January Jobs Report: Unemployment Rises to 7.9%, 157K Jobs Added

NBCNews.com:

The U.S. economy created a modest 157,000 jobs in January as the sluggish recovery from the recession of 2007 continued to leave millions of Americans job seekers sidelined and without a paycheck.

Despite the net gain in jobs for the month, the unemployment rate edged higher to 7.9 percent, consistent with a recovery that is just ambling along, at best.

The Labor Department's report Friday included a few positive signs, including a stronger pace of hiring at the end of 2012 than initially reported. That may dispel some worries that followed a separate report this week showing economic growth came to an abrupt halt as 2012 drew to a close.

On Wednesday, the government reported that the gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced by the nation, came to a standstill. Deep cuts in government spending and a big drawdown in inventories offset underlying strength in business and consumer spending.

“January's employment report should help to soothe any lingering concerns, after the negative GDP (data), that the U.S. economy is headed for a recession,” said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist for Capital Economics.

Fresh data from other sources seemed to confirm that any pause in growth late last year was only temporary.

The U.S. manufacturing sector grew in January at its fastest clip in nine months, boosted by a surge in domestic demand, according to the Institute for Supply Management. Much of the strength is coming from automakers, who reported continued strong sales in January. An aging American fleet of cars and trucks, the result of businesses and households deferring replacement during the economic downturn, is prompting many buyers to visit car showrooms. Newer, fuel-efficient models have also spurred sales. 

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Obama Administration Issues Bogus "Compromise" on Birth Control Mandate

Townhall.com:

The Obama administration is offering a bogus compromise on its ObamaCare contraception mandate as it tries to get out from underneath a mountain of lawsuits citing religious freedom.

The so-called compromise announced by Health and Human Services Friday shows that "religious" employers such as hospitals and charities can get out of the mandate while religious businesses such as Hobby Lobby are still stuck with providing for coverage and free birth control for employees.

Group health plans of “religious employers” are exempted from having to provide contraceptive coverage, if they have religious objections to contraception. 

Today’s NPRM would simplify the existing definition of a “religious employer” as it relates to contraceptive coverage. 

The NPRM would eliminate criteria that a religious employer:
    1. have the inculcation of religious values as its purpose;
    2. primarily employ persons who share its religious tenets; and
    3. primarily serve persons who share its religious tenets.
The simple definition of “religious employer” for purposes of the exemption would follow a section of the Internal Revenue Code, and would primarily include churches, other houses of worship, and their affiliated organizations, as defined by Section 6033(a)(3)(A)(i) or (iii) 

This proposed change is intended to clarify that a house of worship would not be excluded from the exemption because, for example, it provides charitable social services to persons of different religious faiths or employs persons of different religious faiths.  The Departments believe that this proposal would not expand the universe of employer plans that would qualify for the exemption beyond that which was intended in the 2012 final rules.   

Consistent with the Advance NPRM, the NPRM proposes accommodations for additional non profit religious organizations, while also separately providing enrollees contraceptive coverage with no co-pays.  An eligible organization would be defined as an organization that: 

1. opposes providing coverage for some or all of any contraceptive services required to be covered under Section 2713 of the PHS Act, on account of religious objections;
2. is organized and operates as a nonprofit entity;
3. holds itself out as a religious organization; and,
4. self-certifies that it meets these criteria and specifies the contraceptive services for which it objects to providing coverage.

Under the proposed accommodations, the eligible organizations would not have to contract, arrange, pay or refer for any contraceptive coverage to which they object on religious grounds. 

In addition, under the proposed accommodations, plan participants would receive contraceptive coverage through separate individual health insurance policies, without cost sharing or additional premiums.  The issuer would work to ensure a seamless process for plan participants to receive contraceptive coverage.

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Barack Obama Doesn't Care About Black People Sample No. 4080: Hadiya Pendleton, Teenage Girl Who Performed At Obama Inauguration Fatally Shot In Chicago And All She Gets From Obama Is A Statement

Black unemployment has gone up 2 percent under Barack Obama. More Blacks are in poverty and on welfare and using food stamps under Barack Obama. More blacks are being killed under Barack Obama. More blacks are in prison under Barack Obama. More blacks are dropping out of high school and less blacks are getting married under Barack Obama. These are all facts and despite these facts, a record number of blacks still came out to help re-elect Barack Obama to POTUS last year.

Another fact that took place last year was Barack Obama taking it upon himself to visit Newton, CT after the massacre that saw 20 white kids get killed by a lone, crazed gunman, an episode that Obama himself referred to as the "worst day of my presidency" and an episode that would lead to Obama demanding changes in national gun laws. But all teenager Hadiya Pendleton, who performed recently at Obama's inauguration and was shot and killed in Chicago yesterday, gets is a statement from a man whose gone out of his way for gay people, illegal immigrants, faux-climate change loons and everything else that falls under the anti-God, white, social liberal agenda, but hasn't done a damn thing for black people:

President Barack Obama and the first lady are praying for the family of Hadiya Pendleton, the 15-year-old girl who attended the president’s inauguration and was fatally shot Tuesday less than a mile from his Kenwood home.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said he was unaware of a petition urging Obama to attend Hadiya’s funeral. 

Carney did say the first family’s “thoughts and prayers are with the family of Hadiya Pendleton,” who attended inauguration festivities and performed as a baton-twirling majorette with her King College Prep school band at a party sponsored by U.S. Rep Danny K. Davis. 

The national attention to Hadiya’s killing came as Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy pledged Wednesday to find the gunman who fired into a group of Hadiya’s friends as they sought shelter during a rain storm in a park on the 4500 block of South Oakenwald Avenue in the North Kenwood neighborhood. A 16-year-old boy was shot in the leg during the attack and a teenage girl had a graze wound in her ankle.

A reward totaling $11,000 is being offered to anyone with information leading to the killer. Police encouraged anyone with information on the shooting to call (312) 747-8383. The Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Church put $5,000 toward the reward and called it “a bounty out on the head of the killer, before you kill somebody else.” 

Correcting initial police reports, McCarthy said that Hadiya’s friends were not gang members. 

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Matt Lauer Grills Al Gore Over ‘Hypocrisy’ In Selling Current TV To Oil-Funded Al Jazeera

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Mediaite.com:

This morning on the Today Show, NBC’s Matt Lauer grilled former Vice President Al Gore over the “contradictions” in his sale of Current TV to the largely oil-funded Al Jazeera network.

“Was [buying Current] always just an investment to you?” Lauer asked after reading off the amount of money Gore made from his stake in the network. “Maybe I was naive, I thought it was something you had an ideological interest in, so why did it become just an investment at the end?”

“No, it didn’t,” Gore responded. “As an independent network — the only independent news and information network — we found it difficult to compete in this age of conglomerates and i’m pleased that Al Jazeera has established itself as a respected news-gathering network.”

Lauer then confronted the former VP with his own seemingly contradictory remarks. “Even as you sold to Al Jazeera, you in the book blast other television news programs saying this,” reading Gore’s old comments:

“Virtually every news and political commentary program on television is sponsored in part by oil, coal and gas companies — not just during campaign seasons, but all the time, year in and year out — with messages designed to soothe and reassure the audience that everything is fine, the global environment is not threatened.”

“And the critics jumped. They said, ‘Here’s the guy who just sold Current TV to Al Jazeera, which gets an undetermined amount of funding from the country of Qatar, which gets its money from oil reserves,’” Lauer said.

“Isn’t there a contradiction in that?” he asked.

“I certainly understand that criticism,” replied Gore. “I disagree with it. I think Al Jazeera has, obviously, long since established itself as a really distinguished and effective news gathering organization. And by the way, its climate coverage has been far more extensive and high-quality.”

“But if they get funding from a country that bases its wealth on fossil fuels, and fossil fuels are the enemy you target in climate change, isn’t there a bit of hypocrisy in that?” pressed Lauer.

Gore doubled down, insisting that despite its oil-rich funding, Al Jazeera has maintained a reputation of independence: “This network has established itself. It’s objective. It’s won major awards in countries around the world and its climate coverage, as I said a moment ago, has been outstanding and extensive.

RELATED: Gore fails to defend Current TV-Al Jazeera sale

Kirsten Powers And Tucker Carlson Trash Obama/Hillary’s 60 Minutes ‘Propaganda’ Interview

 Mediaite.com:

Appearing on Fox’s Happening Now this morning, Fox contributors Kirsten Powers and Tucker Carlson trashed the President Obama/Secretary Clinton joint 60 Minutes interview as “propaganda” befitting of a state-run media organization, not CBS.

Asked whether she saw the interview as a “missed opportunity” for “real questions” about the administration’s first term, Daily Beast columnist Powers went off on the entire ordeal: “It was something you expect from state-run media — that kind of level of propaganda as far as I’m concerned,” she said.

“60 Minutes was transparently being used as a campaign advertisement, which, you know, if they’re okay with that, then okay,” she continued. “I understand agreeing to the interview, letting them have one softball question in the beginning and then move on to more important things. But the reality is, this was a joke. I mean it really was. You look at it, even just not challenging basic things, like the president claiming Hillary has been a great Secretary of State in part because they have dismantled al Qaeda.”

She then went after interviewer Steve Kroft for ignoring other relevant issues of state, such as the ongoing struggles in North Africa: “Why is the president not asked about Algeria, Mali, Libya? These are front and center in the news right now. The next question after he says this is, ‘I have to ask you, what’s the date of expiration of this endorsement?’ That’s his follow-up question to the president saying that al Qaeda has been dismantled,” she said.

Daily Caller founder Carlson added that “60 Minutes is a good show a lot of the time,” but lamented that this is “consistent” behavior for the CBS program, as they stirred controversy back in September for “sitting on” a soundbite in which the president said he wasn’t sure whether the Benghazi attacks were an act of terrorism or not.

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