demand must come from some discrete source and it is very difficult to see where that might be if the country continues on a path of deficit reduction.

To see why this is the case, first note that nearly 70 percent of demand in our economy is from consumption, but consumption has been growing slowly for two reasons. The first is that the economy has been creating few jobs. Furthermore, in a weak labor market workers do not have the bargaining power to push up their wages. The slow growth in jobs and stagnant wages mean that most families, who get nearly all their income from working, are seeing little growth in income. Slow growth in income means slow growth in consumption.

The second factor depressing consumption has been the continuing deflation of the housing bubble. To date, the decline in house prices has destroyed nearly $7 trillion in housing equity. And prices are still falling. Homeowners are likely to see another $1 trillion in equity disappear over the next year. The loss of this wealth will lead homeowners to cut back their consumption further in order to rebuild their savings.

Beyond the decline in consumption, the overbuilding in both residential and non-residential real estate during the bubble years ensures that construction will also remain weak at least through 2012. Firms could invest more in equipment and software, but this component of the economy is already surprisingly strong. This type of investment is close to its pre-recession level, in spite of the fact that most industries have large amounts of excess capacity.

Trade could also provide a boost, but this would require either extraordinarily rapid growth in demand from our trading partners or a sharp decline in the dollar that would make our goods more competitive. With most of our major trading partners also mired in stagnation, a rescue by fast-growing trading partners can be ruled out. Similarly, a lower-valued dollar is providing some benefits, but not of the magnitude needed to restore the economy to anything close to full employment.

With these other sectors accounted for, this leaves the government as the only remaining candidate for boosting the economy. But additional stimulus is not even on the agenda in Washington. Instead, we are seeing cutbacks at all levels of government. These cutbacks led to a loss of 29,000 jobs in May. The pace of job loss is only likely to increase when states impose another round of cuts on July 1, the beginning of a new fiscal year for most of them.

All of this suggests a bleak picture for the unemployed. The economy must create 90,000 jobs a month just to keep even with the growth of the labor force. To be sure, the dismal 54,000 job performance for May was partly an issue of timing, with jobs showing up in April instead of May. But even taking the last three months together yields an average growth rate of just 160,000. At this pace, it would take more than a decade to get back to normal levels of unemployment.

Moreover, there are more factors pointing to slower growth than faster growth going forward. In addition to the state and local cuts kicking in next month, the new fiscal year for the federal government begins October 1. This is also likely to involve further cuts in spending. And the payroll tax cut is scheduled to end 3 months later, as is the extension of unemployment benefits. At some point, the pain of high unemployment across the country may lead to some new thinking in Washington, but until that time, welcome to the second Great Depression.

Dean Baker is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. His most recent book is False Profits: Recovering from the Bubble Economy.