Who is our economy for? Who is our government for? undergoing a transition from “We, the People” democratic government to a plutocracy run by and for the wealthy. One indicator of this transition is the way the D.C. Elite respond to unemployment. 9-10% unemployment used to be a national emergency. Now it’s a yawn.

What The Washington Paper Says

The Washington Post has a front-page story, “Why does Fresno have thousands of job openings — and high unemployment?” that says the problem is really “structural,” a skills gap, and there is little we can do. This is significant because so many people who make policy read the Washington Post while sitting in their nice, expensive restaurants. Stories like this risk that they will think that there really are plenty of jobs out there, but the serfs just aren’t up to taking them, or are too spoiled, but in any event there is no problem that needs solving, and call the lobbyist because this month’s check is late.

Meanwhile, anyone in the real world outside of Washington or Wall Street reading about “thousands” of job openings going unfilled immediately knows something is fishy. In fact, if this story ran on the front page outside of DC or Wall Street we might even need to worry about Egypt-style riots. Anyone on the same side of the continent as Fresno knows that there are not “thousands’ of unfilled job openings. There might be thousands of foreclosures, or thousands of people in food lines, or thousands of people whose unemployment has run out but there are not thousands of unfilled job openings.

What The Local Paper Says

The Fresno Bee has a different story to tell, “EDITORIAL: President should come see impact of joblessness in Valley”:

The economy may be improving, but it would be difficult to persuade the thousands of out-of-work Valley residents that things are looking up.

The six Valley communities cited in a U.S. Labor Department report have unemployment rates that run from 16.4% in Hanford-Corcoran to 18.6% in Merced. The other Valley cities on the list are Fresno (16.9%), Visalia-Porterville (16.8%), Modesto (17.2%) and Stockton (17.5%).

. . . The nation’s economic recovery will not be complete until Americans go back to work. At every level of government, the goal should be to implement policies that improve consumer confidence and encourage businesses to hire workers.

The Fresno Want Ads

The Fresno Bee help-wanted ads tell the story.

There are 963 “Sales” jobs listed, but the first 519 of those are at the same “company,” called “Work At Home Jobs, Inc.” and are mostly the same “job,” if you can call it that. The next 136 are a different “company” and the “jobs” are calling people from home to sell them wireless cell service — on commission. The next 52 are the same deal but a different “company,” selling internet from home, on commission. The next 46, same story. Etc.

The next category after Sales is “Business development”, with 691 jobs, 466 are “work at home” and many of the rest are the same jobs at the same companies as the “sales” jobs. The next two categories are “General Business” and “Other” and, again, list the same “jobs” at the same “companies.” The next category is “Business Opportunity.” I challenge you to guess what “companies” and “jobs” are listed. (Hint: it’s the same ones again.)

Supply And Demand

Among the few specifics in the story is the example of “Jain Irrigation, which cannot find all the workers it wants for $15-an-hour jobs running expensive machinery that spins out precision irrigation tubing at 600 feet a minute, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

$15-an-hour is just above the poverty level for a family of four, at about 130%.

Dean Baker, writing in “The Problem of Structrual Unemployment: Really Incompetent Managers,” makes the point that a company complaining they can’t find skilled workers at $15 an hour needs to think about raising their offer. Baker writes,

It presents comments from one employer who complains that he can’t find workers for jobs that pay $15 an hour. This is not a very good wage. It would be difficult for someone to support themselves and their children on a job paying $15 an hour ($30,000 a year). If the company president understand economics, then he would raise wages enough so that the jobs were attractive to workers who have the necessary skills.

If they can’t get workers, they should know that they need to bump up the wage offered until they can. That is about as basic as it gets in the supply/demand equation.

Can’t Sell The House And Move

Part of this problem is the housing market. If Fresno really doesn’t have the skilled workers businesses need, Silicon Valley and Las Vegas certainly do, and have very high unemployment rates, but the people there can’t sell their houses and move! And even if they could sell they are “underwater Replica Tag heuer Watches,” will come out of the sale owing a ton of money that they can’t make up by taking a $15-per-hour job!

Externalizing Training Costs

Companies expect workers to already be trained, “externalizing” one more cost onto local communities, while shopping for the lowest tax areas to locate.

California has a budget crisis and is cutting back on funding for the community colleges and other programs where people are trained for jobs. One reason for the budget crisis is businesses demanding ever-lower taxes, or playing communities and states against each other for tax incentives to relocate, using property tax avoidance schemes and so many other ways to get out of paying something back to the public for the public investment that enabled them to prosper.

The Real Problem

Out here in the real world the real problem is not “structural,” it is that there just are not enough jobs, they don’t pay enough, “free trade” deals have lowered wages and undermined our manufacturing base, there is not enough demand in the economy and the government is not doing its job of picking up the slack and after 30 years of tax-cutting the infrastructure is crumbling and not supporting competitiveness for our businesses.

There are millions of unemployed and millions of infrastructure jobs that need doing. There is a new green energy and manufacturing revolution going on in the world and we do not have an economic/industrial policy to capture our share. There is problem after problem that is not being addressed by a government captured by interests.

DC Avoids Dealing With The Problem

It seems that the DC Elite will do anything to avoid just seeing what is in front of their faces.

Clearly we have lost jobs from trade deals, Wall Street financialization and domination, lack of investment in infrastructure and education, etc. But the DC Elite come up with a thousand reasons not to fix these because the interests that benefit from those deals have influence over them. Our budget deficit is obviously from tax cuts and military spending — but you will never, ever, ever, ever hear that. Instead we hear job-killing “austerity” solutions that avoid asking the wealthy few to pitch in.

On one issue after another, the DC Elite provide cover for the wealthy elite interests who now control DC. The transition from We, the People democracy to a plutocracy of, by and for the wealthy few is nearly complete.

The real problem is not a breakdown of the structure of the job market and is not a mismatch between the jobs and the skills, it is a lack of jobs because of lack of demand, and a mismatch between who our government and economy are supposed to work for, and the interests that have brought this about.

March 10 Summit on Jobs and America’s Future

On March 10, 2011 Replica Rolex watches, the Summit on Jobs and America’s Future will bring together leaders and activists who understand that America faces a jobs crisis — and who are committed to building a political movement for sustainable economic growth, dynamic job creation, and a revival of the American economy.

It’s free, $15 if you want lunch. Beat that.

This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF.

Sign up here for the CAF daily summary.

2011 was an exceptionally turbulent year, characterised by sovereign debt crises and weak political leadership in the developed world, dramatic political change and conflict in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and rising social unrest in much of the world. It featured important changes in democracy, both in the direction of unexpected democratisation and a continuation of decline in democracy in some parts of the world.

This mixed picture is illustrated by the results of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index for 2011. The Index is based on scores for 60 indicators across five different categories: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture.

Countries are placed within one of four types of regimes: ‘full democracies’, flawed democracies’, ‘hybrid regimes” and ‘authoritarian regimes.’

The state of democracy deteriorated in 48 countries during 2011, out of the 167 that are covered by the Index. In 41 countries it improved and it remained unchanged in 78 countries. The top of the rankings is unsurprisingly dominated by affluent democracies such as the Nordic countries, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Interestingly, though, not one euro zone member is among the top eight.

North Korea remains at the bottom of the list in 167th position. The world’s most repressive and authoritarian regimes also include Syria, Iran, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

In most regions the average democracy score was lower in 2011 than in 2010, continuing a negative trend that has been evident for some years. There were declines in North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America. These were offset by improvements in MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa, albeit from a low base in both cases and authoritarian regimes continue to predominate in both of these regions.

In an otherwise bleak year, the sudden rise of movements for democratic change in the Arab world underlined the enduring popular appeal of democracy. Many expected a new wave of democratisation. But it soon became apparent that the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt would not be repeated so easily elsewhere and that democracy remained an uncertain prospect. Many MENA autocracies resorted to repression or cosmetic changes. Still Replica Rolex Watches, Tunisia has been a unique success story. It not only initiated the Arab Spring but has also had the most democratic progress. Tunisia experienced the biggest increase of any country in its democracy score in 2011 and it jumped 53 places up the rankings to 92nd.

Erosion of democracy in Europe

Elsewhere, the general picture was of a decline in democracy in 2011, most notably in Europe. In Western Europe, 7 countries experienced a deterioration in 2011; none had an improvement. The main reason has been the erosion of sovereignty and democratic accountability associated with the effects of and responses to the euro zone crisis (five of the countries that experienced a decline in their scores are members of the euro zone–Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Ireland). Most dramatically, in two countries (Greece and Italy) democratically elected leaders have been replaced by technocrats. Policy in some countries is no longer being set by national legislatures, but in effect by official creditors.

Eastern Europe also provides cause for concern. More than a third of the countries in the region recorded lower democracy scores in 2011 than in 2010, and this came on the back of large declines between 2008 and 2010. The most high-profile offender was Russia, where a long process of regression culminated in its relegation to the category of authoritarian regimes. Ukraine and Hungary also had significant backsliding.

The political outlook for Europe is disturbing. The European project is under serious threat. Harsh austerity, a new recession in 2012, high unemployment and little sign of renewed growth will test the resilience of Europe’s political institutions.

US democracy, in turn, has been adversely affected by a deepening of the polarisation of the political scene, and political brinkmanship and paralysis. Both the US and the UK remain at the bottom end of the full democracy category. There has been a rise in protest movements, and problems in the functioning of government have become more prominent.

A mixed outlook

In contrast to trends in the developed world, the outlook for democracy looks more hopeful in much of emerging market world. Economic crisis does not inevitably lead to political regression; it has often also been a catalyst for change. Democratisation in hitherto authoritarian states will of course not mean a transition to fully-fledged Replica Breitling watches, consolidated democracies. Democracy means more than holding elections; it requires the development of a range of supportive institutions and attitudes. Such a transformation takes a very long time. But even imperfect or flawed democracy is far better than authoritarianism.

This post is part two of “Photographing National Parks in the U.S.”. Click here to read Part One.

Utah

When we arrived at Zion National Park the leaves were changing colors. There were gorgeous yellow fall leaves, red rocks and emerald water to photograph. The hiking is great here if you are not afraid of heights and be sure to check out the Narrows, a slot canyon with a cold river bottom and the Subway, a rounded tunnel hike that requires a backcountry permit. The shuttle service in Zion is great because you can stop at any major point along the way to hike and not worry about driving. The shuttle drivers are also very informative when describing the wildlife, the formations and the parks early visitors. Zion is a must see for any photographer or nature lover.

Bryce Canyon is not a huge park and much of it can be seen in a day. It is approximately 8,000 feet above sea level and cold Replica Rolex watches, but it is a must see with its large, orange graphically shaped hoodoos. It is best captured at sunrise because the position of the park makes it difficult to get a good sunset image.

Arches National Park, as its name describes, has many sandstone arches and there is probably not a better place for astro-photography due to the elevation and lack of light pollution. Pictures can never do the sheer size of Double Arch justice. It is a stunning, natural outdoor cathedral. If you are going to shoot Delicate Arch at sunset, get there early Replica Tag heuer Watches, you are going to have to share your elbowroom with a lot of other photographers.
Arches National Park is photogenic any time of day or season, I prefer sunrise and sunset, but if you are out in the afternoon, bring a polarizer to help bring out the colors of the sandstone and the blue of the sky. Give yourself at least three days and a couple of nights for stargazing. Remember to have flashlights and batteries for your flash. It gets really dark and quiet here and I’m talking hear the blood pumping of your ears quiet.

Canyonlands National Park is a very large park cut into sections by the Colorado and Green Rivers. Most of the park is only accessible by raft or 4×4 but the most well known section of the park has its entrance about 45 minutes out of Moab called the “Island in the Sky District”. This section of the park has one of the most photographed arches in it, Mesa Arch. Photographers will create a half circle around the arch and there is a pact among them not to walk in front of the others so that everybody gets a shot. The down side to this is that there are so many images of the arch already out there that it is hard to create something original at this location, the up side is that you will get a beautiful image. This is also a good spot to meet and talk shop with fellow photographers. You never know what secrets they may have for additional locations or shots.

New Mexico

New Mexico seems like a dry and desolate place from the viewpoint of the interstate, but there are many hidden gems all across the state.
White Sands is white gypsum that forms sand dunes between two mountain ranges. No other place I have been has the ability to take away all the distracting elements in a photograph. It easily makes the image purely about texture, pattern, line or color. It is best to photograph in the early morning or late evening when the sun is raking its light across the dunes making stronger patterns. Another good time to photograph White Sands is during sunset, moonrises, full moons and at night. In fact during season, the park offers full moon walks. Don’t forget long sleeves and sunscreen. I went to White Sands and forgot, the next day I could not walk due to sunburn!

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument is a great day hike. The 2 1/2 hour hike takes you through narrow slot canyons as you climb. This is definitely a 5 star hike. If you want to take a walk through the “Candy Land” game you must visit this monument.
Petroglyphs National Monument is a wonderful daytrip right outside of Albuquerque that is worth seeing if you are passing through. Bring water and shade as there is none during the hike.

Remember: The best light is early morning, late afternoon and in bad weather.

Nikon D300s, 12-24mm @24mm, Tripod, Cable Release, F16 @ 1 Sec, ISO 200, Polarizer – For this an 8-10 stop neutral density filter is a must to get that soft misty water. A neutral density filter is essentially a dark piece of glass, when put in front of your lens it makes your exposure longer. The longer your exposure, the “softer” or more misty your water is going to look. My minimum exposure with cascading water is ¼ of a sec but I try to get it anywhere from 2 seconds to 2 minutes. 1  / 7 ADVERTISEMENT CURRENT TOP 5 SLIDES RATE THIS PHOTO 1
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2/19/2012 - KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFNS) – Seven Airmen from the 898th Munitions Squadron witnessed a car crash Replica rolex watches, recently, on Interstate 40 near Amarillo, Texas, and put their self-aid and buddy care training to the test.

They were returning from an assignment at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo when they saw a car lose control and get clipped by a semitrailer. Tech. Sgt. Shawn Piel said the car then hit the concrete center divider on the highway, flipped over and skidded along the road, and then was hit again by the semitrailer.

The Airmen quickly got out of the van to see if they could render any assistance. Piel was the main liaison with local responders during the event.

“Immediately when our van stopped, everybody ran out,” said Airman 1st Class Anne Price.

By then, Staff Sgt. David Henke, Airman 1st Class Nathaniel Iverson and the wife of the truck driver were pulling the victim out of the car, said Price. She was the only person in the car. They pulled her away from the car because it was smoking and in danger of catching fire.

“We decided that we needed to get her on the ground and treat her for shock,” said Price. “We put her on the ground and Airman Carl Krejci held her legs. Sergeant Henke and Airman Iverson were talking to her trying to calm her. We tried to keep her awake because she’d hit her head.”

After the initial assessment, Henke started directing both the Airmen and civilians coming to help with needed tasks. At the same time, he said that he continued to verify the alertness of the victim and reassure her that she would be all right.

People from nearby houses and cars brought blankets to put around her because of the cold temperatures, said Price. While some Airmen were helping to stabilize the victim, Senior Airman Ryan Dearth and Airman 1st Class Marshall Bowland directed traffic.

“Through boot camp, you learn all about these lifesaving skills,” said Price. “Thinking back while you’re in this situation it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is what we learned.’ It’s very helpful.”

The Airmen had been up since early in the morning and were looking forward to a long but uneventful drive back to Kirtland AFB, said Piel.

“All of a sudden, it was like 110 miles an hour instant activity,” said Piel. “Everything was working like it was practiced. None of us work together on a regular basis, but it all came together in that instant, thanks to all the training we receive as Airmen. All these Airmen displayed very good understanding of the situation and reacted superbly.”

(Image Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

The Obama campaign has framed its about-face decision to support a pro-Democratic super PAC as an effort to counteract “unlimited money from special interests,” particularly corporations, allowed in the wake of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision.

But it’s important to note that Priorities USA Action can and does receive money from pro-Obama “special interests” of its own, most notably labor unions. The contributions are also made possible by the 2010 Citizens United decision.

Service Employees Union International (SEIU) Committee on Political Education – a traditional PAC – has given $1 million to Priorities USA Action so far this election cycle, according to the Federal Election Commission.

The American Association for Justice – a trial lawyers PAC – gave $50,000 last year Replica rolex watches, records show.

The contributions, and those likely to follow, mean Obama’s decision to encourage Priorities USA Action also indirectly reverses his much-touted refusal to accept financial support from traditional PACs.

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