I don't have a dog in this fight, but...

[SamIam]

Pretty interesting link. Apparently, anyone seeking a job should move to North Dakota where the unemployment rate is something like 2.8 percent. Intrigued, I checked out North Dakota on the vast City Data Forum.

Word on the forum is that North Dakota is experiencing quite the oil boom in the western part of the state. If you want a job on the oil rigs, its THE place to be. Except there's no housing.

However, the oil-rama has caused the entire state to boom, so you can find jobs even in the eastern half of the state in Fargo and Bismark, etc. And the housing is pretty cheap. I checked out the Fargo paper's classifieds and was stunned at all the job listings. I could even continue in my new found career as motel desk girl, given all the openings they had in the hospitality industry alone.

Good to know in case I become truly desperate. But I can't feature moving to North Dakota unless my situation here becomes untenable.

How's that for thread drift?

[ZenGum]

Sam, if it makes you feel any better, the situation with Australian Aboriginals is even worse. Life expectancy is 15 years less (or more), they're 10 to 12 times more likely to be in prison, etc etc.

[Griff]

Look at people not stereotypes. I didn't hear myself say any of the things you said I did. Humans learn best through role modeling, unemployment rates are high and higher in minority communities. The long-term unemployed can not show their children what it looks like to go to work 5 days a week and simultaneously organize a household. Newt was not saying anything that Democrats hadn't said before. I have an aide in my classroom right now who would be better off unemployed because her families' significant health care needs were better met under medicaid. She persists because she wants someday to have a middle-class life, but the cards are stacked against her. Most of Newts solutions are not likely to be helpful, but to dismiss them out of hand because of party bias isn't helpful either.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Anyone that's been paying attention knows the politicians have created a monster in the welfare system. Now several generations in, how do you correct it? Cutting it, to force recipients to work when there's no jobs for them, will lead to a horrendous crime wave. Maintaining the status quo will lead to more people trapped in the system. I think education is the only way out but nobody's figured out how to implement that.

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

Sam, if it makes you feel any better, the situation with Australian Aboriginals is even worse. Life expectancy is 15 years less (or more), they're 10 to 12 times more likely to be in prison, etc etc.

Unfortunately, I take no solace from the even worse statistics for a Native people living in another first world country. Australia or US it still sucks.

Originally Posted by Griff

Look at people not stereotypes. I didn't hear myself say any of the things you said I did. Humans learn best through role modeling, unemployment rates are high and higher in minority communities. The long-term unemployed can not show their children what it looks like to go to work 5 days a week and simultaneously organize a household. Newt was not saying anything that Democrats hadn't said before. I have an aide in my classroom right now who would be better off unemployed because her families' significant health care needs were better met under medicaid. She persists because she wants someday to have a middle-class life, but the cards are stacked against her. Most of Newts solutions are not likely to be helpful, but to dismiss them out of hand because of party bias isn't helpful either.

I didn't mean to imply that you held all the attitudes I mentioned in my post. I was thinking of the attitudes of people in general. Kudos to your classroom aide. I see Navajos here doing the same thing. For example, there's a Navajo woman where I work who comes in and puts in long hours at minimum wage for the sake of her kids too. The human spirit is amazing. If given even the smallest amount of incentive/assistance people will often fight like tigers to better themselves.

My feelings about Newt are not derived from "party bias." His solutions do not go to the root of the problem which as Bruce said is education, education, education. There's nothing like it. Education empowers people. It opens up entire new worlds of possibility. It allows people to move out of poverty. An educated work force will make the US more competitive globally. Providing an equal and quality education for all our children should be one of this country's highest priorities. What good is a jobs program for disadvantaged youth if they are not even literate or lack the ability to obtain so much as a GED? Once the government prop is gone, what jobs will these kids be able to obtain, role models or not?

And finally, I very much dislike Newt's hypocrisy. At this point there is no way that the Republican party will pass a spending bill for ANY social program. Talk is cheap and Newt is full of hot air.

[TheMercenary]

Obama is finally jumping on the Bain Capitol bandwagon....

New Obama OMB director a Bain alum

"I'm pleased to designate Jeff Zients to lead the Office of Management and Budget. Since day one, Jeff has demonstrated superb judgment and has provided sound advice on a whole host of issues," Obama said in a statement accompanying the announcement today. Zients previously served as Deputy Director of OMB under Jack Lew, who became Obama's chief of staff with the departure of Bill Daley.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney might also be pleased at Zients' promotion, given that they have a common professional background; Zients worked with Bain & Company as early as 1988, according to the Bain website. Romney worked at Bain & Company, first from 1977-1984, and then again from 1991 and 1992, when he was the Bain & Company chief executive officer.

The Bain name has become politically-charged recently with the rise of Mitt Romney -- not for his work as a Bain & Company executive, but rather his career at Bain Capital. Romney helped found Bain Capital with his Bain and Company colleagues in 1984, and he led the firm until 1990.

Update: Bain & Company says that Zients worked there from August 1988 to June 1990. Romney apparently returned to Bain & Company from Bain Capital in January 1991, so they missed each other by six months.

President Obama's top campaign strategist, David Axelrod, criticized Romney for having a "Bain mentality," just as some of Romney's Republican presidential election rivals have blamed him for layoffs that took place at companies that Bain Capital financed.

http://campaign2012.washingtonexamin...in-alum/317976

[DanaC]

If there are tasks that could be done by these youngsters as part of an unwaged programme, then they could also be done through waged employment.

[Undertoad]

we told the kid twice to keep his hands out of the thresher

[glatt]

My cousin died working on a farm. The tractor he was driving flipped over on him. He was probably about 14. He was my age, and we shared the same first name.

I was always a little freaked out after that whenever I drove a tractor on a hill, which fortunately wasn't that often.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

we told the kid twice to keep his hands out of the thresher

Who? Stumpy?

ETA: And when a kid does get maimed, there's a faction out there that won't want to help him survive.

[Undertoad]

d'oh

[glatt]

*shrug*
It was a long time ago.

Farming is, I believe, the most dangerous job. We had a thread about this a while ago. Maybe it's fisherman.

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by glatt

*shrug*
It was a long time ago.

Farming is, I believe, the most dangerous job. We had a thread about this a while ago. Maybe it's fisherman.

or logging.

[classicman]

Perhaps its a functional idea if done in a format within the school, like a work study or Vo-tech. They could work at several different types of jobs for a semester each.
Something that gives them some real world experience and a start a possibly networking within a field of which they have some interest... jus thinkin.

[Lamplighter]

Christian Science Monitor
Peter Grier
1/18/12

Will Jon Stewart go to jail for running Stephen Colbert's super PAC?

As the head of a super political-action committee supporting Stephen Colbert,
Jon Stewart is not allowed to 'coordinate' with Colbert.
But the two are pushing the limits in the name of satire.

Jon Stewart does not want to go to jail. This is understandable –
the bagels in prison aren’t fresh, and Wi-Fi access is extremely limited.

So – as he explained on Tuesday night’s show – he is worried about his new position
as head of Stephen Colbert’s super political-action committee.
He’s happy with the money, of course, and the power, and so on.
He’s thinking of buying himself one of Elizabeth Taylor’s tiaras.
(We’re not making this up.) But he heard Mitt Romney say on “Morning Joe”
that he (Mitt) can’t coordinate with his own super PAC or he’ll go the “big house.”

“Which of your big houses do you go to? The beach house or the ski chalet?”
asked Mr. Stewart, before mugging it up in mock horror at finally getting Mr. Romney’s joke.
<snip>

But there is a loophole, or, as Colbert called it, a “loop-chasm.”
A candidate can talk to his associated super PAC via the media.
And the super PAC can listen, like everybody else.

“I can’t tell you [what to do]. But I can tell everyone through television,”
said Colbert on Stewart’s Comedy Central Show.
“And if you happen to be watching, I can’t prevent that.”

Stewart then played a clip of Newt Gingrich calling on his super PAC
to scrub ads attacking Mitt Romney for possible inaccuracies.
Stewart and Colbert then talked to elections lawyer Trevor Potter
– who is the attorney for both Colbert’s exploratory committee and the super PAC
– through the same phone. Stewart said he’d bought air time in South Carolina,
and so on, and Colbert just said he couldn’t coordinate,
but smiled or frowned, depending on which city the ad time was in.
Columbia, no. Charleston, yes!

Is this all legal, or are these comedians pushing the legal envelope
and in fact risking jail time?