Unfortunately, I am what is referred to as a “Bear” as is our humble host of the site Rob.  This is more what our weddings will look like.

Bank robberies are up in cities across the United States this year and, although the reason is unclear, the down economy is a suspect.

“The economy is driving some of this,” says Chris Swecker, chief security officer for Bank of America and former assistant director of the FBI’s criminal division. “We’re even getting some anecdotal stuff from bank robbers.”

Swecker said Bank of America analysts study the interplay between the increase in bank heists and foreclosures, credit defaults and unemployment rates.

“We haven’t drawn any conclusions yet, but we are certainly looking at it,” he said.

The unemployment rate for Hispanic immigrants was 7.5 percent during the first months of this year, compared with 6.9 percent among native-born Hispanics. During the same period in 2007, the rates were 5.5 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively.

“The unemployment rate has shot up because of the slump in construction and Hispanic workers had done very well finding jobs in the construction industry as it was booming,” said Rakesh Kochhar, associate director for research. “Having become somewhat dependent on this industry, they were more vulnerable to the downturn.”

An overwhelming majority of jobs lost in the construction industry were held by foreign-born Hispanics.

It isn’t just construction job losses for illegals, it is teens and high school graduates losing jobs, or more appropriately, new teens and high school grads trying to enter the job market for the first time and there are less jobs present because of the new minimum wage hikes:

The real story here is unemployment among entry-level workers to the employment system. In summer, teenagers and college students enter the marketplace looking for seasonal and part-time work. This accounts for the significant rise in job-seekers and the 0.4% increase in unemployment. Otherwise, an overall job loss of 49,000 jobs would account for a 0.04% increase in a market of 138 million workers.

Why have these new job seekers found it difficult to get jobs? One reason is that Congress made jobs costlier just in time for this economic slowdown. Congress raised the minimum wage last year by seventy cents an hour, from $5.15 to $5.85. It will rise again in July to $6.55 an hour, and next year will hit $7.25 per hour. That makes entry-level labor as much as 27% more expensive this summer, when consumers have already slowed down their spending. The natural loss of work from the slowdown amplifies the effect of the minimum-wage increase, because businesses now cannot afford to raise prices to maintain their entry-level positions.

Couple things to point out if we are indeed in a recession:

1.  You don’t want to raise the minimum wage.  Just a bad idea.  Raising the minimum wage causes businesses to raise their prices. 
2.  Considering how rapidly gas prices are rising, inflation is the last thing we need, especially inflated wages and raw materials.
3.  Fuel prices are behind a lot of the issues and all this talk about “alternative fuels” and “investing in the future” is a bullshit way of saying “blocking any new domestic production” and “raising taxes on oil companies”.
4.  Speaking of taxes on oil companies, “windfall profits taxes” sure are gonna help bring down gas prices.
5.  Speaking of taxes, raising the capital gains tax and increasing taxes on “the rich” is gonna help too.

The Democrats’ plan for the economy goes like this:

1.  Raise the minimum wage which has a ripple effect on union contracts that are indexed to it.  In essence, raise wage costs for all businesses, which is worst for low wage service businesses because the minimum wage is felt much more at the low end.
2.  Raise taxes on individuals and allow the tax cuts to expire.
3.  Halt any future domestic oil production ensuring no new oil sources come online.
4.  Raise taxes on oil companies which will no doubt be passed on to consumers.

Just as individuals are cutting back on discretionary expenses due to high oil prices, businesses are either cutting expenses or raising prices.  They are cutting jobs to deal with the minimum wage.  Add in new tax burdens on both income and capital gains and who the hell wants to invest in a new business.  Where is the profit?  And without profit motive, no economy works.

Policies matter and notice how all of this started when the Democrats took control and started with their economic agenda.

WASHINGTON - As the construction industry has slumped, the unemployment rate among Hispanic immigrants has climbed, an analysis released Wednesday shows.

For the first time in five years, foreign-born Hispanics have a higher unemployment rate than do Hispanics born in the U.S., according to the Pew Hispanic Center’s analysis of census and Labor Department data.

The unemployment rate for Hispanic immigrants was 7.5 percent during the first months of this year, compared with 6.9 percent among native-born Hispanics. During the same period in 2007, the rates were 5.5 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively.

“The unemployment rate has shot up because of the slump in construction and Hispanic workers had done very well finding jobs in the construction industry as it was booming,” said Rakesh Kochhar, associate director for research. “Having become somewhat dependent on this industry, they were more vulnerable to the downturn.”

An overwhelming majority of jobs lost in the construction industry were held by foreign-born Hispanics.

Mexican immigrants have been hardest hit; their unemployment rate jumped from 5.5 percent last year to 8.4 percent. The employment downturn added about 255,000 Hispanic immigrants, most of whom are Mexican, to the ranks of the unemployed.

Foreign-born Hispanics could have entered the country legally or illegally. The report does not divide the immigrant numbers along those lines although undocumented workers can be found in the construction industry. For that reason, stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws also has played a role in the job losses, Rakesh said.

Very well said.  This, combined with the Rev. Wright fiasco should start turning the tide.  McCain appeals to moderates and independents already, but Moderate and Conservative Democrats have to be scared shitless by the Obamamessiah.  This only plays to their fears and using the quotes from the other Democrats is exceptionally solid work.

WASHINGTON - The Army recorded 115 soldiers’ suicides in 2007, the highest total since it started counting in 1980, the service announced Thursday. That’s more than twice the 52 suicides in 2001, the low point reached as the war on terrorism started.

The five-year war in Iraq is driving up the number of suicides, said Col. Elspeth Ritchie, a psychiatric consultant to the Army surgeon general.

Army records showed that 65 percent of the suicides were related to broken relationships and that 37 percent of the suicides came within 30 days of the end of those relationships. Multiple combat deployments of up to 15 months hurt those relationships, Ritchie said.

The 115 deaths amount to an 18.5-per-100,000 rate, the highest rate since 1980, the Army said.

The civilian suicide rate was 19.5 per 100,000 in 2005, according to the latest statistics available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Among the 115, five were women, 22 were from the National Guard or Army Reserve, and 93 were active-duty Army. Thirty-two suicides occurred in Iraq and four in Afghanistan. About one in four of the victims had never deployed…

Suicide rates among Marines have also risen during the Iraq war, records show. Marine suicides rose from 23 in 2002 to 33 last year, or a rate of 12.5 per 100,000 to 16.5 per 100,000.

So by joining the military, going to war, enduring relationship trouble, extended deployments, and hell in Bush’s illegal war for oil… you are less likely to kill yourself than your average American.

Headline is a little misleading, don’t you think?

What if John McCain is our Al Gore?  What if instead of a person we in retrospect realize was infinitely better to choose than Obama is cast off into bearded oblivion and Obama screws up the world in our eyes as bad as Bush did in their eyes?  Gore would be president except for a little over 500 votes in Florida.  If Gore was president, how different would things be?  Would Liberals be happier or less happy?  Did they realize what they were doing voting for Nader at the time?

Obama is as bad for Free Market Conservatives as Bush was to Blue State College Professors that voted Nader.  Learn the lessons of recent history Whistler and others that are completely anti-McCain.  McCain is what we got and he is infinitely better than Obama.  Dems might have hoped Bush would usher in some Great Society LBJ or some New Deal FDR to save their party.  Perhaps it has in Obama eight years later.  Would they in retrospect sacrifice the last eight years to simply state how little they liked Al Gore as the nominee?

We don’t even know that after eight years of Bush screwing the country up (from a Liberal point of view) that even after eight years, Obama will win.  It might be 12 years of relative hell for lefties if they end up with four more years of Conservatives.  And all of it is because of the Nader vote by Liberals in 2000.

Are you guys Nader supporters?  By not voting, you elect Obama.  If you want to make a point that you are a true conservative, vote Libertarian.  They represent Conservatives.  Free Market folks.  But they consistently lose.  Republicans represent all the imperfections of needing to select the most free market and Libertarian candidate and that is why Ron Paul got his Libertarian ass kicked.

The National Weather Service is projecting lower-than-average highs of 77 degrees today, 84 on Sunday and 87 on Monday. Historically, the temperature this time of the year hits an average of 97 degrees.

The mild weekend comes after an unusual week in which the Valley saw its first triple-digit temperature of the year, including a blistering 110 degrees on Monday, followed by showers Thursday and Friday that broke a three-month dry spell.

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, where weather officially is gauged, recorded 0.39 inch of rain between Thursday and Friday.

Chandler logged the most rainfall across the Valley, 1.34 inches… May is the second-driest month of the year (June is the driest) in Phoenix. This week’s showers surpassed the 0.16 inch of rain the Valley sees on average for the entire month.

Precipitation was minimal in Tucson where only .02 inch of rain fell on Thursday, but Mount Lemmon got dusted with about 3 inches of snow.

In Flagstaff, where more than 3 inches of snow had fallen by Friday afternoon, a winter advisory remains in effect until 6 a.m. today.

In Greenlee County in eastern Arizona, 12.5 inches of snow hit Hannagan Meadow.

The World Health Organization has carried out the first ever analysis of the world’s health systems. Using five performance indicators to measure health systems in 191 member states, it finds that France provides the best overall health care followed among major countries by Italy, Spain, Oman, Austria and Japan.

The findings are published today, 21 June, in The World Health Report 2000 – Health systems: Improving performance.

The U. S. health system spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product than any other country but ranks 37 out of 191 countries according to its performance, the report finds. The United Kingdom, which spends just six percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on health services, ranks 18th . Several small countries – San Marino, Andorra, Malta and Singapore are rated close behind second- placed Italy.

I could not resist.  Sorry Maria.