Friday Follies for January 6, 2012

I was listening to the radio this morning and the news is filled about an illegal alien who killed a mother and child last July.

Drunk-Driving Illegal Alien Kills Mother and Daughter in Missouri

Another family has been devastated by a drunk-driving illegal alien. Mother and hospice nurse Diane Bronson and her 11-year-old daughter Anna of Belton, Missouri, were killed on July 4 in a head-on crash. The deadly SUV was driven by 18-year-old Felix Solano Gallardo whose blood alcohol was measured two hours after the wreck at .185, double the legal limit in Missouri. He had driven 14 miles the wrong way on the interstate before smashing into the Bronson’s car.

Diane and her daughter were on their way to a Fourth of July celebration in Sugar Creek where her husband Buddy was set to ride an antique scooter in the parade. They never made it.

Drunken driver reportedly went wrong way for 14 miles before fatal wreck

Kansas City Star, July 5, 2011

Diane K. Bronson was eight months pregnant when a state paint-striping truck rear-ended her vehicle in 1999.

Firefighters had to cut her out of the wreckage, and Bronson suffered a serious head injury. But she survived, as did her prematurely born baby, whom she named Anna.

On Monday — more than 11 years later — Bronson and Anna, of Belton, (MO) were again involved in a highway crash. But this time, neither survived.

Police blamed the 8:30 a.m. wreck on Interstate 435 near 63rd Street in Kansas City on a drunken driver going the wrong way.

Jackson County prosecutors charged Felix Solano-Gallardo, 18, of Kansas City, Kan., on Monday with two counts of involuntary manslaughter. His blood alcohol content was 0.185, more than double the legal limit of 0.08, more than two hours after the wreck, according to court records.

Police were still working Tuesday to confirm the man’s identity. According to court records, Gallardo gave his name as Felix Gallardo, but he had two Mexican identification cards on him with a different name, and both cards had different photos. Prosecutors think he is an illegal immigrant.

Police said they think Gallardo had been driving the wrong way for at least 14 miles because they think he ran a driver off of Interstate 70 into a concrete median near Harrison Street earlier. The victim told police the driver drove at him from one side of the highway to the other and appeared to be trying to hit him, police said.

At least nine motorists called 911 to complain about a wrong-way driver on I-70 or I-435 Monday morning.

Gallardo was uncooperative with police and invoked his right to an attorney using an interpreter, according to court records.

The story is approaching an end.  Felix Solano-Gallardo plead guilty to two counts of Manslaughter. 

Solano-Gallardo could receive up to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced March 9.

Solano-Gallardo’s correct name and age have been unclear throughout his prosecution. Immediately after his arrest, he gave investigators the Solano-Gallardo name, while later telling immigration officers that his correct name was Luis Solano-Barrera. Under that name also he gave a birth day that would have made him 23 years old.

But under oath Wednesday, he said his name was Solano-Gallardo and that he was 19 years old.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/04/3352620/man-admits-driving-drunk-in-kc.html#storylink=cpy

When he was arrested he had a number of different IDs on his person---none that were later found to be valid.

***

Eight point five. That is the latest unemployment rate presented by the Obama Administration.  As usual, it is a pack of lies. The real rate around 11%.  The government has been manipulating the statistics again.

The methodology used by the Department of Labor to calculate unemployment is to compare those drawing unemployment with the number of the employed.  That latter figure can be manipulated as desired to include those working part-time and to list those holding more than one job as two people.

In addition at this time of year is the "seasonal adjustment." That is a factor to adjust the seasonal increase of temporary jobs over the holiday season, roughly from mid-October through the end of December.

The problem with that adjustment is that they calculate the adjustment using the employment figures for the last five years.  The higher employment of the Bush years is dropping off. The calculation now contains the abysmal employment of the Obama years.  Consequently the current adjustment makes the unemployment look better.

Smoke and Mirrors.

Here is another view of that 11% real unemployment rate from The Washington Post, a member in good standing of the state media.

Wonkbook: The real unemployment rate is 11 percent

Posted by Ezra Klein at 07:51 AM ET, 12/12/2011

Typically, I try to tie the beginning of Wonkbook to the news. But today, the most important sentence isn't a report on something that just happened, but a fresh look at something that's been happening for the last three years. In particular, it's this sentence by the Financial Times' Ed Luce, who writes, "According to government statistics, if the same number of people were seeking work today as in 2007, the jobless rate would be 11 percent."

Remember that the unemployment rate is not "how many people don't have jobs?", but "how many people don't have jobs and are actively looking for them?" Let's say you've been looking fruitlessly for five months and realize you've exhausted every job listing in your area. Discouraged, you stop looking, at least for the moment. According to the government, you're no longer unemployed. Congratulations?

Since 2007, the percent of the population that either has a job or is actively looking for one has fallen from 62.7 percent to 58.5 percent. That's millions of workers leaving the workforce, and it's not because they've become sick or old or infirm. It's because they can't find a job, and so they've stopped trying. That's where Luce's calculation comes from. If 62.7 percent of the country was still counted as in the workforce, unemployment would be 11 percent. In that sense, the real unemployment rate -- the apples-to-apples unemployment rate -- is probably 11 percent. And the real un- and underemployed rate -- the so-called "U6" -- is near 20 percent.

There were some celebrations when the unemployment rate dropped last month. But much of that drop was people leaving the labor force. The surprising truth is that when the labor market really recovers, the unemployment rate will actually rise, albeit only temporarily, as discouraged workers start searching for jobs again.

A number of conservative pundits have predicted that the unemployment figures for the rest of 2012 will continue to "improve."  It will improve not because more people are going back to work. No, it will be lower because Obama's administration will continue to manipulate the data to reflect the result that makes Obama look good...if that is possible.

When you hear someone claim that Obama is putting people back to work and use the unemployment rate as proof, look them in the eye and know them for the liar they are.

***

"An Impeachable offense."  That was the statement by a local conservative talk-radio host this morning.  Obama made four recess appointments yesterday. Four people who Obama knew would not pass the approval process in the Senate.  Three of the appointees were union goons to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The other was to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Obama thumbs nose at Constitution on 'recess appointments'

By: Examiner Editorial | 01/05/12 8:05 PM

President Obama is not one to let the Constitution get in the way of a "recess appointment." He just named Richard Cordray to direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and he has announced three similar recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board. But Obama is making these appointments at a time when the Senate is actually in session, according to the Constitution and under all definitions accepted by authorities for the last century. If the Senate is in session, the Constitution requires the Senate's advice and consent to these appointments.

This attempt to circumvent the legislative branch is a violation of Obama's oath of office to uphold and defend the Constitution. Instead he is thumbing his nose at it and daring Congress, or anybody else, to stop him. It's the same sort of fundamental disrespect for the rule of law that is routinely practiced by tinhorn dictators like Hugo Chavez.

...

A president's recess appointment power exists under Article II, Section Two of our Constitution, and it requires the Senate to be in recess at least three days before the power is exercised. Nowhere does it say the president gets to decide when the Senate is in recess; only Congress can do that. It has never been understood any other way.  

To justify this power grab, Obama contends that the Senate has actually been in recess for weeks because the Senate's brief pro forma sessions every three days are a sham since no official business is conducted. Obama might as well argue that his appointments are legal because the moon is made of green cheese. Article I, Section Five of the Constitution states, in part, that "Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days ..." The House has not consented to a Senate recess. Thus, the Senate's pro forma sessions are strictly constitutional, the Senate is legally in session, and Obama must seek its advice and consent on these appointments. Otherwise, they are null and void and will be thrown out by a federal court. Obama is counting on that not happening before November's election.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/2012/01/obama-thumbs-nose-constitution-recess-appointments/2065421?utm_source=1/6:%20Opinion%20Digest%20-%2001/06/2012&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Washington%20Examiner:%20Opinion%20Digest#ixzz1ih6nNlFJ

Obama's problem is that the Senate is not in recess. The Senate has not "officially" been out of session since 2007.  Harry Reid kept the Senate in session to block any recess appointments by George Bush(43).  Reid has continued the tactic for other reasons, like trying to show it's the 'Pubs who are blocking legislation, but now that tactic has come around to bite Obama in the butt.

If a vote of Impeachment does come forth in the House, it will be the second time in less than a decade an a half that a democrat President has violated his oath of office.

But then, the democrats care little for such oaths nor for the Constitution. They view them as impediments to their efforts to seize and retain political power.