Patience is a virtue when it comes to hiring

Patience is a virtue when it comes to hiring

09.17.2012



When Craig Michels landed a long-sought job on June 18 as a project manager for a Wisconsin construction company, he credited his determination and patient attitude, two things he says are imperative when trying to find a job, the Post-Crescent reports.

"This was the job I was looking for, it was the right kind of job compared to my previous position, which really just wasn’t satisfying and not what I really wanted," the 32-year-old said.

Michels added that he remained employed while looking for a job, fully aware of the stagnant economy, but felt things were looking up enough that finding a new, a better job was possible. However, he took his time to search out the ideal position, which to him would be an active, outdoor job. By thoroughly reviewing his options, he was able to find a job in which he oversees construction projects from beginning to end, according to the news source.

This approach to hiring has also been taken by employers, who are finding in recent months that virtues similar to Michels' help yield strong results. Although unemployment in Wisconsin has fallen as the overall economy improves, employers in the northeastern part of the state say the region is still brimming with laid-off mid level employees and new college graduates.

"There still are people out there looking, who are looking for work to just to work, not because the position is something they really want," said Kelly Mallaman, human resources manager for Menasha-based Faith Technologies, an electrical services contractor.

Mallaman added that she often receives dozens of resumes for one open position, with job candidates ranging from experienced and overqualified to those who have not had the appropriate training for the job. However, Mallaman says, sifting meticulously through the resumes is ultimately worth finding the perfect hire.

"The goal for us is to have the top candidates selected to bring in for interviews," she said.

According to the news provider, finding the right fit is an increasingly important task for companies. Even finding workers for entry level positions can be a serious challenge, said Julie Van Vonderen, vice president of operations at Prospera Credit Union.

Van Vonveren said that when her company has an opening for a $10-dollar-an-hour teller position, she often receives an overwhelming number of applicants in response.

"I may get 200 resumes for that job and you may run across an out-of-work CEO who’s just looking for anything," she said.

However, Van Vonderen said now she turns to temporary staffing agencies to help her with such hiring - a move many businesses are making to fill their entry-level or low-skilled positions.

"When I use a staffing firm [for a teller position], I can provide them with the rate of pay, how many hours the job is per week and tell them I need someone with cash-handling experience," Van Vonderen said. "It’s their job to then sort through the dozens of applicants and find the top [few] that they think are a good fit for my opening."

The demand for temporary staffing services is evident in the growth of the industry in 2012 alone. According to the American Staffing Association, to date, temporary and contract staffing has grown 23.5 percent since the beginning of 2012. The ASA Staffing Index for August came in at 92, making it 0.9 percent higher than July's report.

This number is expected to rise in the coming months, as staffing employment typically peaks between mid-November and mid-December every year.

The Cross in Our Bodies

The Cross in Our Bodies









This is a pretty neat story and an interesting thing that few of us know. It's brief, so please read (from a doctor).

A couple of days ago I was running (I use that term loosely) on my treadmill, watching a DVD sermon by Louie Giglio... And I was BLOWN AWAY! I want to share what I learned. I fear not being able to convey it as well as I want but I will share anyway.

He (Louie) was talking about how inconceivably BIG our God is... How He spoke the universe into being... How He breathes stars out of His mouth that are huge raging balls of fire, etc. etc. Then he went on to speak of how this star-breathing, universe-creating God knitted our human bodies together with amazing detail and wonder. At this point I am LOVING it (fascinating from a medical standpoint, you know). And I was remembering how I was constantly amazed during med school as I learned more and more about God's handiwork. I remember so many times thinking, 'How can anyone deny that a Creator did all of this?'

Louie went on to talk about how we can trust that the God who created all this, also has the power to hold it all together when things seem to be falling apart...how our loving Creator is also our sustainer.

Then I lost my breath, and it wasn't because I was running my treadmill!!!

It was because he started talking about laminin. I knew about laminin.

Here is how Wikipedia describes them: 'Laminins are a family of proteins that are an integral part of the structural scaffolding of basement membranes in almost every animal tissue'

You see.... Laminins are what holds us together... LITERALLY. They are cell-adhesion molecules. They are what holds one cell of our bodies to the next cell. Without them, we would literally fall apart. I knew this already, but what I didn't know is what they looked like.

But now I do. And I have thought about it a thousand times since... Here is what the structure of laminin looks like... AND THIS IS NOT a christian portrayal of it.... If you look up laminin in any scientific/medical piece of literature, this is what you will see.



Now tell me that our God is not the coolest!!! The glue that holds us together is in the shape of the cross. Immediately Colossians 1:15-17 comes to mind. 'He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. All things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things HOLD TOGETHER.' Colossians 1:15-17

Thousands of years before the world knew anything about laminin, Paul penned those words. And now we see that from a very LITERAL standpoint,we are held together...one cell to another....by the cross.

You would never in a quadrillion years convince me that is anything other than the mark of a Creator who knew exactly what laminin 'glue' would look like long before Adam breathed his first breath!

Signs point to interstellar space for Voyager 1 probe

Signs point to interstellar space for Voyager 1 probe
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: September 16, 2012


More than 35 years after launching from Earth and now at the frontier of the solar system, NASA's Voyager 1 probe may be tasting interstellar space for the first time, according to scientists analyzing fresh data from the distant explorer.



Artist's concept of the Voyager spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech


Launched in September 1977 to fly past Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 1 is now cruising 11.3 billion miles away and opening its distance by 300 million miles each year.



It takes 17 hours for a radio signal to travel between Earth and Voyager 1. Its twin explorer - Voyager 2 - is lagging slightly behind at a distance of 9.2 million miles from Earth.

The nuclear-powered probe's computers have about 68 kilobytes of memory. An 8-gigabyte iPod Nano holds more than 100,000 times as much data.

But particle-sniffing sensors aboard Voyager 1 are returning intriguing data showing the spacecraft is in the precipice of leaving the solar system.

Researchers may be seeing the first signs that Voyager 1 is nearing - or may have already crossed - the heliopause, an enigmatic boundary between the sun's sphere of influence and the void beyond.

The sun's million-mile-per-hour solar wind blows a teardrop-shaped bubble around the solar system, pushing against a stream of galactic particles coming from ancient stellar explosions.

The heliosphere is compressed by the galactic wind in one direction, while it stretches behind the solar system like a comet's tail.

The heliosphere blocks most dangerous cosmic radiation from reaching Earth.

"Inside the heliopause, the wind is from the sun, and outside the wind is from the explosion of supernovae," said Ed Stone, project scientist for the Voyager program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "It's a distinctly different part of the universe, and these two spacecraft will be the first to enter interstellar space."

Voyager 1 crossed into the heliosheath in 2004, entering a region where the pressure from galactic particles begin to slow the speed of the solar wind.

Since then, scientists have played a waiting game. No one knows for sure what environment Voyager 1 will encounter when it makes its grand exit.

"We could be actually in interstellar space right now, as far as we know," said Alan Cummings, a senior scientist at the California Institute of Technology, in remarks last month.

But it will take time before scientists can safely conclude Voyager 1 has crossed into the interstellar medium, a domain more dominated by particles from elsewhere in the Milky Way galaxy than from the sun.

At the very least, recent data show Voyager 1 has entered a new region, according to Ed Stone, Voyager's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

In May, Voyager 1's particle counter began scooping up more high-energy cosmic rays coming from outside the solar system.

"Suddenly, in one month, they increased as much as they had in a year," Stone said. "Obviously, something had changed."

Another, even sharper, rise in high-energy cosmic rays was measured in late August, just as Voyager 1's telescopes detected a dramatic drop in low-energy particles coming from inside the heliosphere.



Diagram of the heliosphere, with the locations of the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft at left. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech


The signature closely mirrors what officials expected to see as Voyager 1 neared the heliopause, and the evidence in recent data account for two of three important tests Voyager scientists will use to determine whether the spacecraft has crossed over.



The other indicator is a change in the direction of the magnetic field around Voyager 1, and that is the most difficult to ascertain, according to Stone, who has been with the project since its launch.

According to Stone, confirming the change in magnetic field could take weeks or months of observations.

"There is some kind of connection between where Voyager is and the outside, which lets that are inside out and lets the particles that our outside in," Stone said. "The question is how much further is it to the heliopause? We don't know whether these are special filaments connecting to the outside or whether we're dancing along a new region which is connected to the outside."

Researchers believe the heliopause boundary is extraordinarily turbulent, and its location can fluctuate in location and time. Charged particles travel along magnetic field lines, which can undergo dynamic bursts known as reconnection, much like the process responsible for auroras on Earth.

"This is very new data, and we haven't really digested it all yet," Cummings said. "It could be that the magnetic field line that Voyager is on is making intermittent connections with the heliopause, or this boundary we're trying to get to."

Off-and-on magnetic connections with the heliopause could allow particles from inside the heliosphere to escape and draw in cosmic ways from interstellar space.

"If there's one thing we've learned from Voyager, it's no matter how clever we think we are about the signatures, there's almost surely to be something we haven't figured out when we get there, and that's going to be the most interesting thing of all," Stone said.

US Credit Rating Cut by Egan-Jones ... Again

US Credit Rating Cut by Egan-Jones ... Again
Published: Friday, 14 Sep 2012 | 3:43 PM ET
By: CNBC.com With Reuters

Ratings firm Egan-Jones cut its credit rating on the U.S. government to "AA-" from "AA," citing its opinion that quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve would hurt the U.S. economy and the country's credit quality.




Getty Images

The Fed on Thursday said it would pump $40 billion into the U.S. economy each month until it saw a sustained upturn in the weak jobs market. (Read more: Fed's 'QE Infinity' — Four Things That Could Go Wrong)

In its downgrade, the firm said that issuing more currency and depressing interest rates through purchasing mortgage-backed securities does little to raise the U.S.'s realgross domestic product, but reduces the value of the dollar.

In turn, this increases the cost of commodities, which will pressure the profitability of businesses and increase the costs of consumers thereby reducing consumer purchasing power, the firm said.

In April, Egan-Jones cuts the U.S. credit rating to "AA" from "AA+" with a negative watch, citing a lack of progress in cutting the mounting federal debt.

Moody's Investors Service [MCO 43.82 0.07 (+0.16%) ] currently rates the United States Aaa, Fitch rates the country AAA, and Standard & Poor's rates the country AA-plus. All three of those ratings have a negative outlook.

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ELECTORAL MAP

Retirement or College Funding: Which Comes First?

Retirement or College Funding: Which Comes First?
from daveramsey.com on 12 Sep 2012

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If you’re working your way out of debt, one of the most difficult questions you might face is how to prioritize college savings and retirement.

If you’re like most parents, you’ll phrase the question this way: What is more important—my own security at retirement or my child’s education and future? It’s easy to think about it that way because it’s an emotional issue.

Lately, a lot of parents have decided that college savings should come first. The economy has seen better days, and desperate, misguided parents have dipped into their 401(k)s to pay for their child’s college tuition.

According to a Sallie Mae and Gallup study, 7.4% of parents took out a loan from their 401(k)s in 2010. That’s more than double the amount in 2009. It’s an alarming trend—one based on fear and desperation. And, after taxes on the loan and an early withdrawal penalty, it’s a trend that will get quite expensive and stressful.

It’s never a good idea to pull money out of your retirement fund before the time comes. But the more difficult question is this: Should you delay saving for retirement to pay for your child’s tuition?

No. Dave prioritizes retirement over college savings because you need retirement money to live, eat, and pay for shelter—the basics. You’re not working, so that money is your only source of income.

Saving for college is extremely important, but it’s a luxury. Your child will have other ways to pay—scholarships, grants, part-time jobs. They can select a more affordable school. Pay for your child’s college if you can, but remember that it’s not as important as retirement.

Retirement is a necessity. If you don’t have retirement money saved up, then you’re working until you die or living on Alpo. Get to a place financially where you can start putting 15% of your income toward retirement first, then begin working on an ESA or 529for your kid’s college.

Don’t guilt-trip yourself into doing something you’ll regret in a few years, like taking money out of your retirement. Your child will be okay—with or without your help. This isn’t child abuse. It’s wise parenting.

Remember: College is a luxury. Living, eating, and having shelter during retirement is a necessity.

We all face challenges in both our parenting and our money. Financial Peace Universityoffers practical answers to many of the questions you have, including saving for retirement and college. Find the class starting nearest you!

3D Printing: The Game Changer

3D Printing: The Game Changer



As told by Hugh Evans
VP at T. Rowe Price Associates


Hugh Evans is a vice president at T. Rowe Price Associates. He is the lead portfolio manager of the Distribution Management Service, and serves on the Investment Advisory Committee of the Small-Cap Value Fund and Small-Cap Stock Fund. Mr. Evans received a BA with distinction from the University of Virginia, where he was a Jefferson Scholar, and an MBA from Stanford University, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.


I have a pretty unique perch at T. Rowe Price, as the person who's got one foot in the public markets and one foot in the private equity markets. I scan the venture capital world to make sure that we're on top of these private companies that the venture capitalists are creating, and get to know them two, three, four, five years before their IPO (Initial Public Offering).

It's a very useful knowledge pipeline for us, to watch developments through the eyes of the venture capitalist, and I've seen a lot of the most exciting things coming out of private equity.

From my vantage point, 3D Printing is right up there as one of the most exciting innovations I've seen in the 20 years I've been around here. I think it's going to change the way goods are manufactured across many industries.

THE BACKSTORY

In order to wrap your head around this, file away what your mind tells you about printing or pictures. A normal printer squirts ink onto paper, but a 3D Printer layers atoms on top of each other to create (or print) actual objects.

I can explain this in more detail by taking us through the history of the 3D-Printing industry. What we now call 3D Printing was called rapid prototyping for many years. An engineer would design an object as a CAD (computerized aided design) file, and then send that file to a machine to produce the real thing. (See our accompanying article, How 3D Printing Works.)

But for years, the plastics and the metals that were used were just not robust enough to create a prototype that you could be proud of. They resembled paraffin waxes. They could create the parts, but those parts tended to be flimsy. Because the end product didn't have structural integrity, the technology was really just for engineers who were creating a product in CAD and needed to see what it looked like in real life.

The revolution took place when companies like 3D Systems started designing radically new materials. (See the article Substance Before Form for more.)

They came up with nanocomposites, different blends of plastics, and different blends of powdered metals. They were then able to create a part that, if you held it in your hand, you'd think it was steel. You can throw it down on the ground against cement, and it looks and acts just like steel.

It's impressive how the industry has graduated from flimsy, waxy plastics to very, very robust materials that can literally be used as a machine part, rather than just a prototype of a part.

The industry graduated from just being about rapid prototyping—i.e., this is going to be something that's only an R & D function—to becoming a manufacturing strategy. We can make parts through this method, and the parts can go on the car, and the parts can go on the plane. They can also go in the human body, in the case of dental or medical applications.

THE FUTURE IS NOW

And so the invention of these new materials has allowed this industry to go from being bottled up in the lab to what many people call DDM—Direct Digital Manufacturing—and others call "additive manufacturing."

These new materials allow this 3D printing to be adopted by aerospace, automotive. Jaguar is using the technology for rapid product development. So is the Bell Helicopter division of Textron. (For more on 3D Printing's use in the automotive industry, see Is 3D Printing Road Ready?.)

It's amazing. I was at an event recently where these guys from Barcelona had a game console with a camera attached, and had sort of rejiggered it. For fun, they'd take a picture of you with it, and then print it on a 3D printer. The things some of these people are doing—it's just amazing.



MEDICAL APPLICATIONS

It's pretty intuitive to apply this technology to the automotive and aerospace industries, and jewelry has always been a big market. But one of the most exciting areas is actually dental fabrication.

You might already have a crown that was built by a 3D printer. Five years ago, that crown would have been made by hand—hand-sanded and hand-created. This technology is taking over that task. Now you go to the dentist, and you don't bite into the clay anymore to make a mold of your mouth. Your dentist just wands your mouth with the 3M wand and makes a digital file of your mouth. It happens instantly, and then the dentist teleports that CAD file and has the implant at his office the next day.

One company I'm excited about is using 3D printing to make prostheses. It's a venture-backed company in San Francisco called Bespoke Innovations. There are a large number of amputees in America and around the world—I believe something like two million people have some sort of prosthetic limb or device.

The prosthetics industry had always been one-size-fits-all, but now they are taking Army vets and other people who need prostheses, taking a lot of measurements of their body movements and angles, and building custom limbs. Not every leg extension is the same. Some have different weight-bearing characteristics, different angles, a different way the feet move. Bespoke Innovations takes all this ergonomic information, imports it, and creates a CAD file, from which they can literally print out the limb that is used by the customer. (See our article Printing a Medical Revolution for more.)

That, to me, points the way to what's so exciting about the field. It's the epitome of mass customization: a product that is relatively similar for most people, but customized to fit you and your specific needs.

THE PROMISE OF INSTANT CAD FILES

The other thing that's accelerating the industry is the development of laser scanners. A company called FARO Technologies produces a handheld laser that you can point at an object, and the laser will create a CAD/CAM file of what you're pointing at in real time.

The data from the laser reading is imported into a CAD/CAM file, and so you can instantly create a CAD/CAM file with this laser technology. Even the labor intensity of creating a CAD file is reduced as you can create instant CAD files through this device.

So now you can picture yourself walking down the street, point, click, get a CAD file, and click again, and it's printed out an hour later. You saw a flower, you pointed and clicked, and now you've printed a replication of that flower, and it's on your desk.

A concern with these wands is how they fit into our notion of intellectual property, and how patent law is enforced in a world where people are empowered to replicate real-world objects on their own. It's a conversation that we've had around digital copyrights for years, but we should expect to see it cross over into the analog world as well.

That will be a concern, especially as the capabilities of this technology continue to develop. But even now, you can go on YouTube and search for keywords like "3D printing and dental," or other related keywords, and you will find so many clips in which you can actually see the process.

3D PRINTING AT HOME

Six years ago the cheapest machine out there was $30,000, but most were $100,000. Today you can get a capable 3D printer for around $1,299, which launched at the Consumer Electronics Show this year.

At that price, the marketplace opens up to individuals like us. It could be as soon as three years from now that people will have a 3D printer at home to make toys, napkin holders, curtain rings, and whatever is needed.

That's why 3D printing is so interesting. It's not just tied up in the engineering world anymore. It's impacting a large number of industries, and becoming more relevant to consumers. I'm seeing that even high schools now have 3D printers.
I just ran into a high school teacher the other day who teaches software classes, and he was telling me, "Oh, I just bought my first 3D printer."

It's exciting to see this technology begin to reach its full potential. A few years ago it was a little ahead of its time, but not anymore. It's here today.

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Why wages aren't rising

Why wages aren't rising

By Steve Hargreaves @CNNMoney September 11, 2012: 7:12 AM ET





The economy has been adding jobs, but high unemployment is keeping wages low.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- When the government report on job creation came out last week, economists were quick to note a worrying point: average hourly wages in August dropped by a penny.

Though one cent may not sound like much, the drop underscores a broader trend: Amid sluggish growth and stubbornly high unemployment, wages just aren't rising very quickly.

Are you better off?

One reason is that persistent unemployment is keeping workers from getting salary increases.

"If your employer knows you don't have a lot of options, there's no incentive to give you a raise," said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. "It shifts bargaining power away from workers and toward employers."

Related: Obama's economy, a snapshot

Over the last year the average hourly wage for jobs in the private sector has gone from $23.12 an hour to $23.52 an hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That represents a gain of 1.7%, slightly higher than inflation over roughly the same time period.

But stripping out managerial and professional jobs, wages rose just 1.2% -- below the rate of inflation. According to Shierholz, 82% of the private work force is in non-managerial jobs.

"People think high unemployment only affects people without jobs," said Shierholz. "But it also prevents people from getting raises."

Related: Check the unemployment rate in your state

Another reason for sluggish wage growth is that much of the recent job growth has been in low wage industries.

High unemployment also pushes people to take jobs they otherwise wouldn't. This is especially true as economic growth remains weak and unemployment benefits run out.

Many of the jobs created since the recession officially ended in 2009 have been in lower wage industries like retail or food service work.

Nearly 40% of the private sector jobs added since early 2010 have been in retail, leisure and hospitality, temporary staffing and home health care, according to a recent report from Wells Fargo, even though these industries account for only 29% of all jobs.

The average hourly wage in those four industries is just $15 an hour, the bank said.

In August, 28,000 new jobs were added in food services and drinking places. And those industries have grown by 298,000 jobs over the past 12 months.


Without wage growth, consumers are loath to spend more, and the economy is unlikely to find its footing any time soon.

"The lack of real income growth is a major factor in preventing the economy from achieving the escape velocity needed to break free form the 2% trajectory maintained over the last couple of years," Wells Fargo Senior Economist Mark Vitner wrote in the report.


First Published: September 11, 2012: 5:25 AM ET

RUSH’S GEDDY LEE SAYS TOURING IS MORE STRESSFUL THAN EVER

RUSH’S GEDDY LEE SAYS TOURING IS MORE STRESSFUL THAN EVER
by: Chad Childers 5 hours ago


Ethan Miller, Getty Images

You might think that after four-plus decades in the music industry that touring would be old hat for a band likeRush, but singer Geddy Lee says that hitting the road these days is more stressful than ever.

The vocalist tells Grammy.com, “I find it more stressful than when I was younger. I think the physical part of it takes its toll on me, and the other guys I know for sure. Staying healthy becomes a more difficult challenge, and as the tour winds on, nerves fray in a different way than they used to.”

On a skill level, Lee says that he has more confidence in his singing and bass playing than he did when he was younger and therefore it makes it easier for him to capture an audience’s attention, but, he adds, “There is kind of a physical price you pay as the tour winds on. Whereas when I was younger, I could be in almost any condition, get out there and bang it off. I’m grateful for the audiences that we have, wherever we go, but it’s a difficult thing for me to do right now.”

One “nice problem” to have though as a veteran band is deciding on set lists. Lee says it’s hard to pick what goes in and becomes tougher every year, but he adds, “It’s a good problem to have because it’s the result of a long career.” The singer adds, “You don’t want to disappoint people by leaving their favorite song out. At the same time, you try to [play] a [new] old song. Trying to keep the balance is tricky.”

Lee, with his Rush bandmates, just returned to the road on Friday night to support their latest album, ‘Clockwork Angels.’ In other Rush news, the band took home the Album of the Year for ‘Clockwork Angels’ at the inauguralProgressive Music Awards last week.

The Great Jobs Mystery: Why Are So Many Men Dropping Out of the Workforce?

The Great Jobs Mystery: Why Are So Many Men Dropping Out of the Workforce?

The August jobs report set two records that we need to talk about. Both involve the labor participation rate -- the share of the working-age population that has a job or is looking for a job. First, men's participation rate fell to its lowest point on record (since 1948). Second, the overall participation rate fell to its lowest point since 1981.

So, three years into a recovery, we are at a modern historical low for working-age adults who are actually working, or trying to find work. It's horrible new. It means we make less stuff, have less wealth, and pay fewer taxes. It's bad for growth, bad for deficits, bad for the stock market. (Weirdly, it also makes the unemployment rate seem artificially low.)

But why is this happening? There are two reasons. The first is that America is getting older, and more workers are entering that age where they are less likely to be employed. Imagine the enormous Boomer generation moving along this graph below, from left to right, as they age into their 60s and 70s. You can see how the labor participation rate would fall automatically, good economy or bad.


That's exactly what demographers have expected: A gradual decline in the participation rate as the Boomers retired and smaller generations beneath them struggled to replenish the working population. The dotted lines in the graph below are projected declines from before the Great Recession. The red line is what's actually happened. The hill has been steeper than we foresaw.




So, one interpretation of the Great Recession is that it has accelerated our labor participation fall-off by five to ten years. Older workers, who have faced the worst long-term unemployment crisis(they're more expensive; harder to train; and possibly subject to ageism) might be retiring early. As we've reported, the recession has also coincided with a sharp increase in applications for disability benefits and it's clear that, in addition to the one million older Americans who have been looking for work unsuccessfully for more than six months, hundreds of thousands have dropped out and retired early.

And that brings up the second reason why more people aren't participating in the work force: They don't think there's any work for them.

There has been a long debate over whether the recession is pulling down participation stronger than demographics. A February 2012 study found that the aging workforce accounted for 75% of the decline. But in the last few months, the Great Recession's impact might have strengthened. The share of people not in the labor force who say they do want a job has turned sharply up since March, hitting a post-recession high. Here's that graph:



To review: The combination of an aging workforce (which we cannot control) and a weak economy (which we can control) has tugged down the participation rate, which in turn has tugged down the unemployment rate -- and threatens to make us poorer in the long term. So when you hear somebody quoting that "unemployment has hit a three-year low" make sure they also report that "participation rates hit a 31-year low."

***

Oh, and what about the guys? Men's participation hit an all-time low in August. This is a record, but it's not a surprise. Male participation has been in outright decline since the 1950s, as the share of working-age women who are actually working has practically doubled since the late 1940s. Here's that picture, with men in BLUE, women in RED, and total participation in GREEN.


Most of this decline has come from older men's participation dropping dramatically since the 1950s. It's same factors we talked about above are in play. The the male population is getting older, making them less likely to work, and the economy is discouraging many from seeking a job, anyway.

But there are two more forces pulling down men's participation. In fact, they two of the most important economic trends of the last 50 years: The rise of women and the growth of the safety net. Dual-earner households have allowed men to either choose to not work or to retire early. That's part of the decline. But, perhaps even more importantly, the increase in Social Security payments, plus Medicare and Medicaid, have allowed older men to stop working and rely on government insurance programs to protect them from the risk of elderly poverty and medical catastrophe.

Original article [here]

Lexmark Exits the Inkjet Market: Are Printers Doomed?

Lexmark Exits the Inkjet Market: Are Printers Doomed?

When a major maker of inkjet printers says it's going to stop selling them, what does this mean for the future of the category, and for you? - Melissa Riofrio, PCWorld

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Where the Jobs Really Are

AP
Where the Jobs Really Are

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and you could be exactly what they're looking for.

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Dear American Companies: Here's How to Fix the Economy

Dear American Companies: Here's How to Fix the Economy
By Business Insider
Posted 3:30PM 08/30/12Posted under: Economy, Ford Motor Co
8231024216178135724

By Henry Blodget

In 1914, a business executive named Henry Ford did a startling thing: He announced that he was going to more than double the wages he was paying his employees, from $2.34 to $5 a day -- the equivalent of $120 a day in today's money.

The country was as shocked by this then as it would be today.

A powerful company voluntarily sharing some of its profits with its rank-and-file workers and paying them more than it absolutely had to? Had Henry Ford gone mad? Didn't he understand that the only goal of a business was to make money?

Didn't he realize that, as a successful business executive, he was entitled to make as much money as he could possibly make--the financial health of his employees being nobody's business but their own? Didn't he understand that smart executives pay their employees no more than "market rates" because the executive's job is to "create shareholder value," everyone in our economy gets what they deserve, and the financial well-being of employees is not something that business owners or bosses or shareholders should be concerned with?

Yes, Henry Ford understood all that.

The story you hear frequently about why Henry Ford made this decision was that he wanted to allow his workers to be able to afford to buy his cars. The wage increase certainly made the cars (and many other products) more affordable for Ford employees, but the historical consensus is that Ford actually made this decision for a different reason: To reduce employee turnover--and, in so doing, reduce recruiting and replacement cost.

Regardless, it worked.

Thousands of people immediately lined up to get jobs at Ford (F). Employee turnover plummeted, and recruiting and training costs dropped. The new wages allowed Ford employees to live middle-class lives, instead of being poor. And it presumably made Ford, Ford's senior executives, and Ford's shareholders even more proud of what they had created.

In short, instead of viewing "shareholders" and "customers" as the only two corporate constituencies that matter, Ford introduced the idea that great companies should also serve a third constituency: Employees.

And because one company's employees are another company's customers, Ford's decision helped spread the country's wealth to more citizens and expand the purchasing power of the country as a whole. And, in so doing, it helped the overall economy.

Specifically, Ford's unprecedented move also helped usher in an age in which the middle class became the driving force in the American economy, turbo-charging the nation's economic growth right up through the early 1980s, when relative middle class wages began to decline.

Henry Ford's story is highly relevant today.

Why? Because we are facing a very similar economic problem as the country did in the early 20th century. A glut of labor was allowing companies to pay a pittance for a day's work, leaving most of their dedicated employees destitute. Business owners and executives (the equivalent of today's 1%) did fine, but most rank-and-file workers did not. And this lack of spending power in the middle class crimped overall economic growth.

If we want to fix today's ailing U.S. economy, we need many of our large corporations to do what Henry Ford voluntarily did: Share more of their vast wealth with their rank-and-file employees.

If the companies don't eventually see the benefit of doing this and do it voluntarily, the government (an extension of the people) will likely the mandate that they do it--either through taxation or by radically increasing the national minimum wage.

And given that government solutions are often terrible solutions, it would be best for everyone if we persuaded corporations to do this voluntarily. So what follows is an initial effort to do that.

See the real problem with the economy, and how to fix it.

Read more from Business Insider:
Warren Buffett's 18 Best Quotes
Gina Rinehart Tells People to Drink Less, Work More
The Truth About Who's Responsible for Our Massive Budget Deficit

18 Brilliant Quotes From The Greatest Investor Of All Time

Here Are 18 Brilliant Quotes From The Greatest Investor Of All Time
Sam Ro | Aug. 30, 2012, 6:01 AM | 486,770 | 17





Theo Wargo / Getty ImagesThe Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett turns 82 years young today.

He may be one of the wealthiest people in the world. But he's also known as the billionaire next door. He comes off as humble and sometimes uses self-deprecating humor. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he's lived in Omaha, Nebraska for most of his life.

Buffett also uses extremely easy-to-understand language when referring to business and investments.

Many of his most thoughtful quotes are found in his annual letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, which are must reads. But some of his gems come from random interviews, speeches, and op-ed pieces.

We compiled a few of the best quotes from the Oracle of Omaha. If we've missed any of your favorites, let us know in the comments.
Here are some of Buffett's best lines >

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-quotes-2012-8?op=1#ixzz25ZRQoRv4

The Truth About Who's Responsible For Our Massive Budget Deficit

The Truth About Who's Responsible For Our Massive Budget Deficit
Henry Blodget | Aug. 29, 2012, 9:29 PM | 35,357 | 94

Say the words "budget deficit," and Republicans and Democrats begin screaming at each other about who's to blame.

Republicans howl that the deficit is President Obama's fault, because he has exploded government spending and failed to fix the economy.

Democrats roar that President Obama inherited a catastrophic economic mess, that this mess will take time to clean up, and that our massive deficit is therefore President Bush's fault.

So, who's right?

Let's start by looking at the deficits under Presidents Bush and Obama. Then we'll figure out what has caused them. Finally, we'll assign some blame.

First, the chart below shows the progress of the annual deficits under Presidents Bush and Obama.

President Bush, you will recall, inherited a budget surplus (the first in decades). Then, hit with a recession, he took the budget into deficit. Then he cut taxes, growing the deficit to $400 billion a year. Then, the economy boomed between 2005 and 2008, reducing the deficit to $200 billion a year. Then, the financial crisis hit, and the Bush deficit ballooned to $400 billion again.

In early 2009, President Obama took over, amid the worst recession since the Great Depression. Obama signed an $800 billion spending increase at the same time that GDP and tax collections tanked. The combination of these two factors--growth in spending and a drop in revenue--exploded the deficit to $1.4 trillion. In 2010 and 2011, the economy and tax collections improved modestly, and the deficit shrank to $1.3 trillion annualized.




Business Insider, St. Louis Fed



So, what actually caused these deficits?

The chart below provides a look at federal receipts (taxes) and spending during the same period. (The deficit is the difference between them).

Republicans howl that President Obama has exploded the size of federal government spending in his short tenure as President, and it is true that he has increased it. But President Bush actually increased federal spending by more than 2X as much as Obama has. So it is unfair to lay the explosion in spending at the feet of President Obama: Both presidents are responsible.

The increase in government spending, meanwhile, is actually NOT the only factor that has caused the deficit. The other factor--equally if not more important--is the fall-off in government revenue (tax receipts).

This second and larger factor can be blamed on two things: First, the Bush tax cuts, which reduced revenue, and, second, the weak economy, which reduced the incomes and capital gains upon which most federal taxes are based.

In the chart below, you can see what happened to both federal receipts (red line) and spending (blue line) over the past decade.

President Bush cut taxes in 2001 and 2003. These tax cuts hit federal revenue, while federal spending growth continued apace. This combination ballooned the deficit in the early years of the Bush presidency.

By the middle years of the Bush presidency, however, on the strength of the housing boom and strong economic growth (much of which now looks like a debt-fueled mirage), federal revenues began to grow rapidly. By 2007, in fact, the gap had almost closed.

But then the bottom fell out. The housing bubble burst, the financial crisis hit, and the economy plunged into recession. And then President Bush handed President Obama the worst recession in more than 70 years and left Obama to clean up the mess.

This recession clobbered federal revenues (tax receipts--red line), which have only just regained their 2007 bubble highs. President Obama's stimulus, meanwhile, helped add about $600 billion to federal spending (blue line). The combination of these two factors ballooned the deficit from $400 billion when President Bush left office to ~$1.3 trillion now.




Business Insider, St. Louis Fed



So, who's responsible for the massive deficit?

This is a tougher question.

We know WHAT is responsible: The combination of tax cuts, weak government revenues (tax receipts), and a vast increase in government spending.

But figuring out WHO to blame is a more subjective exercise.

If you believe that the growth during the "Bush Boom" was a debt-fueled mirage--a theory that is certainly supported by the evidence--then you can lay the blame squarely at the feet of President Bush. His combination of reduced taxes and increased spending took the US from a surplus to a deficit, and even the economic boom from a massive housing bubble and enormous borrowing couldn't close the gap.

Even if you think the "Bush Boom" was real, moreover, the recession and financial crisis began on his watch, and the deficit was already exploding when President Obama took office. So it's very hard to escape the conclusion that President Bush bears a lot of the responsibility for our current mess.

On the other hand, President Obama's stimulus certainly hasn't had as big an impact on the economy (and, therefore, government revenues) as he and his advisors thought it would. Given the extent of the mess Obama inherited, it's possible that nothing would have fixed the economy by now. But even huge Obama supporters are justifiably frustrated with his over-promising, as well as with many of the decisions he has made.

So it seems fair to lay some of the responsibility for our current deficit at President Obama's feet as well.

But, of course, if we're doling out blame, we need to bring two other parties into the conversation.

First, Congress, which approved all of the decisions above.

Second, us--the American citizenry--the folks who voted Presidents Bush and Obama and Congress into office.

We cheered as President Bush and Congress ignited the housing bubble. We cheered as they cut taxes and increased spending (it's just so marvelous to have it all). We cheered as President Obama and Congress approved the stimulus and extended the Bush tax cuts. And we're cheering now as Republicans promise us that--if only we just cut taxes and spending--our problems will be solved. (Never mind the examples of Greece and the UK, which demonstrate clearly that enacting "austerity" in the midst of a fragile recovery doesn't work).

In short, we've all become accustomed to our free lunch, and we never tire of electing politicians that promise it to us.

So if we want to know who's really to blame, we should take a peek in the mirror.

Now Read: The Truth About Who's Responsible For The Explosion Of Government Spending

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/us-budget-deficit-2011-7#ixzz25ZQoVEFm

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In World First, Scientists Surgically Implant a Working Bionic Eye In a Blind Patient

In World First, Scientists Surgically Implant a Working Bionic Eye In a Blind Patient
By Colin LecherPosted 08.31.2012 at 2:40 pm4 Comments


Bionic Eye Bionic Vision Australia

We've been waiting on the prospect of a bionic eye for a while now; being able to surgically give sight to the sightless would be a medical breakthrough, and we're right on the cusp. Exhibit A: In a world first, scientists have successfully implanted a prototype bionic eye that has helped a woman see shapes.

Researchers from the government-funded consortium Bionic Vision Australia made the announcement in a statement yesterday; in it the implantee said she "didn't know what to expect, but all of a sudden, I could see a little flash--it was amazing." The team is hoping they can start to "build" shapes based on what she sees, eventually creating a bionic eye that works like its organic counterpart.

The prototype device is set up in a lab. Electrodes in the implant stimulate nerve cells, and in the controlled environment scientists can get feedback from the user on the "flashes of light." That could help them adjust until the "flashes of light" reflect the actual environment enough to be helpful. It's not full vision, but it's an early step toward it.

The next stage, the scientists say, is incorporating an external camera into a device, and creating versions with more electrodes. With 98, a person could be able to see large objects; with 1,024, they could recognize faces and large print.

[Bionics Institute]

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Organic food no healthier than non-organic: study

Organic food no healthier than non-organic: study

By Genevra Pittman | Reuters – 4 hours ago


View Photo

An organically grown Heirloom tomato is seen in the produce section at the Whole …


NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Organic produce and meat typically isn't any better for you than conventional varieties when it comes to vitamin and nutrient content, according to a new review of the evidence.

But organic options may live up to their billing of lowering exposure to pesticide residue and antibiotic-resistant bacteria, researchers from Stanford University and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System found.

"People choose to buy organic foods for many different reasons. One of them is perceived health benefits," said Dr. Crystal Smith-Spangler, who led the new study.

"Our patients, our families ask about, ‘Well, are there health reasons to choose organic food in terms of nutritional content or human health outcomes?'"

To try to answer that question, she and her colleagues reviewed over 200 studies that compared either the health of people who ate organic or conventional foods or, more commonly, nutrient and contaminant levels in the foods themselves.

Those included organic and non-organic fruits, vegetables, grains, meat, poultry, eggs and milk.

Many of the studies didn't specify their standards for what constituted "organic" food - which can cost as much as twice what conventional food costs - the researchers wrote Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

According to United States Department of Agriculture standards, organic farms have to avoid the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, hormones and antibiotics. Organic livestock must also have access to pastures during grazing season.

Many conventional farms in the U.S., in contrast, use pesticides to ward off bugs and raise animals in crowded indoor conditions with antibiotics in their feed to promote growth and ward off disease. The Food and Drug Administration has been examining that type of antibiotic use and its contribution to drug-resistant disease in humans.

SAME VITAMINS

Smith-Spangler and her colleagues found there was no difference in the amount of vitamins in plant or animal products produced organically and conventionally - and the only nutrient difference was slightly more phosphorus in the organic products.

Organic milk and chicken may also contain more omega-3 fatty acids, they found - but that was based on only a few studies.

There were more significant differences by growing practice in the amount of pesticides and antibiotic-resistant bacteria in food.

More than one-third of conventional produce had detectable pesticide residues, compared to seven percent of organic produce samples. And organic chicken and pork was 33 percent less likely to carry bacteria resistant to three or more antibiotics than conventionally-produced meat.

Smith-Spangler told Reuters Health it was uncommon for either organic or conventional foods to exceed the allowable limits for pesticides, so it's unclear whether a difference in residues would have an effect on health.

But Chensheng Lu, who studies environmental health and exposure at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, said that while the jury is still out on those effects, people should consider pesticide exposure in their grocery-shopping decisions.

"If I was a smart consumer, I would choose food that has no pesticides," Lu, who wasn't involved in the new study, told Reuters Health. "I think that's the best way to protect your health."

He said more research is necessary to fully explore the potential health and safety differences between organic and conventional foods, and that it's "premature" to conclude organic meat and produce isn't any healthier than non-organic versions.

"Right now I think it's all based on anecdotal evidence," Lu said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/PShmuj Annals of Internal Medicine, online September 3, 2012.

Jimmy Carter's Law Day Address - May 4, 1974

A Message On Justice

Senator Kennedy, distinguished fellow Georgians, friends of the Law School of Georgia, and personal friends of mine: Sometimes even a distinguished jurist on the Supreme Court doesn't know all of the background on acceptances of invitations. As a matter of fact, my wife was influential in this particular acceptance, but my son was even more influential. This was really an acceptance to repair my ego. There was established in 1969 the L.Q.C. Lamar Society. I was involved in the establishment of it, and I think a lot of it. As Governor of Georgia, I was invited this year, along with two distinguished Americans, to make a speech at the annual meeting which is going on now.

I found out when the program was prepared that Senator Kennedy was to speak last night. They charged $10 to attend the occasion. Senator William Brock from Tennessee is speaking to the Lamar Society at noon today. I found out they charged $7.50 for this occasion. I spoke yesterday at noon, and I asked the Lamar Society officials, at the last moment, how much they were charging to come to the luncheon yesterday. They said they weren't charging anything. I said, "You mean they don't even have to pay for the lunch?" They said, "No, we're providing the lunch free."

So, when my son Jack came and said, "Daddy, I think more of you than you thought I did; I'm paying $7 for two tickets to the luncheon," I figured that a $3.50 lunch ticket would salvage part of my ego and that's really why I'm here today.

I'm not qualified to talk to you about law, because in addition to being a peanut farmer, I'm an engineer and a nuclear physicist, not a lawyer. I was planning, really, to talk to you more today about politics, and the inter-relationship of political affairs and law, than about what I'm actually going to speak on. But after Senator Kennedy's delightful and very fine response to political questions during his speech, and after his analysis of the Watergate problems, I stopped at a room on the way, while he had his press conference, and I changed my speech notes.

My own interest in the criminal justice system is very deep and heartfelt. Not having studied law, I've had to learn the hard way. I read a lot and listen a lot. One of the sources for my understanding about the proper application of criminal justice and the system of equity is from reading Reinhold Niebuhr, one of his books that Bill Gunter gave me quite a number of years ago. The other source of my understanding about what's right and wrong in this society is from a friend of mine, a poet named Bob Dylan. After listening to his records about "The Ballad of Hattie Carol" and "Like a Rolling Stone" and "The Times, They Are a-Changing," I've learned to appreciate the dynamism of change in a modern society.

I grew up as a landowner's son. But I don't think I ever realized the proper interrelationship between the landowner and those who worked on a farm until I heard Dylan's record, "I Ain't Gonna Work on Maggie's Farm No More." So I come here speaking to you today about your subject with a base for my information founded on Reinhold Niebuhr and Bob Dylan.


"Justice in a Sinful World"

One of the things that Niebuhr says is that the sad duty of the political system is to establish justice in a sinful world. He goes on to say that there's no way to establish or maintain justice without law; that the laws are constantly changing to stabilize the social equilibrium of the forces and counterforces of a dynamic society; and that the law in its totality is an expression of the structure of government.

Well, as a farmer who has now been in office for 3 years, I've seen firsthand the inadequacy of my own comprehension of what government ought to do for its people. I've had a constant learning process, sometimes from lawyers, sometimes from practical experience, sometimes from failures and mistakes that have been pointed out to me after they were made.

I had lunch this week with the members of the Judicial Selection committee, and they were talking about a consent search warrant. I said I didn't know what a consent search warrant was. They said, "Well, that's when two policemen go to a house. One of them goes to the front door and knocks on it, and the other one runs around to the back door and yells 'come in'." I have to admit that as governor, quite often, I search for ways to bring about my own hopes; not quite so stringently testing the law as that, but with a similar motivation.

I would like to talk to you for few moments about some of the practical aspects of being a governor who is still deeply concerned about the inadequacies of a system of which it is obvious that you're so patently proud.

I have refrained completely from making any judicial appointments on the basis of political support or other factors, and have chosen, in every instance, Superior Court judges, quite often state judges, Appellate Court judges, on the basis of merit analysis by a highly competent, open, qualified group of distinguished Georgians. I'm proud of this.

We've now established in the Georgia Constitution a qualifications commission, which for the first time can hear complaints from average citizens about the performance in office of judges and can investigate those complaints and with the status and the force of the Georgia Constitution behind them can remove a judge from office or take other corrective steps.

We've now passed a constitutional amendment, which is waiting for the citizenry to approve, that establishes a uniform Criminal Justice Court system in this state so that the affairs of the judiciary can be more orderly structured, so that workloads can be balanced and so that over a period of time there might be an additional factor of equity, which quite often does not exist now because of the wide disparity among the different courts of Georgia.

We passed this year a judge sentencing bill for non-capital cases with a review procedure. I've had presented to me, by members of the Pardons and Paroles Board, an analysis of some of the sentences given to people by the Superior Court judges of this state, which grieved me deeply and shocked me as a layman. I believe that over a period of time, the fact that a group of other judges can review and comment on the sentences meted out in the different portions of Georgia will bring some more equitity to the system.

We have finally eliminated the unsworn statement law in Georgia - the last state to do it.

This year, we analyzed in depth the structure of the drug penalties in this state. I believe in the future there will be a clear understanding of the seriouness of different crimes relating to drugs. We've finally been able to get through the legislature a law that removes alcoholism or drunkenness as a criminal offense. When this law goes into effect next year, I think it will create a new sense of compassion and justice for the roughly 150,000 alcoholics in Georgia, many of whom excape the consequences of what has been a crime because of some social or economic prominence, and will remove a very heavy load from the criminal justice system.

In our prisons, which in the past have been a disgrace to Georgia, we've tried to make substantive changes in the quality of those who administer them and to put a new realm of understanding and hope and compassion into the administration of that portion of the system of justice. Ninety-five percent of those who are currently incarcerated in prisons will be returned to our neighbors. And now the thrust of the entire program, as initiated under Ellis MacDougall and now continued under Dr. Ault, is to try to discern in the soul of each convicted and sentenced person redeeming features that can be enhanced. We plan a career for that person to be pursued while he is in prison. I believe that the early data we have on recidivism rates indicates the efficiency of what we've done.

The GBI, which was formerly a matter of great concern to all of those who were interested in law enforcement, has now been substantially changed - for the better. I would put it up now in quality against the FBI, the Secret Service, or any other crime control organization in this country.

Well, does that mean that everything is all right?

It doesn't to me.


Searching for a Better Way

I don't know exactly how to say this, but I was thinking just a few moments ago about some of the things that are of deep concern to me as a governor. As a scientist, I was working constantly, along with almost everyone who professes that dedication of life, to probe, probe every day of my life for constant changes for the better. It's completely anachronistic in the make-up of a nuclear physicist or an engineer or scientist to be satisfied with what we've got, or to rest on the laurels of past accomplishments. It's the nature of the profession.

As a farmer, the same motivation persists. Every farmer that I know of, who is worth his salt or who's just average, is ahead of the experimental stations and research agronomist in finding better ways, changing ways to plant, cultivate, utilize herbicides, gather, cure, sell farm products. The competition for innovation is tremendous, equivalent to the realm of nuclear physics, even.

In my opinion, it's different in the case of lawyers. And maybe this is a circumstance that is so inherently true that it can't be changed.

I'm a Sunday school teacher, and I've always known that the structure of law is founded on a Christian ethic that you shall love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself - a very high and perfect standard. We all know the fallibility of man, and the contentions in society, as described by Reinhold Niebuhr, and many others, don't permit us to achieve perfection. We do strive for equality, but not with a fervent and daily commitment. In general, the powerful and the influential in our society shape the laws and have a great influence on the legislature or the Congress. This creates a reluctance to change because the powerful and the influential have carved out for themselves or have inherited a privileged position in society, of wealth or social prominence or higher education or opportunity for the future. Quite often, those circumstances are circumvented at a very early age because college students, particularly undergraduates, don't have any commitment to the preservation of the way things are. But later, as their interrelationship with the present circumstances grows, they also become committed to approaching change very, very slowly and very, very cautiously, and there's a commitment to the status quo.

I remember when I was a chiid, I lived on a farm about 3 miles from Plains, and we didn't have electricity or running water. We lived on the railroad - Seaboard Coastline Railroad. Like all farm boys, I had a flip, a slingshot. They had stabilized the railroad bed with little white round rocks, which I used for ammunition. I would go out frequently to the railroad and gather the most perfectly shaped rocks of proper size. I always had a few in my pockets, and I had others cached away around the farm, so that they would be convenient if I ran out of my pocket supply.

One day I was leaving the railroad track with my pockets full of rocks and hands full of rocks, and my mother came out on the front porch - this is not a very interesting story but it illustrates a point - and she had in her hands a plate full of cookies that she had just baked for me. She called me - I am sure with love in her heart - and said, "Jimmy, I've baked some cookies for you." I remember very distinctly walking up to her and standing there for 15 or 20 seconds in honest doubt about whether I should drop those rocks which were worthless and take the cookies that my mother had prepared for me, which between her and me were very valuable.

Quite often, we have the same inclination in our everyday lives. We don't recognize that change can sometimes be very beneficial, although we fear it. Anyone who lives in the South looks back on the last 15 to 20 years with some degree of embarrassment, including myself. To think about going back to a county units system, which deliberately cheated for generations certain white voters of this state, is almost inconceivable. To revert back or to forego the one man, one vote principle we would now consider to be a horrible violation of the basic principles of justice and equality and fairness and equity.

The first speech I ever made in the Georgia Senate, representing the most conservative district in Georgia, was concerning the abolition of 30 questions that we had so proudly evolved as a subterfuge to keep black citizens from voting and which we used with a great deal of smirking and pride for decades or generations ever since the War Between the States - questions that nobody could answer in this room, but which were applied to every black citizen that came to the Sumter County Courthouse or Webster County Courthouse and said, "I want to vote." I spoke in that chamber, fearful of the news media reporting it back home, but overwhelmed with a commitment to the abolition of that artificial barrier to the rights of an American citizen. I remember the thing that I used in my speech, that a black pencil salesman on the outer door of the Sumter County Courthouse could make a better judgment about who ought to be sheriff than two highly educated professors at Georgia Southwestern College.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was perhaps despised by many in this room because he shook up our social structure that benefited us, and demanded simply that black citizens be treated the same as white citizens, wasn't greeted with approbation and accolades by the Georgia Bar Association or the Alabama Bar Association. He was greeted with horror. Still, once that change was made, a very simple but difficult change, no one in his right mind would want to go back to circumstances prior to that juncture in the development of our nation's society.


A Long Way To Go

I don't want to go on and on; I'm part of it. But the point I want to make to you is that we still have a long way to go. In every age or every year, we have a tendency to believe that we've come so far now, that there's no way to improve the present system. I'm sure when the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, they felt that was the ultimate in transportation. When the first atomic bomb was exploded, that was the ultimate development in nuclear physics, and so forth.

Well, we haven't reached the ultimate. But who's going to search the heart and soul of an organization like yours or a law school or state or nation and say, "What can we still do to restore equity and justice or to preserve it or to enhance it in this society?"

You know, I'm not afraid to make the change. I don't have anything to lose. But, as a farmer, I'm not qualified to assess the characteristics of the 9,100 inmates in the Georgia prisons, 50 percent of whom ought not to be there. They ought to be on probation or under some other supervision and assess what the results of previous court rulings might bring to bear on their lives.

I was in the governor's mansion for 2 years, enjoying the services of a very fine cook, who was a prisoner - a woman. One day she came to me, after she got over her 2 years of timidity, and said, "Governor, I would like to borrow $250 from you."

I said, "I'm not sure that a lawyer would be worth that much."

She said, " I don't want to hire a lawyer. I want to pay the judge."

I thought it was a ridiculous statement for her; I felt that she was ignorant. But I found out she wasn't. She had been sentenced by a superior court judge in the state, who still serves, to 7 years or $750. She had raised, early in her prison career, $500. I didn't lend her the money, but I had Bill Harper, my legal aide, look into it. He found the circumstances were true. She was quickly released under a recent court ruling that had come down in the past few years.

I was down on the coast this weekend. I was approached by a woman who asked me to come by her home. I went by, and she showed me documents that indicated that her illiterate mother, who had a son in jail, had gone to the County Surveyor in that region and had borrowed $225 to get her son out of jail. She had a letter from the Justice of the Peace that showed that her mother had made a mark on a blank piece of paper. They paid off the $225, and she has the receipts to show it. Then they started a 5 year program trying to get back the paper she signed, without success. They went to court. The lawyer that had originally advised her to sign the paper showed up as the attorney for the surveyor. She had put up 50 acres of land near the county seat as security. When she got to court she found that instead of signing a security deed, she had signed a warrantee deed. That case has already been appealed to the Supreme Court, and she lost.

Well, I know that the technicalities of the law that would permit that are probably justifiable. She didn't have a good lawyer. My heart feels and cries out that something ought to be analyzed, not just about the structure of government, judicial qualifications councils and judicial appointment committees and eliminating the unsworn statement - those things are important. But they don't reach the crux of the point - that now we assign punishment to fit the criminal and not the crime.


Only the Poor Go To Prison

You can go to the prisons of Georgia, and I don't know, it may be that poor people are the only ones who commit crimes, but I do know that they are the only ones who serve prison sentences. When Ellis MacDougall first went to Reidsville, he found people that had been in solitary confinement for 10 years. We now have 500 misdemeanants in the Georgia prison system.

Well, I don't know the theory of law, but there is one other point I want to make, just for your own consideration. I think we've made great progress in the Pardons and Paroles Board since I've been in office and since we've reorganized the government. We have five very enlightened people there now. And on occasion they go out to the prison system to interview the inmates,to decide whether or not they are worthy to be released after they serve one third of their sentence. I think most jurors and most judges feel that, when they give the sentence, they know that after a third of the sentence has gone by, they will be eligible for careful consideration. Just think for a moment about your own son or your own father or your own daughter being in prison, having served 7 years of a lifetime term and being considered for a release. Don't you think that they ought to be examined and that the Pardons and Paroles Board ought to look them in the eye and ask them a question and, if they are turned down, ought to give them some substantive reason why they are not released and what they can do to correct their defect?

I do.

I think it's just as important at their time for consideration of early release as it is even when they are sentenced. But, I don't know how to bring about that change.

We had an ethics bill in the state legislature this year. Half of it passed - to require an accounting for contributions during a campaign - but the part that applied to people after the campaign failed. We couldn't get through the requirement for revelation of payments to officeholders after they are in office.

The largest force against that ethics bill was the lawyers.

Some of you here tried to get a consumer protection package passed without success.

The regulatory agencies in Washington are made up, not of people to regulate industries, but of representatives of the industries that are regulated. Is that fair and right an equitable? I don't think so.

I'm only going to serve 4 years as governor, as you know. I think that's enough. I enjoy it, but I think I've done all I can in the governor's office. I see the lobbyists in the state capital filling the halls on occasions. Good people, competent people, the most pleasant, personable, extroverted citizens of Georgia. Those are the characteristics that are required for a lobbyist. They represent good folks, But I can tell you that when a lobbyist goes to represent the Peanut Warehouseman's Association of the Southeast, which I belong to, they go there to represent the peanut warehouseman. They don't go there to represent the customers of the peanut warehouseman.

When the Chamber of Commerce lobbyists go there, they go there to represent the businessman of Georgia. They don't go there to represent the customers of the businessman of Georgia.

When your own organization is interested in some legislation there in the capitol, they're interested in the welfare or prerogatives or authority of the lawyers. They are not there to represent in any sort of exclusive way the client of the lawyers.

The American Medical Association and its Georgia equivalent - they represent the doctors, who are fine people. But they certainly don't represent the patients of a doctor.

As an elected governor, I feel that responsibility; but I also know that my qualifications are slight compared to the doctors or the lawyers or the teachers, to determine what's best for the client or the patient or the schoolchild.


Striving For Fairness And Equity

This bothers me; and I know that if there was a commitment on the part of the cumulative group of attorneys in this state, to search with a degree of commitment and fervency, to eliminate many of the inequities that I've just described that I thought of this morning, our state could be transformed in the attitude of its people toward the government.

Senator Kennedy described the malaise that exists in this nation - and it does.

In closing, I'd like to just illustrate the point by something that came to mind this morning when I was talking to Senator Kennedy about his trip to Russia.

When I was about 12 years old, I liked to read, and I had a school principal, named Miss Julia Coleman, Judge Marshall knows her. She forced me pretty much to read, read, read, classical books. She would give me a gold star when I read 10 and a silver star when I read 5.

One day, she called me in and she said, "Jimmy, I think it's time for you to read 'War and Peace.'" I was completely relieved because I thought it was a book about cowboys and Indians.

Well, I went to the library and checked it out, and it was 1,415 pages thick, I think, written by Tolstoy, as you know, about Napoleon's entry into Russia in the 1812-15 era. He had never been defeated, and he was sure he could win, but he underestimated the severity of the Russian winter and the peasants' love for their land.

To make a long story short, the next spring he retreated in defeat. The course of history was changed; it probably affected our own lives.

The point of the book is, and what Tolstoy points out in the epilogue is, that he didn't write the book about Napoleon or the Czar of Russia or even the generals, except in a rare occasion. He wrote it about the students and the housewives and the barbers and the farmers and the privates in the army. And the point of the book is that the course of human events, even the greatest historical events, are not determined by the leaders of a nation or a state, like Presidents or governors or senators. They are controlled by the combined wisdom and courage and commitment and discernment and unselfishness and compassion and love and idealism of the common ordinary people. If that was true in the case of Russia where they had a czar or France where they had an emperor, how much more true is it in our own case where the Constitution charges us with a direct responsibility for determining what our government is and ought to be?

Well, I've read parts of the embarrassing transcripts, and I've seen the proud statement of a former attorney general, who protected his boss, and now brags on the fact that he tiptoed through a mine field and came out "clean." I can't imagine somebody like Thomas Jefferson tiptoeing through a mine field on the technicalities of the law, and then bragging about being clean afterwards.

I think our people demand more than that. I believe that everyone in this room who is in a position of responsibility as a preserver of the law in its purest form ought to remember the oath that Thomas Jefferson and others took when they practically signed their own death warrant, writing the Declaration of Independence - to preserve justice and equity and freedom and fairness, they pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.

Thank you very much.

[Original article]

Anti-Obama Artist Debuts 'Obamanation' Interactive Painting

Anti-Obama Artist Debuts 'Obamanation' Interactive Painting

Jon McNaughton

Artist Jon McNaughton explains the interactive painting he has created with 60 symbols that detail the “Obamanation” of the Barack Obama Presidency. He urges everyone to head over to his website to view the painting and click on the interactive links embedded in the symbols within the painting.

(h/t) Freedom's Lighthouse

Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/jon-mcnaughton/2012/08/31/anti-obama-artist-debuts-obamanation-interactive-painting#ixzz25FCYF8j0

BIG BROTHER: NSA: STELLAR WIND

By Jim Morris Aug 30, 2012




PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images

National Security Agency/ “Stellar Wind”
As reported in Wired Magazine, the National Security Agency is building the largest spy center in the country in Bluffdale, Utah. When completed, its mission will be to sift through the billions of calls, email, Google searches, and personal data trails like travel itinerates, book purchases and other digital “pocket litter.” The surveillance program is codenamed “Stellar Wind.” As Amy Goodman said, “The NSA created a supercomputer of almost unimaginable speed to look for patterns and
unscramble codes.”

Wired’s James Banford added, even though the CIA is more known, the NSA is actually three times the size, more secret than the CIA, and costs far more. “The NSA is really the most powerful intelligence agency, not only in the U.S., but in the world today.”