First Looks category archive

Via TPM.

Still in the same general territory–the high 400,000s:

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 24,000 — the largest increase in two months — to a seasonally adjusted 484,000, the Labor Department said. * Analysts polled by Reuters had expected claims to dip to 440,000 from 460,000 the prior week, a number that was unrevised in Thursday’s report. * The four-week moving average of new claims, which irons out week-to-week volatility, rose 7,500 to 457,750.

Atrios is fond of talking of life in his urban hellhole. Of course, though it’s urban, it’s hardly a hellhole; it’s a nice residential neighborhood a few steps from shopping, services, and transportation.

Speaking of transportation, transportation costs are seldom figured in with housing costs and, in a commuting environment, they should be:

Many people are familiar with federal guidelines that suggest households spend 30 percent or less on housing, but fewer people consider the transportation costs associated with a home or community because of an absence of data, Cisneros said.

“When transportation is figured in there — because that’s what it takes to get home — it becomes untenable,’’ he said.

The study found that across Greater Boston, the average household spends $22,373 on traditional housing costs and $11,927 on transportation, from car payments and gasoline to T passes and bike tires. That $34,300 represents 54 percent of median household income in the region.

There’s more at the link.

Read more »

Thoreau lets loose his inner cynic.

From Fact Check dot org. Follow the link for the full analysis:

Q: Did the new health care law give Obama a Nazi-like “private army” of 6,000 people?

A: No. Contrary to false Internet rumors, the new Ready Reserve Corps of doctors and other health workers will report to the surgeon general and be like the “ready reserves” in other uniformed services. They will be used during health emergencies.

They make stuff up because truth is not on their side.

Read the whole thing. From the Boston Globe:

ANOTHER YEAR, another group of men killed in a coal mine. You already know the story, because it rarely changes. Inspectors discover violations. Mine operators ignore them. Miners work through the danger because they need to make a living. Gas builds up and explodes. Some men die instantly from the force of the blast, and some die from the carbon monoxide. There are always a few unaccounted for or trapped, and those mysteries keep everyone’s hope alive for a while. Then, usually, they die, too.

Not really sure what I think of this, except that the judges probably made the only legally permissible ruling:

James Douris lost a key court decision Tuesday in his yearlong effort to qualify his male boxer, who is fed everything Douris eats, as a dependent member of his household in calculating food stamp benefits.

A three-judge Commonwealth Court panel upheld a Department of Public Welfare determination that the dog was ineligible because he is not human.

(snip)

Douris, 55, of Newtown, is a disabled and unemployed veteran who lives alone and relies on the dog to pull his wheelchair and fetch items.

H/T Susan for the pic.

90 Fahrenheits and sunny today.

In a world without walls, who needs Windows (to borrow a phrase)?

Homes built with Chinese-made drywall should be stripped of all the problem wallboard, electrical wiring and natural gas piping, federal product-safety regulators said Friday.

The stuff gives off fumes which are not only dangerous to persons, but which also corrode metal.

Quality construction at a price that’s right.

It’s Bushie FEMA trailers on steroids.

I’m taking the day off to unpack and stuff.

Oh, my goodness.

As I think I have mentioned here before, I attended Catholic churches for 18 years. Something to do with being married to someone brought up in the Catholic Church.

All the priests I knew were decent fellows who were trying as best they could to do the jobs they had taken on. Not a one of them has ever had his honor questioned.

It is a shame to see them betrayed by their management in such a fashion. I wonder whether the Catholic Church has considered what protecting malefactors does to the religious who are not malefactors.

I would guess not.

For every hinky priest, there is a hinky Protestant preacher.

The individual misconduct was individual sin; protecting the malefactors was organizational sin, for which the organization must answer.

I have seen it before in other large organizations. The first impulse is to circle the wagons. The second, third, and fourth impulses are to circle, circle, circle. And the circle remains unbroken, as the sin perpetuates.

The sex abuse problems in the Catholic church are management problems. Management knew about it, management protected it, management thereby encouraged it.

I wonder what St. Peter will have to say when these clowns appear at his doorstep.

I’m back.

It’s been real.

Bloomberg takes a poll:

. . . 70 percent of those who sympathize with the Tea Party, which organized protests this week against President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul, want a federal government that fosters job creation.

Follow the link to see the full analysis. The incoherence of teabagging is stultifying.

Still slightly under half a mil:

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 442,000, the Labor Department said. The report included annual revisions to the weekly unemployment claims seasonal factors going back to 2005.

Using the old seasonal factors, claims would have dropped only to 453,000. The prior week’s claims figures were revised to show a 5,000 rise instead of a drop. Analysts, who had expected claims to slip to 450,000, said the data was a step in the right direction.

I was listening to this podcast today. A caller called in (as callers tend to do) and remarked that, in discussing health care with his friends and business associates, he has noticed a “significant lack of altruism.”

He summed it us as (I am paraphrasing this), “I’ve got mine. You’re on your own.”

“I’ve got mine. You’re on your own,” pretty much sums up Republicanism, does it not?

Video via TPM.

Lines at Rita’s: