JOB GROWTH CONTINUES; UNEMPLOYMENT RATE DROPS

The Department of Labor announces the creation of 128,000 jobs in August. Needless to say, Ms. Pelosi had to issue a statement decrying the report. Here’s what Ms. Pelosi said:

“Today’s disappointing jobs report proves President Bush and the Republicans are out of touch with Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck and are struggling to make ends meet. First, we had a so-called ‘recovery’ without jobs; now we have a ‘recovery’ without wage increases. And yet President Bush continues to assert that ‘Things are good for American workers.’
“Just 128,000 jobs were created in August, less than the number needed just to keep pace with the growing labor force. Another 11,000 manufacturing jobs lost. With today’s lackluster jobs report, President Bush still has the worst job creation record of any President since the Great Depression.

Ms. Pelosi must’ve skipped History in school because she seems to have forgotten about the meager job creation during the Carter administration. Here’s what the Labor Department’s website says about the Carter Administration’s record:

The Department played a major role in the President’s economic stimulus program. It received about $8 billion for Public Service Employment and other programs under CETA. Public service jobs increased from 310,000 in 1976 to a peak of 725,000 in 1978. The Department also expanded the Job Corps and other youth training programs. It developed and tested new ways to meet employment related needs of rural workers and Native Americans. It improved on-the-job training for veterans and others through the Hope through Industry Retraining and Employment program. This program provided incentives for companies to hire and train needy persons. A Skill Training Improvement Program provided retraining for displaced workers to prepare them for jobs by giving them skills which were in short supply.

To deal with the enduring social problem of youth unemployment the Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act was made law in 1977. There were four main components. Youth Community Conservation and Improvement Projects and Youth Employment and Training Programs involved neighborhoods, local community organizations and local labor unions in job creation and training. Youth Incentive Entitlement Pilot Projects tested a variety of new approaches to youth employment. Modeled on the Depression-era CCC, the Young Adult Conservation Corps provided disadvantaged youths with work on needed conservation projects on public lands and waters.

Another program to stimulate increased employment of the disadvantaged in the private sector was the Targeted Jobs Tax Credit. This allowed employers to claim tax credits for a limited period for hiring workers from selected groups of particularly needy persons. Groups targeted included disadvantaged youths, veterans, ex-offenders, handicapped persons and persons on welfare. The USES administered the Department’s portion of the program.

In 1978 Congress passed and the President signed the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act, better known as the Humphrey-Hawkins Act. Drafted with assistance from the Department, this law did not create any specific programs. Rather, it called for government-wide planning and action to achieve reduced unemployment and, eventually, zero inflation. This Act found strong expression in many aspects of the Department’s employment and training program, including: targeting assistance to reduce long-term unemployment; improving coordination with private business; reducing youth unemployment, and; assisting adult workers dislocated because of foreign competition.

In other words, the Carter Administration’s job growth ‘record’ was artificially enhanced by government programs that ‘created’ jobs with federal spending. Ms. Pelosi seems to have forgotten that the only thing noteworthy about the Carter Administration’s job ‘growth’ was the creation of the term ‘misery index’, the combination of the unemployment rate and inflation rate. The other thing that’s worth noting is that Carter’s administration had to pass the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act to have any job creation. They still couldn’t get the unemployment rate below 6 percent.

The last thing we need is a Democratic House that will raise taxes and spend money like a drunken sailor. If that’s Dermocrats’ idea of a new direction, then we’re far better off staying the course we’re on.

IRAN TELL US TO GET LOST

This comes as absolutely no surprise....yesterday Iran responded to the U.N.-imposed deadline to stop enriching uranium and shut down its nuclear weapons program. Their response? As we predicted, they told the West to go perform a physical impossibility on itself. Said the crazy little man that runs the terrorist state: "The Iranian nation will not succumb to bullying, invasion and the violation of its rights." That's tough talk from one country...thumbing its nose at the community.

So what's going to happen now?

Absolutely nothing of any consequence --- and the Iranians know it.

Oh sure, President Bush says there must be consequences....and says the United States will pursue sanctions against Iran, even if a majority of the U.N. Security Council won't. But that's just talk. How can I be so sure? Well to find out the real story, you have to read a bit further into the news coverage. You see after the mention of Iran's defiance and the president's response, we see statements from John Bolton at the U.N. that nothing is going to happen until Europe's foreign policy chief meets with Iran's top negotiator.

Delay No. 1.

That's right, we're once again letting the Euro-weasels step in and handle it. The EU will go to Iran and negotiate some sort of slap on the wrist and we'll be right back where we were. Iran is playing this game and they're beating the world at it. They know they have something every country wants.....oil, and lots of it....and they are dealing from a position of strength. So let the "negotiations" begin.

In the meantime .. the U.S. looks weaker and weaker.

And you thought the United States didn't negotiate with terrorists. On the contrary, we just get somebody else to do it for us. The appeasement routine continues with Iran.

I can tell you one thing that we could do this week that would send a signal. Pass a unanimous resolution in the Congress of the United States calling for immediate drilling for oil in the portion of the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge that was set aside for ---- all together now ---- drilling for oil. Follow that up with another resolution opening up all coastlines --- and yes, that includes Florida -- for oil and gas exploration. A 20 mile buffer ought to do it. When that resolution is passed we can get busy on more action to start converting that oil shale in Utah, Nevada and Wyoming into oil, start some coal gasification projects, and start issuing permits for nuclear power plants.

The message here? We're going energy independent ... and bringing the rest of the West with us. Iran can choke on its own oil.

That won't happen though. The environmentalists won't allow it. Remember ... only a portion of the environmental movement in this country is actually dedicated to the preservation of our environment. Many of those clowns are dedicated to something else ... the weakening of America and our capitalist economy. They love seeing the great capitalist giant cower at the feet of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Islamic fascist backers.

Let's all stop to give thanks to the Democrats and their fellow travelers on the left for stripping our country of all resolve to fight for freedom.

And remember ... nothing is worth fighting for that would cause the death of a civilian!

IAEA FINDS HIGHLY-EMRICHED URANIUM IN IRAN

The IAEA report states that inspectors found traces of highly-enriched uranium a year ago in an Iranian nuclear facility. This time, the IAEA analysis states that it did not come from contaminated Pakistani equipment:

The global nuclear monitoring agency deepened suspicions on Thursday about Iran’s nuclear program, reporting that inspectors had discovered new traces of highly enriched uranium at an Iranian facility. Inspectors have found such uranium, which at extreme enrichment levels can fuel bombs, twice in the past. The International Atomic Energy Agency concluded that at least some of those samples came from contaminated equipment that Iran had obtained from Pakistan.

But in this case, the nuclear fingerprint of the particles did not match the other samples, an official familiar with the inspections said, raising questions about their origin.

In a six-page report to the United Nations Security Council on Thursday, the agency withheld judgment about where the material came from and whether it could be linked to a secret nuclear program.

The excuse from the previous find was that the Pakistanis had not thoroughly cleaned the machinery Iran bought through the AQ Khan network. Analysts told the IAEA after months of study that the new sample came from a completely different source, which indicates that the Iranians produced it themselves. Not only that, but the level of enrichment significantly exceeds anything required for civilian energy production.

Of course, this could only surprise people who have either slept for the past ten years or are pathological optimists. Ahmadinejad has rejected an incentive package that would have all but given Iran peaceful nuclear energy, instead opting to pursue enrichment themselves, apparently with a lot of success.

That success led them to start barring IAEA inspectors from key sites. The agency states in its report that it has declining confidence in its ability to provide a complete picture on Iranian nuclear efforts as a result. That means that the information on Iran's program will become increasingly less reliable, a big danger considering the stakes of the decisions that have to be made on increasingly incomplete information, but it begs the question: if Iran only wants peaceful, civilian nuclear energy, then why all the secrecy?

None of this has apparently moved the Russians and the Chinese. According to Robert Einhorn, former State Department head on nonproliferation under the Clinton administration, only a "smoking gun" will convince them to support sanctions. Unfortnately, the only smoking object that would qualify for Russian and Chinese firmness would be the radioactive remains of Tel Aviv.