Obama's "Kiss my Grits" economic gains for women

Women Waiting Tables Provide Most of Female Gains in U.S.

Excerpt:

It’s almost 6 p.m. on a Friday and the tables near the bar at The Hamilton in downtown Washington are getting crowded. That means waitress Victoria Honard is busy. Honard, 22, who graduated from Syracuse University in May, works about 25 hours a week at the restaurant while looking for a job related to public policy. She moved to Washington four days after graduation with the hope of finding a position at a think tank or policy-related organization, she said, and has applied to about 20 prospective employers.

...

Unemployment data appear to reflect big advances for women. The jobless rate in August for females 20 years and older was 6.3 percent, the lowest since December 2008, compared with 7.1 percent for men. As recently as January, the rate was 7.3 percent for both genders, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The downside is that the gains have been largely in lower-paying industries such as waitresses, in-home health care, food preparation and housekeeping. About 60 percent of the increase in employment for women from 2009 to 2012 was in jobs that pay less than $10.10 an hour, compared with 20 percent for men, according to a study by the National Women’s Law Center using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Comment: Image = Polly Holliday, "Flo", from Alice

A photo shot or a skeet shot.

Barack Obama, Straight Shooter? - A dubious publicity photo and journalism's Jed Clampetts.
Excerpt:

The photo, purportedly shot last Aug. 4 (which happens to be the president's birthday), shows Obama holding a shotgun. The barrel is smoking, indicating that the gun has just been fired. What's odd about it is that the president is aiming straight ahead, as if he were firing a rifle at a stationary target. But in skeet shooting, the target, a disk known as a clay pigeon, is moving. It is launched from one of two "houses" and travels in a parabolic trajectory across the field. In order to hit it, one has to move the gun so as to follow the path of the clay. It's not impossible that one would fire at shoulder level, as Obama is doing in the photo, but it's unlikely. We therefore surmise that the picture is the product of a photo shoot, not a skeet shoot.

... In an episode of the 1960s sitcom "The Beverly Hillbillies," the title characters go skeet shooting at the invitation of a wealthy, sophisticated banker. Hilarity ensues when Jed Clampett insists on shooting with a rifle instead of a shotgun, and then makes the shot anyway. "To do it with a rifle is absolutely remarkable," says the man from the gun club. Clampett's young cousin Jethro then takes a crack at it and hits four targets in rapid succession. "Fantastic feat!" marvels the gun-club guy. (To which Jed replies, looking at Jethro's feet: "Yeah, they is big all right.") The conceit of "The Beverly Hillbillies" was that the Clampetts were rubes, ignorant even of such obvious matters as the difference between a shotgun and a rifle. Today's journalists are a lot like the Clampetts, albeit without the impeccable aim.

Comment: PR stunt!

President Obama's inauguration w Lady Gaga

AP Source: Inaugural Ball to Feature Lady Gaga
Excerpt:

Watch out Beyonce and Katy Perry. There's another diva set to perform during the inauguration festivities — Lady Gaga. A person familiar with the inauguration tells The Associated Press that the pop star will perform at Tuesday's ball for White House staffers. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because that person wasn't authorized to publicly reveal the information.

Comment: So much for Obama being against gun violence. I spared my readers by covering up her *ss.

Silver Lining .... Obama owns it!

A SILVER LINING AND A CONUNDRUM

 Excerpts:

I can see only one good outcome from yesterday’s election: the fact that Barack Obama will be the president who inherits the mess left by Barack Obama. The economy is in awful shape; it won’t get much better given Obama’s policies, and may get worse. 

But I digress: back to the silver lining. Obama will now have to reveal his agenda for a second term, heretofore a closely-guarded secret. In particular, what is he going to do about the nation’s $16 trillion debt? Obama’s answer during his first term was “nothing.” His budget, incorporating any number of optimistic assumptions, called for the debt to rise to $20 trillion. I don’t see how Obama can get through his second term without articulating some plan, however half-baked, for dealing with the debt. Ben Bernanke can’t keep interest rates at zero for another four years; at least, I don’t think he can. As soon as interest rates start to rise, the budget–no, wait, we don’t have a budget, but you know what I mean–is blown. It will be difficult for the press to conceal from the American people the fact that we are broke.

Obama’s default idea is to raise taxes on the rich, but that approach has a fatal defect. We suffer from a severe shortage of rich people. You could confiscate every penny belonging to every rich person in America, and not make a dent in the national debt. So, Barry, over to you: what’s your plan? I confess that I am looking forward to watching Obama squirm.

Comment: He cannot blame Bush anymore!