John McCain's Wacky Sense of Humor "Oh! Oh! Remember the time he picked Sarah Palin? I totally get it now! She's totally unqualified, and he's so old! There's a really good chance she'd be president!" Stephen Colbert ***** "Not everyone was as jubilant about the gains for marriage as (the) Family Research Council and our supporters. This morning, FOX News posted photo after photo of the anti-family rioting in Los Angeles..." -- Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, a powerful right-wing religious think tank that helped lead the campaign to pass Proposition 8. "Anti-family rioting." That is how the religious extremists behind Prop 8 are characterizing the protests that have spread across California in the aftermath of Tuesday's passage of the ballot measure that eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry. I was at the heart of one of these amazing marches in Los Angeles on Wednesday night. And it was anything but "anti-family rioting." It was history in the making -- thousands of passionate Americans spontaneously speaking out against enshrining discrimination into the California state constitution. We are witnessing the birth of a new Marriage Equality Movement -- the civil rights movement of the 21st Century. Organized from the bottom-up by thousands of ordinary people just like you in the last 48 hours, this people-powered phenomenon is exponentially growing by the minute, online and offline. You are at ground zero in this movement. And we need to take it to the next level -- a new initiative campaign to repeal Prop 8 and restore marriage equality to California. Please pledge your support now to repeal Prop 8 -- then forward this message to your friends: http://www.couragecampaign.org/RepealProp8 California had the chance to do what no other state has done and uphold equality for all. Instead, a slim majority decided to strip fundamental human rights from a minority. As Jonathan Stein writes at Mother Jones: "The decision violates, violently, the image of my state that I have held with such pride my entire life. California is a wonderful place for a lot of reasons, but foremost among them is the way in which it welcomes people." Movements are visceral and popular, often borne of outrage and anger. What we are witnessing on the streets and online is a community of people who have come together to say: "These are our lives. This is our time. This is unacceptable." This is our moment to stand strong together -- gay and straight -- and say that we refuse to accept a California that enshrines bigotry into our state constitution. Please pledge your support now to repeal Prop 8 and restore marriage equality to California -- then forward this message to your friends: http://www.couragecampaign.org/RepealProp8 Thank you for mobilizing your friends to fight the religious right and restore marriage equality to California. Rick Jacobs Chair P.S. My friends Zach Shepard and Geoffrey Murry helped spark Wednesday and Thursday night's marches in Los Angeles, activating their social networks via email and Facebook. These two young lawyers have never led a protest in their lives, but they decided to take matters into their own hands, along with thousands of other concerned citizens shocked at the passage of Prop 8. Like Zach and Geoffrey, you can help build California's new Marriage Equality Movement today by taking action in your own community. Will you start by pledging your support to repeal Prop 8 and then forward this message to your friends? http://www.couragecampaign.org/RepealProp8 .............. The Courage Campaign Issues Committee is part of the Courage Campaign's online organizing network that empowers over 100,000 grassroots and netroots activists to bring progressive change to California. ***** http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/debates/3394545/Oxford-compiles-list-of-top-ten-irritating-phrases.html Oxford compiles list of top ten irritating phrases A top 10 of irritating expressions has been compiled by researchers at Oxford University. By Charlotte Bailey 07 Nov 2008 Heading the list was the expression 'at the end of the day', which was followed in second place by the phrase 'fairly unique'. The tautological statement "I personally" made third place – an expression that BBC Radio 4 presenter John Humphreys has described as "the linguistic equivalent of having chips with rice." Also making the top 10 is the grammatically incorrect "shouldn't of", instead of "shouldn't have". The phrases appear in a book called Damp Squid, named after the mistake of confusing a squid with a squib, a type of firework. The researchers who compiled the list monitor the use of phrases in a database called the Oxford University Corpus, which comprises books, papers, magazines, broadcast, the internet and other sources. The database alerts them to new words and phrases and can tell them which expressions are disappearing. It also shows how words are being misused. As well as the above expressions, the book's author Jeremy Butterfield says that many annoyingly over-used expressions actually began as office lingo, such as 24/7 and "synergy". Other phrases to irritate people are "literally" and "ironically", when they are used out of context. Mr Butterfield said: "We grow tired of anything that is repeated too often – an anecdote, a joke, a mannerism – and the same seems to happen with some language." The top ten most irritating phrases: 1 - At the end of the day 2 - Fairly unique 3 - I personally 4 - At this moment in time 5 - With all due respect 6 - Absolutely 7 - It's a nightmare 8 - Shouldn't of 9 - 24/7 10 - It's not rocket science ***** http://voices.washingtonpost.com/washingtonpostinvestigations/2008/11/alaska_turnout_results_raise_q.html Alaska Turnout, Results Raise Questions 11/6/2008 by Derek Kravitz TAGS: Alaska, Sarah Palin, Ted Stevens, politics, voting Alaskans are different. Very different. Elections officials, party leaders and voters are wondering what happened this Tuesday in the Last Frontier, where turnout was surprisingly low and two lawmakers who have been the focus of FBI corruption investigations appear to have been reelected despite polling suggesting they would be ousted. The final voter turnout numbers won't be available until absentee ballots are counted, which could take at least another week. But this year's total is not expected to eclipse Alaska's 66 percent turnout in 2004 or its 60 percent clip in 2000. (This is especially odd given that Alaska's Board of Elections saw a 12.4 percent hike in turnout for the August primaries, before Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was selected as the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee.) Alaska returns (without the uncounted absentee and contested ballots) show the McCain-Palin ticket garnering 136,348 votes. In 2004, President Bush got 190,889 votes, a "significant disparity", the Anchorage Press reported. "These numbers only add to the oddity of this election in Alaska; in the run-up to Tuesday, Alaskan voters seemed energized to vote for a ticket with our governor on it, despite the barrage of criticism Palin faced." Couple the dip in support for McCain-Palin with surprising victories for longtime Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, who was found guilty Oct. 27 on seven felony charges, and Rep. Don Young, who is under investigation by the FBI, and a lot of pollsters and voters were left stumped. Pollster Del Ali of the Maryland firm Research 2000, which tracked the House and Senate races in Alaska, said he was "not happy" how the races -- and dead wrong polling numbers -- turned out. Research 2000 had reported in the days before the election that Democratic challenger Mark Begich, an Anchorage attorney, was leading the 84-year-old Stevens by 22 percentage points (Daily Kos apparently paid for the polls). Other pollsters didn't fare much better. Anchorage pollster and Republican political consultant David Dittman, a Stevens supporter, predicted a "solid Begich win." The national polling firm, Rasmussen Reports, accurately predicted every Senate race in the country within the margin of error in their most recent polls -- except Alaska. Alaska pollsters Ivan Moore, Craciun Research Group and Hays Research Group all also had Stevens and Young trailing in the lead-up to the election. Some observers pointed to Sen. John McCain's early concession speech as a possible reason for the low turnout -- McCain acknowledged Sen. Barack Obama's win at 7:15 p.m. Alaska time, well before polls closed in the state. An Alaska Republican Party leader told the Fairbanks News-Miner that some voters might have stayed home after hearing Obama had captured the presidency. But other pundits and political science professors dismissed that theory, saying the high-profile races for Stevens's and Young's seats would not have dissuaded voters from showing up at the polls. Other pollsters thought Palin drew new Republican voters to the polls early on, and that voting largely subsided after Obama claimed victory. As the head-scratching continues, we'll be watching to see how Stevens's fellow senators decide to deal with his felony conviction conundrum. ***** http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/07/news/economy/jobs_october Jobs lost in 2008: 1.2 million Payrolls shrink by 240,000 in October, 10th straight month of cuts. Unemployment soars to 6.5% By David Goldman, CNNMoney.com staff writer November 7, 2008 NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The government reported more grim news about the economy Friday, saying employers cut 240,000 jobs in October - bringing the year's total job losses to nearly 1.2 million. According to the Labor Department's monthly jobs report, the unemployment rate rose to 6.5% from 6.1% in September and higher than economists' forecast of 6.3%. It was the highest unemployment rate since March 1994. "There is so much bad in this report that it is hard to find any silver lining," said Morgan Keegan analyst Kevin Giddis. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a loss of 200,000 jobs in the month. October's monthly job loss total was less than September's revised loss of 284,000. Payroll cuts in August were revised up to 127,000, which means more than half of this year's job losses have occurred in the last three months. September had the largest monthly job loss total since November 2001, the last month of the previous recession and just two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. With 1,179,000 cuts, the economy has lost more than a million jobs in a year for the first time since 2001 - the last time the economy was in a recession. With most economic indicators signaling even more difficult times ahead, job losses will likely deepen and continue through at least the first half of 2009. "It's pretty clear that we're in a recession," said Robert Brusca, economist at FAO Economics. "There is reason for us to believe we'll see a drumbeat of heavy job losses for a while, and there's room for them to get even worse." Brusca noted that separate readings on the manufacturing and auto industries indicated economic conditions are the worst in about 30 years. "We may be in a severe recession, in which case these job numbers are not even big yet," he said, suggesting monthly job loss totals could grow in excess of 300,000 an unemployment could rise to around 7%. Losses across the board Job losses were spread across a wide variety of industries. Manufacturing lost 90,000 jobs, the leisure and hospitality industries cut 16,000 jobs, and construction employment shrank further by 49,000 jobs. Terence O'Sullivan, president of construction workers' Laborers' International Union of North America, noted the construction unemployment rate rose to 10.8% - double what it was a year ago. He called the report an "urgent alarm sounding the need to halt our nation's spiraling job loss." In an ominous sign for the upcoming holiday shopping season, retailers trimmed payrolls by 38,000 workers last month. Professional and business services, a category seen by some economists as a proxy for overall economic activity, had a 45,000 drop in employment. "Job loss has a big impact on the economy," Brusca said. "When people have no income, they spend less, businesses make less money, and they cut more jobs." In another sign of weakness, a growing number of workers were unable to find jobs with the amount of hours they want to work. Those working part-time jobs - because they couldn't find full-time work, or their hours had been cut back due to slack conditions - jumped by 645,000 people to 6.7 million, the highest since July 1993. The so-called under-employment rate, which counts those part-time workers, as well as those without jobs who have become discouraged and stopped looking for work, rose to 11.8% from from 11%, matching the all-time high for that measure since calculations for it began in January 1994. Temporary employment, including workers employed by temp agencies, fell by 50,800 jobs last month. That could mean even more full-time payroll reductions to come, as employers often cut temporary workers before they begin cutting permanent staff. But some industries were hiring last month. Government hiring has stayed strong throughout the downturn, adding another 23,000 jobs in October. Education and health services also grew payrolls, which grew by 21,000 employees. In a somewhat encouraging sign, the average hourly work week did not fall last month, holding at 33.6 hours, in line with expectations. With a modest 4-cent gain in the average hourly salary, the average weekly paycheck rose by $1.35 to $611.86. Trying to get back on track Solutions are not simple. Support for a second stimulus package has grown in Congress, and President-elect Barack Obama has indicated that he would support such a measure. The prior stimulus package in the spring helped the economy grow in the second quarter, but it did little to stem the tide of job loss in the country. Many economists have also called on the Federal Reserve to cut rates to historic lows to encourage growth. "These are all the right solutions, but the real question is are they enough to get the economy on the right path," said Anthony Chan, chief economist for JP Morgan private wealth management. "They're necessary, but we don't yet know if they're sufficient." President Bush said Friday the government's plans to address tight credit and housing markets are the solution to rising unemployment. "The Federal government has taken aggressive and decisive measures to address this situation," the President said. "It will take time for these measures to have their full impact on an economy in which many Americans are struggling." Chan said the programs will work, and that the government needs to continue to "slug it out," perhaps putting even more stimulus programs in place to encourage job growth. ***** http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200811071240DOWJONESDJONLINE000633_FORTUNE5.htm GM Warns It Could Run Out Of Cash By 1st Half '09 November 07, 2008 DETROIT -(Dow Jones)- General Motors Corp. (GM) warned Friday that it risks running out of cash in the first half of next year without government intervention or a reversal of weakening market conditions. GM also indicated that merger talks with Chrysler LLC had ended, stating that the "possibility of a strategic acquisition" had been set-aside to focus on liquidity. Without government intervention, a significant increase in auto sales or " substantial" proceeds from asset sales, GM said its cash on hand will reach critical levels by the end of 2008, after burning through another $6.9 billion in the September quarter. GM shares were down 11.9% at $4.23 following the delayed earnings release. Liquidity would fall below mandatory levels in the first half of 2009, the company warned as it reported a $2.5 billion loss for the quarter. It will look to raise an additional $5 billion in cash, in addition to the earlier $15 billion it previously said it planned to raise. New cost-cutting moves would include $2.5 billion in capital spending reductions, a $500 million reduction in salaried worker expenses and $1.5 billion in additional structural cost reductions in North America. The company's cash and liquidity position fell to $16.2 billion at the end of the quarter compared with $21 billion at June 30. GM has said it must maintain $ 11 billion to $14 billion in cash. GM said it is on track to complete $10 billion of its fundraising plans by 2009. But the global financial turmoil has cast uncertainty on GM's plan to raise $2 billion to $3 billion through capital market activity. GM said it has $ 20 billion in unencumbered assets to leverage for secured debt, but " inaccessible" credit markets have put that cash out of reach. In announcing the need for further cuts, GM is now planning for U.S. auto sales of 11.7 million cars and trucks in 2008 and 12.7 million in 2009, down from the 14 million it planned on in June. Cost reductions will include further production cuts deeper reductions in its salaried workforce. GM increased its salaried cost reduction target to 30% in Canada and the U.S. up from an early goal of 20%. GM also will extend cuts into the slumping Western European region. The third-quarter results suggest that GM, in cost-cutting mode since 2005, is running out of options to keep its business afloat amid worsening conditions. Like Chrysler and Ford Motor Co. (F), GM is seeking financial assistance from the U.S. government. Ford said Friday that it was among auto makers looking for a total of 40 billion euros in loans from European governments. "The U.S. government's actions to help stabilize the credit markets and eventually ease the credit crunch are an essential first step to the economy's and the auto industry's recovery, but further strong action is required," said GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner in a release. The company reported a net loss of $2.5 billion, or $4.45 a share in the latest quarter, worse than analysts' expectations. GM pointed to "moderating" demand in China, Australia and India, with Latin America, Africa and the Middle East the only region to report higher year-on- year profits. What started as a tough year in the U.S. has become what GM described this week as the worst sales environment since the end of World War II. GM posted an eye-popping 45% sales decline in October, with demand for profitable pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles down even further. Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), which has overtaken GM as the world's largest auto maker, this week cut its full-year earnings forecast by more than half after reporting a 69% drop in fiscal second-quarter profits. Earlier Friday, Ford announced wide-ranging cost cuts after burning through $ 7.7 billion in cash in the third quarter, as revenue plunged in a rapidly deteriorating auto market. Ford reported a 22% decline in net revenue in announcing a $3 billion operating loss for the quarter. -By Sharon Terlep, Dow Jones Newswires; 248-204-5532; sharon.terlep@ dowjones.com