Where Have All the Jobs Gone/Long Time Passing:

Mary Travers and her fellow troubadours famously sang the anti-war song back in the 1960s, asking about "flowers," but today they'd gain more audience share if the words were about the economy.

Peter Goodman of The New York Times reports on the shriveling job market:

From the beginning of the recession in December 2007 through July of this year, job openings declined 45 percent in the West and the South, 36 percent in the Midwest and 23 percent in the Northeast.

Shrinking job opportunities have assailed virtually every industry this year. Since the end of 2008, job openings have diminished 47 percent in manufacturing, 37 percent in construction and 22 percent in retail. Even in education and health services — faster-growing areas in which many unemployed people have trained for new careers — job openings have dropped 21 percent this year. Despite the passage of a stimulus spending package aimed at shoring up state and local coffers, government job openings have diminished 17 percent this year.

Obama v. Banks:

In the future, perhaps young people will not be stooges for the banks exploiting them and taxpayers. Currently, student loans—the money for which comes from the government—is funneled through banks who act as middlemen, extracting healthy fees from the program, for doing … well, nobody knows precisely what. The President wants to cut the middlemen out and free up the money to go directly to the students. Naturally, Republicans are opposed. They've been getting a handsome free lunch, and they want to keep it coming. (See The New York Times' story.)

Gallop, Do I Have Your Attention?

What percentage of college freshman believe that Senator Joe Wilson has been "fired" due to his outburst during President Obama's speech on September 9, 2009? What percentage know what the word "censure" means in the context of the United States Congress?

When these legal adults cast their votes in 2010, will they be surprised to find that "Joe" Wilson is still eligible for election and is in fact the incumbent?

What New Media Can Do For You, Paul Sullivan

A couple of weeks ago, Beth Harte over at Daily Fix discussed the meaning of journalistic integrity in the world of New Media (or Web 2.0). This has been a popular topic among bloggers and traditional media types alike--how will we make sure that bloggers report the truth in a responsible manner?

Perhaps what traditional media types should have been asking themselves instead is, how will we respond to the New Media that calls us on our own irresponsible reporting?

The 2009 MLB regular season is nearing its end and the NFL regular season is just getting into full swing; now is a prime time for sports reporting. Unfortunately, sportswriting is a microcosm of the very problem I wish to address. In this case I'll stick to what I know--baseball, more specifically the Chicago Cubs. I've mentioned The Cub Reporter before, one of my favorite sports blogs. This time I'd like to hold them up as an example of New Media calling out Old Media. Among recent the recent posts over at The Cub Reporter you will find an article regarding the end of pitcher Rich Harden's season due to injury and Carlos Zambrano's desire to be traded due to the fact that the Cubs don't like him anymore (TCR conversation on Zambrano/Sullivan began here, at comment 95 by Cubster and continued in a post made by Rob G./Tim Souers). Oh, sorry. Rather the articles will be about how Paul Sullivan misreported an injury to pitcher Rich Harden--he's actually just going to miss one start--and how Paul Sullivan started prodded pitcher Carlos Zambrano with information from "sources" that the Cubs were looking into trading him. (Carlos Zambrano appropriately responded, "... are you guys our general manager now?" Although he should've stopped right there.)

The folks over at TCR like to do a great many things--including arguing the validity of new stats, whether the criticism of certain players has been motivated by racism, whether Lou Piniella is really a baseball expert or just a cantakerous old fatman--but one of the best things they do is keep an eye on so-called professional sports writers. Sullivan got the Harden injury wrong, and printed it before he had a chance to check his sources. He also goaded Carlos Zambrano into a fight with questionable information and unidentified sources (some speculate his source was mere speculation by another sports writer). Earlier in the season TCR, particularly Dr. Joseph Hecht, called out beat writers for not asking which bone outfielder Reed Johnson had broken, information that could have made their predictions that he'd only be out 2-4 weeks (he's still on the DL) obsolete.

Maybe this is why New Media has killed the papers; the papers have refused to respond to the new pressures put on them. It seems that sportswriting especially has allowed themselves to be completely overshadowed by blogs and websites.

"America is more youth and looks obsessed than ever, with an array of expensive cosmetic procedures that allow women to be their own Frankenstein Barbies." – Maureen Dowd

Dowd ops ed on the emotional state of women in America, following thirty years of feminist struggles. Apparently men are happier than women even as women have gotten more of what they wanted. It seems females care more about the state of their relationships than males do. Who'd a thunk it?

The Banks v. The People:

Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut will be up for re-election soon, and he is the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. The voters in Connecticut, like those all over the country, are fed up with the banks' wrecking of the economy, but Sen. Dodd depends on the financial sector to finance his election. Talk about your rock and hard place. Dodd has to appeal to the voters to be re-elected, but he has to have the banks' money to run for office. Ouch! A microcosm into the state of our current economic and governmental debate. (See today's New York Times.)

Gasp-Worthy Moment Passes Us By

You buy a can of soup from your grocery store. You aren’t that crazy about canned soup, but you like to have some around—you know, in case of emergency. One day you get hungry and you decide to eat some soup. You open the can and find it is empty. You call your grocery store and ask what the heck is going on. You paid them for a can of soup, and now your hungry, out $2, and you have no soup. They explain to you that they are no longer obligated to supply the soup to you once you’re hungry. You’re angry, but you figure that you just need to switch grocery stores. You talk to your neighbor. She says that she had a similar problem, except that her grocery store wouldn’t sell her any soup because she was hungry when she tried to make the purchase. You read of other incidents in the paper. At least one grocery store refuses to sell soup to people who are especially active, because, the store manager says, active people are much more likely to become hungry than are motionless people.

Do you:

A. Forgive the grocery stores because their first obligation is to their investors?

B. Burn down the grocery store and urinate on the ashes?

C. Ask for someone, perhaps that “government” who keeps taking your money, to provide a better option or to force the stores to actually deliver on the goods you’ve paid for?

There are plenty of things I don’t like about Bill Maher—his tendency to use the phrase “people like” to associate a problem with an imaginary group of people with some sort of similarities to a celebrity he specifically doesn’t approve of, for example. But now that HBO comes with my cheapest basic cable option, and Comedy Central doesn’t, I’m forced to turn to Bill as my primary source of media and political satire.

On episode 168 of Real Time With Bill Maher, Bill interviewed Wendell Potter, current Center for Media and Democracy Senior Fellow on Health Care and former Head of Corporate Communications for health insurance giant CIGNA. After 20 years in corporate business, Potter joined CMD in May of this year. While Maher’s other guests rightfully applauded Potter for this turnover, Bill left unexamined (unless you consider a knowing smirk thorough examination) Potter’s response to a question regarding the documentary, "Sicko," a Michael Moore film. Potter acknowledged that in 2007 he worked to discredit Michael Moore in hopes of reducing negative effects of the film on the profit margin of CIGNA. He then stated that, “Michael Moore got it right.” Cue Maher smirk.

Why don’t I hear any gasp? Oh, we already knew that our Health Insurance Companies are willing to actively mislead us about our health care in order to maintain or increase their profit margins? Why do we still write them checks? I don't have much choice right now, and you probably don't either.

Yes, the grocery store analogy is imperfect. Your grocery store actually makes money by selling you food. Your health insurance provider makes money by refusing you health care. Insurance as a profit maker doesn’t make any sense. If you want a health insurance company with the sole purpose of making health care affordable, the policy holders have to be the owners. Sounds an awful lot like government, doesn’t it?

President Obama and others have gone out of their way to convince us that the Public Option will not drive private companies out of business. But they should. The Public Option, and perhaps some NGO options that would operate somewhat similarly to credit unions, should make up a replacement plan for for-profit health insurance companies, which we should phase out. That way our providers’ first responsibility will be to their policy holders and the managers won’t earn exorbitant salaries. If you feel skeptical about that statement, compare the salaries of high-level public servants and NGO executive directors to those of insurance CEOs.

One aspect of the grocery store analogy that is perfect. The soup didn’t disappear once you got hungry; you never had any soup.

Why Some White People Hate the Public Option:

Unemployment among African Americans is running at 15.1 percent, compared to 8.1 percent for whites. Within six months, estimates indicate that 40 percent of African Americans will have experienced some form of unemployment or underemployment. (See Barbara Ehrenreich and Dedrick Muhammad's Op-Ed in today's New York Times.)

Whites, like those represented by Joe (not his real name) Wilson of South Carolina, hate the idea that their tax dollars might provide health care for black folk. Demagogues, like Wilson, have been playing whites and blacks against one another for centuries now, using one group to keep the other in a submissive state that allows the demagogues to retain power.

Note that the average income for the 90 percent of the population who constitute the working class in the U. S. has remained the same today as it was during the first Reagan administration in 1983, when adjusted for inflation.

When economists talk about America's wonderful productivity, this is precisely what they mean. The American worker works harder and longer while earning less or, at best, no more for his sweat. In the meantime, those at the top of the pyramid continue to grow richer, granting themselves huge bonuses even as they bankrupt the country.

Racist Congressman Violates Protocol To Gain Points with Bigots:

Republican Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina—the state that led the country into a bloody civil war in order to keep black people enslaved—showed his colors last night by shouting out at the president during his speech, "You lie!" when the president insisted that he would not sign a bill that would provide health care coverage to illegal immigrants (although that would certainly be the Christian thing to do).

The story immediately jumped all over the Web. No congressman has ever in anyone's memory violated congressional protocol in this fashion. Of course, the country has never had a black president either. Reportedly, Wilson's office apologized for the outburst, but the effect is the same as if it had not.

While the president finished his speech by quoting from a letter written by the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, stating that what is "at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country," the true colors of the Republican party had already been made plainly clear. Wilson and his ilk are willing to stoop to the lowest levels of bigotry and hatred to maintain their power base.

If there are any members of the Republican party with a shred of decency remaining, it's time they follow Senator Arlen Specter and switch parties or at the very least declare themselves independents. They have a great example in Teddy Roosevelt, who abandoned the party nearly one hundred years ago.

Wall Street's Newest Scam:

Buying out the life insurance policies of the elderly and hoping they die soon.

Jenny Anderson of The New York Times reports on Wall Street's latest and greatest idea to make a profit:

The bankers plan to buy “life settlements,” life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash — $400,000 for a $1 million policy, say, depending on the life expectancy of the insured person. Then they plan to “securitize” these policies, in Wall Street jargon, by packaging hundreds or thousands together into bonds. They will then resell those bonds to investors, like big pension funds, who will receive the payouts when people with the insurance die.

The earlier the policyholder dies, the bigger the return — though if people live longer than expected, investors could get poor returns or even lose money.

Capitalism at its most ghoulish. Maybe. By the way, there are now over 1,000,000 homeless children in the U. S.

What Is the Purpose of a University?

According to Drew Gilpin Faust, writing for The New York Times' "Crossroads" column, the "are meant to be producers not just of knowledge but also of (often inconvenient) doubt. They are creative and unruly places, homes to a polyphony of voices." Faust goes on to complain, however, that "at this moment in our history, universities might well ask if they have in fact done enough to raise the deep and unsettling questions necessary to any society."

Faust points out that a business degree, once the degree sought by students who could not manage to major in a serious subject, is now the most popular degree.

Texas Justice:

You knew it was bound to happen, and now we have proof that Texas has murdered an innocent man in their death row factory system of the powerful keeping the weak in line through intimidation of the very worst kind.

David Grann, in a lengthy New Yorker article, relates the story of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was improperly found guilty of murdering his own children through an act of arson which we now know was not arson at all.

Willingham was murdered by the state of Texas on February 17, 2004, after having spent twelve years on death row. Five years later, we now know the evidence used to convict him was false, including the testimony of a jail house snitch who was coerced by authorities into delivering false testimony.

The two little girls who died in the fire that led to the Willingham case did so as a result of a horrible accident. Their father was murdered by the state of Texas and those who exploited the system for their own corrupt purposes.