The sad news:

The number of mass layoffs by U.S. employers rose in April led by manufacturers who shed workers…

The Labor Department said the number of mass layoff events — defined as job cuts involving at least 50 people from a single employer — increased by 228 to 1,856 as employers shed 200,870 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis.

The number of mass layoffs in the manufacturing sector totaled 448 resulting in 63,616 initial jobless benefit claims, the department said. That was more than 24,000 higher than the previous month…

Its an MSM report, so if you read it you’ll see they’re still spinning this as good news – its not as bad as it was in 2009! But its still worse than it was a few months ago – and that tells the tale.

Sharp economic observers were pointing out that the allegedly good numbers in the last part of 2009 and first part of 2010 were really just a matter of climbing out of the basement for a moment. Things had gotten so low by the end of the third quarter of 2009 that there was no way but up – for a while.

That while is now over and economic decline is resuming. If, of course, it ever stopped. Personally, I think that later, comprehensive studies of this time – not possible for some years until all the data are known – will show that in spite of some “up” GDP numbers, the economy never ceased to contract all through 2009 and in to 2010.

We still have too much debt chasing too little wealth – and, in fact, thanks to Obamunism, we have far more debt than we otherwise would have. At the end of the day, Obama has put us in a worse situation – in return for a few quarters of so-called growth, we’re mortgaged a great deal of the future. Now, before we can really rise, we’ll have to absorb this Obama debt, in addition to all the other debt we already had.

Stories are starting to abound about how the second half of 2010 will be brutal. We’ll have to see – mostly it depends right now on whether or not the Euro-zone can plug the gap and keep not Greece from defaulting, but keep Spain, Italy and other countries from following Greece down the economic abyss. I’m doubtful they’ll be able to – but when government threw over gold and gave itself a printing press, it gained massive ability to manipulate financial systems.

But, come what may, we are in for a bad time. It can’t be sustained – the debt cannot be repaid and default will have to happen to clear the economic decks. The longer we hold it off by means of increasing debt, the worse it will be when it finally does happen.

Our President – trust him?

For all the liberal talk about what Israel is doing to Gaza, the truth is how hideous Palestinians are making it:

…An iron curtain of a strict theocracy is slowly descending on Gaza, but many human rights proponents still prefer to depict it as the embattled bastion of freedom fighters.

“Immoderately” dressed women are frowned upon in today’s Gaza. Strolling with a man or even riding a motorcycle with one’s husband can invite questioning. “Modesty patrols”inspect cars to catch unmarried women with men who aren’t relatives.

Male hairstylists are banned from beauty parlors. Women lawyers have, on occasion, been required to don headscarves. The hijab and loose robes are mandatory in secondary schools. Men aren’t allowed to swim in the sea shirtless.

The degree of devotion and prayer habits by mosque worshipers are strictly monitored by appointed commissars. Internet cafes and Christian institutions are particularly popular targets…

Throw in rampant corruption and summary executions, and you’ve got yourself the nauseating mix which is Gaza – and none of it done with an Israeli anywhere to be seen. This is Palestinians eating their own – and the liberals of the west, who will toss a condemnation at Israel at the drop of a hat, remain silent.

Why? Well, part of it is rank fear – cross an Islamist, and you could get killed. So, better not to cross them. The other part of it is the fact that hating Israel has become a matter of ideology on the left, and ideology always trumps in leftist circles.

The best thing which could happen to Gaza right now is the re-imposition of Israeli rule. The Israelis at their most obtuse and oppressive were never as bad as the Palestinians have proved – and, yes, the Israelis did wrong things…but there’s a difference between the wrong done by a boneheaded politician or an over-reacting soldier and the wrong done as a matter of policy. The Palestinian leadership’s evil is not a bug, its a feature.

Its a sad state of affairs and we’ll sadly watch a lot more people die – mostly off camera and thus out of mind – and no change can be made until there is a change in American government…a change away from a policy of considering the Palestinian leadership a responsible partner for peace.

No, I’m not kidding – from Gateway Pundit:

Dan Margolis, chair of the New York State Communist Party USA and 2004 coordinator for the Democratic Party, recently wrote about the Communist Party’s influence in democratic politics.

KeyWiki Blog reported:

When there were setbacks in the fight for health care, there was demoralization and frustration. Our Bronx club, which was instrumental in building an Organizing for America-based local organization, helped fight this feeling and, in the process, gained a good deal of experience. It can be said that, without the Communist Party, and solid leadership from one comrade in particular, the OFA group could have easily disbanded itself…

First off – Matt, is this guy a cousin of yours? Just curious – and if he is, don’t feel too bad. I’ve got a Marxist half-sister, after all (she’s a perpetual student/writer and I’d link to her stuff, but I’ve got a definitive impression from her that she wishes I’d drop off the face of the Earth, so we’ll leave that aside….wouldn’t want to cause her any trouble…imagine if her friends at Columbia found out her brother is a Republican! She’d have to undergo re-education, at the least).

That aside – fascinating that the commies are claiming credit for saving an Obama group. Fascinating, but not surprising. It is clear that under Obama, communism has become acceptable in the Democrat party.

That communists are, at best, fools and, at worst, beasts in human skin doesn’t seem to matter to the Democrats these days. That really does tell the tale of the Democrat party, and tells us why voting Republican in 2010 is a patriotic duty – we have to clear these people out before they wreck the nation.

Time to MoveOn to the next “we’re all gonna die/give us money” scam:

The economic case for global action to stop the destruction of the natural world is even more powerful than the argument for tackling climate change, a major report for the United Nations will declare this summer.

The Stern report on climate change, which was prepared for the UK Treasury and published in 2007, famously claimed that the cost of limiting climate change would be around 1%-2% of annual global wealth, but the longer-term economic benefits would be 5-20 times that figure.

The UN’s biodiversity report – dubbed the Stern for Nature – is expected to say that the value of saving “natural goods and services”, such as pollination, medicines, fertile soils, clean air and water, will be even higher – between 10 and 100 times the cost of saving the habitats and species which provide them.

Par for the course with environmentalism – but I thought we wouldn’t see it for a couple decades. Until, that is, global warming simply didn’t happen. No one counted on the beans being spilled and the resultant collapse of the anthropogenic global warming scam.

But, a scam is needed – lots of people gain power and wealth over environmental alarmism, so a replacement was needed. Presto! Biodiversity is the new thing – watch as this becomes a “crisis” and calls rise for massive amounts of spending to fix the problem.

Breaking out the big money in order to save their Congressional majority:

At least two influential unions will spend close to $100 million on the 2010 election, with most of those funds going to protect incumbents.

Union officials told The Hill they plan to help endangered members — particularly freshmen — who made politically difficult votes in a year during which an anti-incumbent mood has filled the country.

Anti-incumbent? A bit – but its mostly an anti-Democrat mood. At any rate…

The unions see their very large monetary investment going down the drain. They’ve spent untold millions – stolen from their own members – to advance an ultra-liberal set of politicians to power in Washington, and now they fear power may be lost. They are doubling down.

Will it work? No. Money doesn’t buy elections. Corrupt politicians – especially on the left – think it does, but that is not true. Money can make it easier, but victory comes in spite of money, or the lack thereof.

But the unions will still pour it on – we’ll have a huge blast of union-paid lies aired courtesy of the dues of hard working union members, a large number of which prefer the Republicans. It will be a sad and disgusting spectacle – and it won’t affect the outcome in the slightest.

The great news:

Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou has won the special election in urban Honolulu’s 1st Congressional District, the first Republican sent to Washington, D.C., to represent the Islands in two decades.

According to the state Office of Elections, Djou leads with 39.5 percent of the vote, followed by 30.8 percent for state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa and 27.6 percent for former congressman Ed Case. The remaining 11 other candidates attracted the rest of the vote.

The first of many such victories, I am sure, for the Republican party in 2010.

UPDATE: In Djou’s words – why he won;

“This is a momentous day,” Djou told a jubilant crowd at state party headquarters. “We have sent a message to the United States Congress. We have sent a message to the ex-governors. We have sent a message to the national Democrats! We have sent a message to the machine.

“We have told them that we will not stand idly by as our great nation is overburdened by too much taxes, too much debt and too much wasteful spending.”

That is it – and that is the ticket for victory in November.

Inquiring minds really do want to know – even in the MSM. Sestak says he was offered a bribe in return for backing out of the Pennsylvania Senate primary. People would like to know who in the White House made the offer:

Gibbs…managed to successfully not answer a question although it was asked of him 13 times in a row…

…So was he offered a bribe or not? ABC’s Jake Tapper took the first shot at Gibbs.

“Jake, I don’t have anything to add to what I said in March,” Gibbs replied.

Back then Gibbs didn’t answer the question either except by saying “whatever conversations have been had are not problematic.”

Tapper politely noted that he didn’t say anything in March. “Then I don’t have anything to add today,” Gibbs replied.

Fair enough. So how about if you don’t have anything to add, just starting from the beginning then? “Jake, I don’t have anything to add to that,” he said.

And on it went. Quite stupidly, too – its not something that will actually go away. In the heat and passion of the campaign, this will just bubble up more and more, especially as a GOP win in Pennsylvania may be crucial to whom controls Congress in 2011. This is the sort of drip-drip-drip scandal of which Watergates and Lewinskys are made.

The MSM is curious about it and I’m certain that Obama’s media team is issuing instructions that the question is not to be raised again. But it might not work as well as it has in the past – Obama is a greatly diminished figure and the MSM might have to start currying GOP favor in order to retain access in DC. Slavish devotion to liberalism does come second to one thing in MSM-land: career.

The Chicago Way politics of the Obama Administration is generating a lot of problems – small and just a bit annoying, for now, but to grow in to grand proportions as time goes on, and especially if Republicans wind up with Congressional power.

Mark Steyn takes note of Obama’s words about Daniel Pearl:

“Obviously, the loss of Daniel Pearl was one of those moments that captured the world’s imagination because it reminded us of how valuable a free press is.”

Now Obama’s off the prompter, when his silver-tongued rhetoric invariably turns to sludge. But he’s talking about a dead man here, a guy murdered in public for all the world to see. Furthermore, the deceased’s family is standing all around him. And, even for a busy president, it’s the work of moments to come up with a sentence that would be respectful, moving and true. Indeed, for Obama, it’s the work of seconds, because he has a taxpayer-funded staff sitting around all day with nothing to do but provide him with that sentence.

I know that even a lot of my fellow conservatives are still working on the “smart guy Obama” theme, but it simply isn’t true. Yes, I know he attended elite universities, edited the law review and got elected President. But, sorry, he’s dumb as a box of rocks.

There is no one with an IQ above room temperature who would make such a bloodless statement regarding the memorial to a man brutally murdered by wicked men. So weak was the statement that it works out as an insult to the memory of Daniel Pearl – he and his family wound up just a prop in an Obama signing ceremony. A chance for Obama to be on TV in a positive light, nothing more.

Its not like Obama had to get up there and preach a crusade – but some statement along the lines of, “the shocking murder of Daniel Pearl reminded us, once again, that those who search for truth are endangered by those who live by lies”, or some words to that effect. Didn’t have to mention Islam; didn’t have to use the word “terrorism” (though, of course, it was all about that) – a thousand ways present themselves to make a statement which has a bit of vigor, does honor to the fallen and yet goes with whatever is passing for American foreign policy at the moment.

So, as I said, anyone with any sense at all would have immediately seen that the statement prepared was hideous. Obama could not fail to see it unless he’s some sort of mindless puppet who has skated through life. Someone who simply likes to be the center of attention and is happy to let others call the shots. Its either that or he simply must be the most insensitive man alive.

Stupid or mentally deranged, your pick – but its one or the other for Obama.

Nothing good can come of the Culture of Death – this is just more proof of that:

Women who refuse requests from their husbands or boyfriends to have abortions are often finding themselves subject to violent attacks that sometimes result in their deaths. That’s the finding of a new report from the Elliot Institute, which calls the problem a “widespread epidemic.”

The new report, Forced Abortion in America, is drawing attention to attacks on pregnant women and girls in order to prevent them from continuing their pregnancies.

It points out a “widespread epidemic of unwanted, coerced and forced abortions taking place in the United States.”

The report notes how research suggests most abortions are likely unwanted or coerced, with one survey of women who had abortions finding that 64 percent said they felt pressured by others to abort.

Death is something never to be sought – it comes to us all, of course, but it is not something we are supposed to court. Our natural inclination is to live – life is good, and God has written that on our hearts. When we choose death, when we go out of our way to inflict it without cause, we have chosen evil. And out of that evil, worse will follow.

The Culture of Life is the only rational position to hold – it is in line with human nature and expresses the truth of our condition. We must end this scourge of abortion in order to regain a rational society.