Patterico's Pontifications

7/28/2011

L.A. Times Editor Encourages Ass Whipping

Filed under: Dog Trainer — Patterico @ 8:51 pm



Two sources tell me this is a genuine internal memo from L.A. Times editor Ashley Dunn.

Comrades:

As most of you have heard, there were layoffs today. We’ve all been through this before, but it doesn’t make it any easier. We’ll all miss the fine people who are leaving.

For those of us still here, the hard task ahead is getting back to the business of reporting the news. It feels like rushing back into battle after a hellacious ass whipping. To those who are understandably feeling a bit down, I say: We don’t get our asses whipped, we whip asses. We don’t get ulcers, we give ulcers.

Take a look at the Metro’s budget today. Nita is writing about Post Office closures and how people in towns and neighborhoods are taking it. Marosi is shining a bright light on the shitheads in the Sinaloa Cartel, and Ari is back with City Council as it wrestles with those damn red-light cameras. Don’t forget the fighting nudists of San Diego.

These are the great stories we do every day about our beloved city and state. We are kicking ass in our own modest way. Life is calling out for us to write, witness and be moved.

Deadline is coming. Swig that Mountain Dew, suck deeply on that Marlboro Ultralight, tell your editor to move that fucking story.

This paper waits for no one. Let’s get to it.

If you want to vent about the layoffs, plot strategy for the future or just shoot the shit about the old days, come on in.

Ash

If that doesn’t inspire you, comrades, then nothing will. Now grab your Mountain Dews and kick some fucking ass!

How The Boehner Stole Christmas?

Filed under: General — Karl @ 10:53 am



[Posted by Karl]

Lame liberal spin grew three sizes this day:

House Speaker and national grinch John Boehner is planning to spoil Christmas, White House officials are claiming, as they try to head off passage of Boehner’s two-stage debt ceiling bill.

“Happy Holidays America: Boehner plan would have the debt ceiling all over again during the holiday season, which is critical for the economy,” White House deputy spokesman Dan Pfeiffer declared today at 9.50 a.m.

This has become part of White House-circulated talking points.

When Newsweek and the NYT’s Gail Collins launched the same sort of attacks on House Speaker-in-Waiting Newt Gingrich, there was at least some alliteration. (TIME called Gingrich “Uncle Scrooge”, presumably for his advocacy of orphanages.) Moreover, coming on the heels of the 1994 midterm election, the Christmas theme was a timely hook. Trying to get people to think about Christmas in July makes the Democrats sound like they are planning a furniture sale or something. Maybe they are; even MSNBC has figured out that the Dems are losing this debate, while hoping against hope that somehow the GOP will blow it. Granted, the GOP has been known to blow it on occasion, but the left has been reduced to playing the recycled Christmas card.

–Karl

Pres. Obama’s McJobs economy

Filed under: General — Karl @ 8:14 am



[Posted by Karl]

Even Steven Greenhouse at the New York Times and his progressive sources are starting to notice:

There’s more unhappy news for the millions of Americans hoping for a surge in the number of good, high-paying jobs — a new report concludes that the great bulk of new jobs created since the economic recovery began are in lower-wage occupations, paying $13.52 or less an hour.

The report by the National Employment Law Project, a liberal research and advocacy group, found that while 60 percent of the jobs lost during the downturn were in midwage occupations, 73 percent of the jobs added since the recession ended had been in lower-wage occupations, like cashier, stocking clerk or food preparation worker.

***

The report found that real wages had shown “a mild decline” since the recession began, of 0.6 percent. For workers in lower-wage occupations, median wages fell 2.3 percent after inflation — partly because many of the newer workers hired had lower wages than others in that group. For workers in midwage occupations, wages slipped by 0.9 percent, while there was some good news for workers in higher-wage occupations — their wages rose by 0.9 percent.

Progressives used to complain about “McJobs” during the Reagan Administration.  Indeed, the NYT’s Steven Greenhouse was one of them.  The complaints were bogus:

82 per cent of the jobs created during the Reagan recovery were in the higher-paying, higher-skilled occupations (technical, precision production, managerial, and professional). Many of these are “service” jobs, including positions in law, advertising, computers, and medicine. Only 12 per cent of the increase in employment occurred in the lowest-paid, low-skilled service occupations such as retailing and fast-food restaurants.

These days, Ronald McDonald is doing more for the economy than Barack Obama.  And yet, the clown needed an ObamaCare waiver and progressive nanny statists cannot help but bash the clown again and again and again.  Meanwhile, the president who campaigned on wealth redistribution is looking at an economy where only those already in high-wage jobs are seeing income gains.  Political junkies are fixated on the debt ceiling right now.  As important as the debt bomb is, continuing unemployment and stagnating wages better explain why the fundamentals do not favor Obama’s re-election campaign.

Update: “The nation has never before had an economic expansion where total employment after two years of recovery was lower than it was at the end of the recession.”  The Obama presidency continues to make history.

–Karl


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