Matt Margolis

The U.S. jobs picture beat tepid expectations, with the economy creating a significantly better than expected 103,000 new jobs in September that nonetheless was not enough to cut the unemployment rate from 9.1 percent.

Economists had been looking for 60,000 total new nonfarm jobs, a month after the shock that the U.S. had created a net of zero new jobs. That August number, though, was revised upward in the latest report, to show the economy creating 57,000 jobs for the month.

It is also worth noting that half of the gains came from Verizon workers returning from their strike, making actual new jobs in September actually less than what was forecasted.

One Life, An Entire World Changed

October 6, 2011Matt Margolis16 Comments

I can’t say I know all that much about Steve Jobs, aside from using his inventions daily. One fact I did not know about him until yesterday was that Steve Jobs was adopted. National Review’s Kathryn Jean Lopez wrote about his death and linked to the follow piece, which I find quite thought provoking.

Jobs’ birth mother, Joanne Schiebel, was an unmarried college student who got pregnant and would decide to give her child up for adoption.

It would not be overstating things to say that Steve Jobs is my generation’s Thomas Edison. As one observer put it, he knew what the world wanted before the world knew that it wanted it.

If you have an iPhone or an iPad or an iPod, or anything remotely resembling them, you can thank Steve Jobs.

If your world has been transformed by the ability to hear a symphony, send a letter, pay a bill, deposit a check, read a book and then buy theater tickets on something roughly the size of a credit card…you can thank Steve Jobs.

And: you can thank Joanne Schiebel.

If you want to know how much one life can matter, there is just one example.

But: imagine if that life had never happened.

Imagine if an unmarried pregnant college student 56 years ago had made a different choice.

Now, imagine all the unmarried pregnant college students who make that different choice today.

While some will be quick to point out that abortion was not a legal option in this country 56 years ago, but it was, nevertheless, an option.

Today the left equates abortion with “women’s rights” as if the act itself is as noble as voting, or refusing to give up your seat on a public bus. It’s a sad reflection on their values when even those who believe abortion should be a legal option try to silence those who wish to convince a potential mother that she should not walk through the doors of an abortion clinic. These people want the government out their bedroom or their uterus or whatever, but still want the government to fund abortions so this “choice” is even more accessible. They scoff at the idea that a child who needs a note from a parent to be excused from gym class should need parental consent in order to have an abortion…

But, as we can see, the left looks at abortion from the wrong perspective. Even they don’t believe life begins at conception they cannot deny a potential life with a whole world to contribute to exists in every unborn baby. Had Steve Jobs’ birth mother had the option, and took it, your life would be different today because the contributions made by one made actually did change the world.

Sarah Palin Will NOT Run in 2012

October 5, 2011Matt Margolis30 Comments

Thank you, Sarah, for making the right decision.

After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.

In general, I have no problem with Sarah Palin. Hell, I’d take her experience over Obama’s any day. I remember watching her give her speech and the 2008 Republican National Convention and being 100% convinced we would win.

Hey, things change. And there is a reality to face, and that she is as divisive a political figure as Barack Obama. Even within the Republican Party she’s a poison pill. Canonized and demonized by various factions that are equal in their convictions that is the right person to lead the party, and the wrong person.

I consider myself part of the latter camp. In the past few years since the election, I have not been convinced by her efforts that she has elevated herself past the level of a pundit, because that’s what she sounds like to me… a pundit, not presidential caliber. Like Obama, who sounds like a pundit when scripted and a fifth grader when off the cuff, Sarah just doesn’t fit bill for me anymore. I accept the fact that as a Republican who wants to see this country back on track that I have to be happy with the filed we got, and you know what, I trust any of the Republican candidates to do a better job than we’ve seen done the past three years, and I will do everything I can to help that candidate win.

But for now, I thank Sarah Palin again, for stepping aside, and realizing that this was not her time.

From The Pew To The Podium, Obama Tight With Anti-Semites

October 5, 2011October 5, 2011Matt Margolis11 Comments

Big Brother Is Reading Your Medical Records

October 5, 2011October 5, 2011Matt Margolis5 Comments

See, this is scary.

As part of its implementation of Obamacare, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has proposed a new federal regulation to require private health insurance companies to give the government all of the health records of every person they insure. The rule is shrouded in the usual bureaucratese, but, as Huelskamp pointed out in a Washington Examiner op-ed, “abstract terms are used to distract from the real objectives of this idea: no matter which ‘option’ is chosen, government bureaucrats would have access to the health records of every American — including you.”

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius claims the government must have the records in order to evaluate the performance of health insurers. Aside from the absurdity of having federal health bureaucrats judge the job performance of anybody else, the proposal raises a gigantic red flag: Federal and state governments have proven repeatedly in recent years that they are all but incapable of fully protecting sensitive records of individuals.

Seriously, who can read this and think Obamacare was a good idea? How much more Orwellian nonsense is there?

Caption This

October 5, 2011Matt Margolis32 Comments

Investigating Holder

October 5, 2011October 4, 2011Matt Margolis23 Comments

There’s a lot of investigating to be done. House Republicans need to keep up the pressure.

House Republicans are calling for a special counsel to determine whether Attorney General Eric Holder misled Congress during his testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on Operation Fast and Furious, Fox News has learned.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, was sending a letter to President Obama on Tuesday arguing that Holder cannot investigate himself, and requesting the president instruct the Department of Justice to appoint a special counsel.

The question is whether Holder knowingly made false statements of fact under oath during a Judiciary Committee hearing on May 3. At the time, Holder indicated he was not familiar with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives program known as Fast and Furious until about April 2011.

Speaking of Holder, check of this video of DOJ whistleblower J. Christian Adams discussing the politicization and radicalization he witnessed at Eric Holder’s Justice Department.