Watch Ugly Betty on Wed. Night at 9 ET! Boycott Idol This Year!

ABC snuck Ugly Betty back onto their weekly line-up last week. Betty airs at 10pm ET time (9pm CT) Wednesday nights. This is a complete CHANGE in the schedule and I saw NO ADVERTISEMENT about this change anywhere on ABC. They did it in COVER of Darkness!! No Ads! Nothing!! -- What is up with that!!

I am asking all of my viewers to COME BACK to BETTY each Wednesday night. The shows are GREAT!! Betty is Better than Ever!! Please, oh please Watch!

Besides! I ask everyone to boycott American Idol this year. They dumped Paula this year. They care nothing about their personalities. They are bringng on Ellen Degeneris to replace Paula. ED has NO Music experience. Simon was always a jerk and is quitting at the end of this season anyway! Please oh please BOYCOTT IDOL with me and Please Watch Ugly Betty on Wednesdays at 10pm on ABC!

Readers Do You Agree? Unemployment Rate Artificially Inflated Until May/June

Readers,
I have a question about how the Dept of Labor calculates the Official (U3)monthly unemployment rate. (see definition below). My question is, since the Obama administration has extended the number of weeks of eligibility for unemployment, won't the official unemployment rate be skewed because those who would have been dropped (and termed "discouraged workers") at 26 weeks during the Bush administration are now receiving two or more extensions (52 and up to 76 weeks)?

I believe the calculation is:

Total # of Workers Unemployed (minus discouraged workers)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total # Workers Unemployed (minus discouraged workers) + Employed

example:

(1000 - 100)
-------------------------------- = 9% (vs 10%) and variance would continue to grow
(1000 - 100) + 9000 .. as # on extensions grow

As you can see, by the discouraged workers remaining in the equation vs being removed as they have in the past, the unemployed rate stays higher than without the unemployment extensions and these workers being taken out of the equation.

While I recognize these unemployment extensions are important and are needed, are they skewing the unemployment rate? If so, I speculate that the unemployment rate will stay at 10% until May/June timeframe since the bulk of the layoffs occurred at the end of 2008 (end of Bush term).

Once the chronically unemployed are removed from the equation, in May, it will appear there is a big improvement in our unemployment rate.

Shouldn't we talking about this?

Definition from Wiki:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics measures employment and unemployment (of those over 15 years of age) using two different labor force surveys conducted by the United States Census Bureau (within the United States Department of Commerce) and/or the Bureau of Labor Statistics (within the United States Department of Labor) that gather employment statistics monthly. The Current Population Survey (CPS), or "Household Survey", conducts a survey based on a sample of 60,000 households. This Survey measures the unemployment rate based on the ILO definition. The data are also used to calculate 5 alternate measures of unemployment as a percentage of the labor force based on different definitions noted as U1 through U6:

U1: Percentage of labor force unemployed 15 weeks or longer.
U2: Percentage of labor force who lost jobs or completed temporary work.
U3: Official unemployment rate per ILO definition.
U4: U3 + "discouraged workers", or those who have stopped looking for work because current economic conditions make them believe that no work is available for them.
U5: U4 + other "marginally attached workers", or "loosely attached workers", or those who "would like" and are able to work, but have not looked for work recently.
U6: U5 + Part time workers who want to work full time, but cannot due to economic reasons.

Note: "Marginally attached workers" are added to the total labor force for unemployment rate calculation for U4, U5, and U6. The BLS revised the CPS in 1994 and among the changes the measure representing the official unemployment rate was renamed U3 instead of U5.
The Current Employment Statistics survey (CES), or "Payroll Survey", conducts a survey based on a sample of 160,000 businesses and government agencies that represent 400,000 individual employers. This survey measures only nonagricultural, nonsupervisory employment; thus, it does not calculate an unemployment rate, and it differs from the ILO unemployment rate definition. These two sources have different classification criteria, and usually produce differing results. Additional data are also available from the government, such as the unemployment insurance weekly claims report available from the Office of Workforce Security, within the U.S. Department of Labor Employment & Training Administration.
..The unemployment figures indicate how many are not working for pay but seeking employment for pay.

On this Ball of Confusion, Racism is still Prevalent. However, Reid's and Lott's Comments were Very Different!

The book "Game Change" was released last week. This gossipy book written by two national reporters took an inside, behind-the-scenes look at the 2008 presidential campaign. Apparently, during the campaign, Senate leader Harry Reid called then-candidate Obama: “light-skinned” and that he does not speak with a “Negro dialect,” both of which are true and both of which made Barack Obama — in Reid’s opinion — electable.

When I heard this comment, it reminded me of what Joe Biden said when he was a Presidential Candidate running against Obama in the campaign. Biden said, "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."

Both Reid's and Biden's comments were their lame attempts at complimenting Obama. They were falling into the old stereotype of the light skinned House nixxer being the Best of the group. How many people think like this? How many people think most blacks (minorities) are NOT articulate? Are NOT bright and clean? Are NOT intelligent? How many people in this country think the same way? Even though they attempted to be positive, this just shows you how far we have to go regarding the discussion of race in our country.

While I do not agree with their comments or this line of thinking, their comments are NOT as deplorable as Trent Lott's comments. Republicans are comparing Reid to Trent Lott and say Reid should resign as Lott resigned as Senate majority leader in 2002 after he made a racist comment.

Let's go back and examine the comments Lott made in 2002 about Strom Thurmond. Sen. Thurmond was a proud racist back in his day. He was so proud that in 1948, he ran for President as the Segregationist States Rights Party (Dixiecrat). One of Thurmond's rallying cries was, "We cannot force the Negro into our homes, our schools, our churches and our places of recreation." At Thurmond's 100th birthday party, Lott said about his state voting for Thurmond for President, “I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years, either.”

Lott was complimenting a hard-core racist who openly promoted racist exclusionary policies and was adamantly and openly against the Civil Rights movement and integration. Lott said if we would have followed Thurmond's segregationist lead, "we wouldn't have had all of THESE (minority) problems over all these years."

There is no comparison between the two statements.

What is clear, however, is racism is still very prevalent in our country. We have a long way to go before we become a post racial society. We still have miles to go before people of any color are judged by the content of our character versus the color of our skin.

We've Come a Long Way Baby! America IS Changing!

In a way, ANTIs are right. From an ethnic/cultural perspective, this country is changing rapidly.

As my long time viewers know, my husband loves sports and enjoys watching "classic" sports on TV. This morning he was watching Classic Bowling from the 1970s. The clothes and the hair styles were hilarious. The men wore suits, from suit with tie to leisure suits to plaid pants. They had long hair with sideburns. The women wore helmet head hairdos with lots of teasing and hairspray and little dresses with belts and heels. Many people wore glasses, the men the horn rimmed, the women the little granny glasses. I didn't see one minority in the audience. Additionally, no one was on the phone or on a computer.

I compare this picture with a visit to my local bowling center or casino. There is so much diversity. Everyone is wearing casual clothes, from jeans to slacks, to sweat pants. Hair is different, from shaved head, to long-hair, to make-up to no make-up, to piercings, to tattoos. There is every ethnicity. I'd estimate there was about 50% white, 20% Latino, 15% Black, 10% Asian, 5% Other. Almost everyone has a cell phone and a few had their laptops.

Last night at the "sino" on the slots, I sat next to a Vietnamese family, a father played while his two daughters watched. They were speaking Vietnamese to Dad and the two girls were giggling, half in Vietnamese and half English. Both our machines were winning, so we started high-fiving each other with each win and we began a casual conversation. The girls recently immigrated. Their Dad had arrived years ago and brought the rest of the family later. (I did not ask if they were legal or not. I just assumed they were in progress.) I actually spoke with another family of another ethnicity a few weeks ago and the daughter came in legally with a temporary visa, but overstayed, so she was technically here illegally, but was working with Immigration to gain legal status.

The ANTIs are right. Our country is changing and changing rapidly. We are not the plaid pants/leisure suit all white audience we were 30 years ago. It is amazing to think how quickly our country has changed. The Civil Rights Movement was only 40 years ago. We were not a diverse culture then, as we are now. The Jim Crow laws held many people of various ethnicities down.

I think of the Vietnamese families I've seen. We have two Vietnamese churches in our little suburb. Many of the Vietnamese families immigrated and obtained Asylum at the end of the war. Today, many families are granted Asylum status due to the War(s) in the Middle East/their home countries.

Since World War II, more refugees have found homes in the U.S. than any other nation and more than two million refugees have arrived in the U.S. since 1980. During much of the 1990s, the United States accepted over 100,000 refugees per year, though this figure has recently decreased to around 50,000 per year in the first decade of the 21st century, due to greater security concerns. Still, of the top ten countries accepting resettled refugees in 2006, the United States accepted more than twice as many as the next nine countries combined. As for asylum seekers, the latest statistics show that 86,400 persons sought sanctuary in the United States in 2001.

The rate of immigration and the number of immigrants from various countries are contributing to the current backlog in the Immigration Courts. As I've previously written, 40% of those termed "illegal" are Visa overstays and are attempting to work their status through the very backlogged immigration courts.

Regardless of why the demographics are changing, what is important is that we understand the changes and accept the fact that our country and the demographics will continue to change. We need immigration reform to resolve our broken immigration policies, fix the backlog in the courts, streamline the process, and end, once and for all, all of the hatred, anger and imprisoning of workers due to legal status.

Breaking News: Brandon Piekarsky (Luis Ramirez - Kick in the Head Murder) May Be Released from Prison Tomorrow!

Brandon Piekarsky, the football jock accused of delivering the final kick to the head of unconscious Luis Ramirez, may be getting out of prison as soon as tomorrow!
UPDATE: Brandon Piekarsky was released Tuesday and is now staying with his grandmother in Shenandoah. Under the terms of that restriction, he cannot leave the home except for work; education; religious services; medical, substance abuse or mental health treatment and visits with his lawyer in Stroudsburg.
WNEP Reports:
One of two teenagers waiting to go to trial on federal hate crime charges in connection with the 2008 beating death of a Mexican immigrant in Shenandoah may be let out of jail but under certain conditions. A federal judge ruled that Brandon Piekarsky will be released from jail once the probation department checks out where he will stay: his grandmother's and uncle's apartment in Shenandoah.

His lawyer hopes Piekarsky is out of jail as soon as Tuesday. Piekarsky's mother had nothing to say Monday after a federal judge in Scranton ruled her son could be released from prison. Piekarsky is awaiting a federal trial on hate crime charges in connection with the 2008 beating death of Mexican immigrant Luis Ramirez in Shenandoah. Piekarsky is accused (by team-mate Walsh) of delivering the deadly kick to Ramirez and helping concoct a cover-up story with police (Mother's boyfriend, Officer Moyer). The government argued that since Piekarsky faces life in prison he now has a greater incentive to try to obstruct justice but the judge said, "Everyone has the right to be released when charged with a crime."

There are some condition's to Piekarsky's release. He has to stay with relatives, not his mother because investigators believe she may have played a role in the cover-up. Also Piekarsky must wear an electronic monitoring device.

The judge said Piekarsky is not a flight risk but added, "One mistake and you're back in that costume." Derrick Donchak remains in prison, also facing federal trial.

2010 Immigration Marches Begin!

The 2010 Immigration Marches have begun. The first group beginning their march are supporters from Miami, Florida. They began their March on Friday, Jan. 1, 2010. Their plan is to trek the fifteen hundred miles to Washington D.C., picking up advocates and supporters along the way and arriving in D.C. on May 1, 2010.
NY Times reports:
Lacing up new pairs of walking shoes with a flourish, four immigrant students set out on foot from downtown Miami on Friday, starting a four-month walk to Washington to protest what they called the Obama administration’s lack of action on legislation granting legal status to illegal immigrants. Three of the four protesters, who are current or former students at Miami Dade College, do not have legal-resident status and risk detention by immigration authorities during the 1,500-mile walk. The students’ trek shows the resolve and also some limitations of groups supporting an immigration overhaul that would include measures to legalize illegal immigrants. These groups said this week they are starting a national campaign in January to pressure President Obama to push for the overhaul before midterm elections in November. The students in Miami said in a statement that they decided to begin their walk because they had a “deep desire and need for complete citizenship” after they reached dead-ends in school or work because of their lack of legal immigration status.

Starting with a small but noisy send-off at noon by about 100 people on the steps of a landmark building in Miami known as the Freedom Tower, the students said they would walk about 16 miles a day, stopping to sleep at churches and immigration centers. They hope to reach Washington in May. They said they had concluded that the exposure to immigration agents on the walk was not much greater than what they faced in their daily lives. “We are aware of the risk,” Mr. Matos said by telephone. “We are risking our future because our present is unbearable.”

Elsewhere, immigrant groups have been trying other tactics to push for reform, after an overhaul bill they supported was defeated in the Senate in 2007 by a huge surge of voter opposition. In November the groups organized a mass conference call on which, they said, more than 60,000 participants on mobile phones spoke with Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois, to discuss an overhaul proposal. Mr. Gutierrez introduced the bill in the House last month. In California, where hundreds of thousands of immigrants joined demonstrations in 2006, advocacy groups have shifted their focus, said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. Now the groups are working to send immigrants who are voters to pay frequent visits to federal lawmakers who have not supported an overhaul. The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, a group in Chicago, is preparing rallies for mid-January with labor unions and African-American churches, hoping to persuade American workers that immigrants would be less likely to undercut wages if they had legal status and could participate openly in unions.

Republican lawmakers said they remained confident that they could defeat any overhaul proposal. They said it would be political folly for the Obama administration to propose a huge legalization program for illegal immigrants when so many Americans are out of work. “Allowing millions of illegal immigrants to stay and take jobs away from citizens and legal immigrants is like giving a burglar a key to the house,” said Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, the senior Republican on the House Judiciary Committee.

Happy New Year 2010