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Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) speech to the Republican National Convention last night was chock-full of bald-faced lies .

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By Brad Johnson, campaign manager of Forecast the Facts The Obama administration’s Bureau of Land Management auctioned a major tract of Wyoming coal to Peabody Energy at a bargain-basement price of $1.10 per ton yesterday. The North Porcupine coal tract in the Powder River Basin went to the single bidder, Peabody subsidiary BPU Western Resources, for $793,270,310.80 for 721 million tons, BLM representative Beverly Gorny stated in a telephone interview. This sale, made under the provisions of the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, represents a massive fossil-fuel subsidy based on the assumption that the use of coal benefits the American public.

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Conservative media figures have mocked President Obama’s concerns about continuing job losses in the public sector but experts say the job cuts are more severe than in other recoveries in recent decades and threaten the recovering economy. Conservative Media Mock Concerns About Public-Sector Job Loss Bill Kristol: Obama Thinks “The Problem With The Economy Is That The Government Isn’t Big Enough.” Fox News contributor and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol said on the June 10 edition of Fox Broadcasting’s Fox News Sunday : KRISTOL: This gaffe is revealing about President Obama. And it’s his policy. He wants more public sector jobs.  That’s his address to the country, his radio address this past weekend was about how we – as you pointed out in your discussion with Mitch Daniels – is about how we need — Congress needs to spend more money on public sector jobs, that will get the economy going again. So there’s a fundamental difference here. The Republicans believe that the private sector is the engine of economic growth. And President Obama believes that the private sector is doing fine and that the problem with the economy is that the government isn’t big enough. [Fox Broadcasting, Fox News Sunday, 6/10/12] Liz Cheney Refers To Public-Sector Job Losses As “The Good That Is Being Done At The State Level.” Later on Fox News Sunday , host Chris Wallace asked Fox News contributor Liz Cheney if reducing public-sector job loss is “an answer for the economy.” Cheney responded that President Obama’s call for public-sector hiring is “trying to undo the good that is being done at the state level”: CHENEY: One prominent economist said this week, Chris, that if more government spending were the answer then Greece would now be experiencing a new golden age. So obviously more government spending is not the answer. I think Bill [Kristol] is right. I actually don’t think this was a gaffe. This is what President Obama believes. And I think — it’s interesting if you look what happened, which is that you got responsible governors like Mitch Daniels, Chris Christie, even to some extent Governor Cuomo, a Democrat in New York, who are tightening their own budgets who are going through a process of fiscal responsibility, who are reducing their state deficits, who are reducing unemployment. But as a result they have had to in fact cut the government roles. And the president’s prescription now is to use federal tax dollars to come in and essentially undo that. You know, the president ought to be in situation where he’s saying “what’s working at state level let’s put that in play here. Let’s make this a better place for the private sector to invest. Let’s cut taxes and let’s reduce government.” Instead he is actually trying to undo even the good that is being done at the state level. [Fox Broadcasting, Fox News Sunday, 6/10/12] But Public-Sector Job Losses Have Been Severe And Unusual Public Sector Has Lost Over 550,000 Jobs Since Mid-2009. Business Insider posted achart compiled from Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) showing that while private-sector jobs (blue) have been increasing since the beginning of 2010, public-sector jobs (red) — most of which are at the local level but this also includes federal and state jobs — continue to fall. The spike in the red line reflects the temporary hiring of Census workers in 2010. [Business Insider, 6/8/12 ] Wash. Post : State And Local Governments Continuing To Lose Jobs. The Washington Post  created the following charts with data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics which show how monthly private-sector job gains compare to monthly job losses in state and local government: [ The Washington Post , 4/29/12 ] Calculated Risk: Public-Sector Job Loss Is A “Significant Drag On Overall Employment.” Financial blog Calculated Risk highlighted how public-sector jobs during Obama’s presidency (blue) compare to Bush’s first term (red). Calculated Risk called these job losses “a significant drag on overall employment”: [Calculated Risk, 3/18/12 ] EPI: Loss Of Government Jobs In Current Recovery Contrasts Sharply With Other Recent Recoveries.  The Economic Policy Institute stated that if public-sector employment had increased the way it did in previous recoveries, “there would be 1.2 million more public-sector jobs in the U.S. economy today” and “these extra public-sector jobs would have helped preserve about 500,000 private-sector jobs”: The figure below compares trends in public-sector employment in the last four recoveries. The current recovery is the only one that has seen public-sector losses over its first 31 months. If public-sector employment had  grown  since June 2009 by the average amount it grew in the three previous recoveries (2.8 percent) instead of shrinking by 2.5 percent, there would be 1.2 million more public-sector jobs in the U.S. economy today. In addition, these extra public-sector jobs would have helped preserve about 500,000 private-sector jobs. There is reason to be optimistic, though, as public-sector losses have moderated recently. If the sector begins to actually add jobs in the coming months, the economy would benefit significantly in 2012 and beyond. [Economic Policy Institute,  4/5/12 ] The Economist : “Government Payrolls Typically Swell In Economic Recoveries” But”Not This Time.” A May 12 article in The Economist noted that, although public-sector jobs usually increase following economic downturns, “for much of the past two years the biggest source of job losses has been the public sector.” From The Economist : On May 8th Mr Obama sent Congress a “to-do list”, asking it for tax incentives and mortgage refinancing in the hope of boosting private job creation. Yet for much of the past two years the biggest source of job losses has been the public sector. Government payrolls typically swell in economic recoveries, by 5.9% on average during the first 34 months after a recession has ended, according to data from the Bureau of Labour Statistics. Not this time, however: from June of 2009 government employment dropped by 2.7% (see chart). The 2.5m overall rise in employment since the downturn’s end corresponds to 3.1m new private jobs, less 600,000 lost government ones. [ The Economist , 5/12/12 ] Krugman: During Reagan-Era Recovery, “Government Employment Had Risen By 3.1 Percent; This Time Around, It’s Down By 2.7 Percent.” From economist Paul Krugman’s March 4 New York Times column: By this stage in the Reagan recovery, government employment had risen by 3.1 percent; this time around, it’s down by 2.7 percent. If government employment under Mr. Obama had grown at Reagan-era rates, 1.3 million more Americans would be working as schoolteachers, firefighters, police officers, etc., than are currently employed in such jobs. And once you take the effects of public spending on private employment into account, a rough estimate is that the unemployment rate would be 1.5 percentage points lower than it is, or below 7 percent — significantly better than the Reagan economy at this stage. One implication of this comparison is that conservatives who love to compare Reagan’s record with Mr. Obama’s should think twice. Aside from the fact that recoveries from financial crises are almost always slower than ordinary recoveries, in reality Reagan was much more Keynesian than Mr. Obama, faced with an obstructionist G.O.P., has ever managed to be. [ New York Times , 3/4/12 ] Experts Note Public-Sector Job Losses Damage The Overall Economy Wall Street Journal : Unemployment Rate Would Be Near 7.1% Without Government Job Cuts. Wall Street Journal reporter Justin Lahart stated that, all things equal, “if there were as many people working in government as there were in December 2008, the unemployment rate in April would have been 7.1%, not 8.1%.” The post included the following chart: [WSJ.com, 5/8/12 ] Economist Mark Zandi: “Job Losses At State And Local Governments Is The Most Serious Weight On The Job Market.” From an April 29 Washington Post article: The state and local job losses are significant for several reasons, economists say. For one, these losses have a broad social impact. Laying off teachers means larger class sizes and fewer after-school programs, for example. What’s more, federal aid can go directly to state and local governments to prevent job losses, a relatively effective way to sustain economic growth. (Tax cuts, by contrast, can lead indirectly to job growth if they increase the amount of money consumers spend.) “The job losses at state and local governments is the most serious weight on the job market,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, who has advised both parties. Experts worry that the cuts will have lasting effects. “There’s a big body of research showing that a lot of the things that state and local governments spend their money on have long-term effects on the economy and society as a whole,” said Nicholas Johnson, vice president for state fiscal policy at CBPP. “Cutting school funding now can hurt the education of a future workforce.” [ The Washington Post , 4/29/12 ] Economist Scott Brown: Economy Would Be Growing A Full Percentage Point Faster Without Drag From Government Job Losses. From a June 6 ABC News report: “The government is actually contributing to the slow recovery,” said Scott Brown, the chief economist at the Florida-based financial firm Raymond James & Associates. Brown said that if it were not for the “drag” of this public sector job loss, the economy would likely be growing a full percentage point faster, with GDP growing at 3 percent rather than at 2 percent. “That would help mop up the jobs lost during the downturn,” he said. “Factor in the drag from government and we are growing at a pace that’s roughly enough to absorb the growth in population but not fast enough to make up much of the ground lost.” [ABC News, 6/6/12 ] Economist Joel Naroff: When The Public Sector Cuts Jobs, “The Private Sector Gets Affected.” A September 2, 2011, U.S. News & World Report article quoted economist Joel Naroff who pointed out that “the private sector gets affected” by public-sector job losses. From U.S. News & World Report : Those job losses are taking their toll on the national economic scene, and are in their own way creating more job losses in the private sector. “If we’re losing [20,000 to 25,000] in the public sector, that’s income and spending that doesn’t occur. It’s more like [35,000 to 40,000] jobs as a result of that,” says Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors, an economic consulting firm based in Holland, Pennsylvania. “So one job isn’t just one job; it’s more than one job. And so the private sector gets affected,” he says. Behind those government job losses are  budget cuts , particularly from states and local governments, many of which have lost revenues as lower incomes and lower property values lead to lower tax income. Those budget cuts mean fewer government contracts, which also leads to pain in the private sector. The winding down of the stimulus package also contributed to these losses, as federal assistance to state governments for things like extra Medicaid funding has disappeared, leaving many states with substantial budget gaps. Altogether, the strain on the national economy is considerable. “There’s no such thing as a free budget cut.” says Naroff. “If the public sector trims [20,000 to 25,000] jobs a month, then the private sector has to create those jobs before the economy can add one job. That’s the hole that the public sector puts the economy in at this particular point,” he says. [ U.S. News & World Report , 9/2/11 ] CBPP: Government Job Losses Hurt Those Who Don’t Work In Government. From a February 8 report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Here’s how the economic damage from spending cuts happens: when lawmakers cut services they end contracts with private sector businesses and reduce spending on private sector goods, leading to layoffs or lower wages among private sector workers. When lawmakers cut services they also lay off teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other public sector workers (over 650,000 state and local government workers have lost their jobs since the recession hit the states). In turn, private AND public sector workers who are laid off, or who see their pay reduced, buy less and further reduce economic activity. Deep cuts to state services also erode the foundations of a strong economy, in both the short and long term.  Spending on education, transportation, and public safety has been shown to stimulate economic growth in the short run and is among the most important determinants of economic growth and job quality in the long run. Research also shows that expanding and improving upon these investments through well-targeted tax increases (in other words, finding new money to pay for better services) stimulates income and job growth. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2/8/12 ] Brookings Institution: Government Job Growth Is Associated With Economic Recovery In Many Metro Areas. In June 2011, Howard Wial of the Brookings Institution observed that “government job growth is associated with the economic recovery of America’s metropolitan areas” since 14 out of the 20 large metro areas with the strongest recoveries from the recession “gained government jobs since total employment began to recover in each metro area.” By contrast 12 of the 15 major metro areas with the slowest recoveries “lost government jobs since total employment began to recover.” Wial also noted that increased government employment boosts private-sector jobs and income: I haven’t been able to find anything else besides the growth of employment that’s as closely associated with the strength of metropolitan economic recovery. Increased government employment means increased government spending, which means increased demand for goods and services and the creation of more private sector jobs and more private sector income. [The Brookings Institution, 6/22/11 ] Wash Post .’s Klein: Public-Sector Job Losses Are A Problem That The Federal Government Could Actually Fix. In a June 8 post on The Washington Post’s Wonkblog, Ezra Klein wrote: Speaking of private-sector jobs, at this point the Obama presidency is net positive on private-sector jobs. Since February of 2009 — remember, Obama wasn’t president for most of January — the economy has added, on net, 780,000 private-sector jobs. Hence the president’s comments: The private sector’s job creation machine is basically working, even if it would be nice to see it working faster. The public sector, conversely, has been losing jobs. As a disclaimer, these numbers don’t tell you very much. The bulk of the job losses came in early 2009, when Obama had just entered office and when his policies hadn’t yet taken effect. Blaming him for what happened to the labor market in, say, March of 2009 is like blaming a firefighter for the damage the fire causes as his truck is pulling up. And even at this point in his presidency, the economy is driven by much more than his policy preferences. Europe, for instance. That said, the place where you can most fairly blame the government for the shape of the labor market is in public-sector jobs. The federal government can choose to hire, fire or hold employment steady. It can give states money to keep emmployees on the job, or it can withhold that money. So the fact that the public sector is losing jobs isn’t just a problem, but a problem that the federal government could, with 100 percent certainty, fix. [WashingtonPost.com, 6/8/12 ] NY Times’ Norris: Proposals To Prevent Public Sector Job Losses “Were Blocked By Republicans In Congress.” From a January 6 New York Times post by chief financial correspondent Floyd Norris: The declines in government jobs in both the Reagan and Obama presidencies coincided with major recessions, of course, which reduced tax receipts for all levels of government. If Mr. Obama had had his way, state and local government job losses in 2011 could have been reduced with more federal assistance, but such proposals were blocked by Republicans in Congress. There is no reason to think Mr. Obama is as happy about the reduction in government workers as some Republicans. But like it or not, the Obama administration has turned out to be anything but a big-government one. [NYTimes.com, 1/6/12 ]

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In a January 20 Washington Times column , Robert Knight wrote that President Obama’s administration “has manfully undertaken the task of turning America into a Constitution-free Third World country in need of international adult guidance.” Knight also accused the president of “treacherous action against” the United States and of “dismantling our military before our very eyes.” From the Times :  I’ve thought of only one good thing so far that could result from killing the pipeline: Legions of Occupy Wall Street protesters just might leave their filthy squatter encampments in our cities and gather in coastal areas to watch the seas subside as Mr. Obama promised. Sorry about you coastal home dwellers. Welcome to our world.  Mr. Obama’s reckless disregard for America’s needs particularly pleases his socialist friends in Europe, who have long thought that America needs a comeuppance. They’ve been cheering his every treacherous action against his own country, and this one’s a doozy. It might not please the Russians, however, whose own burgeoning oil and gas industries will face competition from Canada. But you can’t please everyone. Maybe it will be enough for the Russians that Mr. Obama is dismantling our military before our very eyes.  By the way, if you criticize Mr. Obama for any of this, you must be a racist.  I prefer being an optimist and thinking that things will turn out OK — even while watching pipelines being killed, gasoline prices rising and Republican presidential hopefuls providing enough sound bites to fill 1,000 Obama campaign ads in November.  Actually, we’ve been getting used to watching horrors for three years as the Obama administration has manfully undertaken the task of turning America into a Constitution-free Third World country in need of international adult guidance. Previously:   Wash. Times : Obama’s Appointment Of Consumer Protection Chief Cordray Is “Lawless,” “Tyranny”

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The Los Angeles Times When the man police have identified as a “person of interest” in Los Angeles’ spate of recent arson attacks was sitting in the back of a squad car early Monday morning, a small group of witnesses gave him “the finger”– and he returned the gesture with a smile, one witness said. “It was creepy,” said Rick Savage, a music producer who saw the incident at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue. Savage said he was awake because he has been nervous about the string of arson fires in recent days in his and other nearby neighborhoods. He said he had downloaded a police scanner application onto his iPad and went to the area at about 3:15 a.m. after hearing reports that authorities had tracked a person of interest in the case. “For the past three nights, it’s been freaking me out,” Savage said of the fires. (MORE) SEE MAP OF ARSON FIRES HERE

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Two men have been charged over a spree of more than 50 arson attacks which kept Hollywood on edge over the New Year holiday, Los Angeles police said Monday, after a fourth night of fires. A new suspect, named as 55-year-old Alejandro Pineta, was arrested in the early hours, following the detention of a 22-year-old, identified as Samuel Arrington, shortly after the attacks started last week. The two men were both charged with arson and held in custody, Pineta in lieu of $50,000 bail and Arrington in lieu of $75,000, said Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) commander Michael Moriarty. In all the 53 deliberately-set fires in Hollywood and surrounding parts of Los Angeles caused more than $2 million in damage, added an LA Fire Department spokesman, Jaime Moore. LAPD chief Charlie Beck, speaking before Pineta was named as a second person charged, said: “I feel very good that we’ve got the right guy .. The suspect had the right stuff in his van, and we are very confident we found our man.” (MORE)

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Republican vs. Republican on the payroll tax cut… Kristen: The GOP is playing into Obama’s hands… After Kim’s death, what should our North Korea policy be?… Is Hitchens in Heaven?… Why many on the left could never forgive him… Announcing a Newt-related TWiB hiatus…

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By Rebecca Kemble, December 14, 2011 The bill increases already lengthy pre-abortion counseling requirements and increases legal liability for physicians who provide abortions. read more

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WorldNetDaily’s Phil Elmore used his November 16 column to call for the violent removal of the Occupy Wall Street protesters from their encampments. Elmore wrote that law enforcement should “[b]ring flame-throwers” and be “prepared to beat with truncheons and shoot with rubber bullets every last filthy hippie.” He also called the Occupy movement a “cancer” and warned that it “will infect us all if we do not sterilize it now.” The right-wing media have been conducting a relentless smear campaign against Occupy Wall Street, calling protesters “lunatics” and “parasites” and comparing them to the Unabomber. This call for violent action against the protesters does not come in a vacuum. On November 15, police in Seattle used pepper spray on an 84-year-old, a pregnant woman, and other participants in Occupy Seattle. Last month, an Iraq war veteran suffered a skull fracture after he was hit by a police projectile at Occupy Oakland. From the WorldNetDaily column : This is no longer a question of freedom of speech. This has long ago ceased to be an issue of the right to assemble. No American citizen has the right to terrorize and threaten his fellow Americans in this way. No mob of Americans should be permitted to endanger and to harass the public the way these hateful “Occupy” hippies have done for months . Call out the National Guard. Turn on the fire hoses. Send bulldozers. Bring flame-throwers , for pity’s sake. Men and women who give a damn about their country, wearing Hazmat suits and respiratory gear, empowered by the lawful government of this nation, should be marching in ranks on every Obamaville this very moment, prepared to beat with truncheons and shoot with rubber bullets every last filthy hippie. Put a stop to this miserable army of miscreants before they are permitted to rape, infect, or ruin one more person. The “Occupy” movement is a cancer. The “occupiers” are criminals and terrorists. The Obamaville is a creeping death made of Nylon, placards and human waste. This movement is a third-world rot that will infect us all if we do not sterilize it now.

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One of the myths that Fox uses to prop up its credibility as a news-gathering operation is that it has “straight news” shows that possess the same integrity as those on any other channel. It’s a helpful argument for them, made all the more believable because these shows really look like news. Fox makes use of television conventions to convince its audience that what they are seeing is “news.” But anyone who closely watches these purportedly straight-news shows knows that, in fact, they’re unlike any other news on television. Actress Ellen Barkin recently made this point in an interview with the Los Angeles Times Magazine . Discussing “the enormous success that has killed us in terms of Fox News,” Barkin said: The blatant lying that passes itself off as journalism. I don’t even need to get there to go mental. Can you imagine a legitimate newsperson — Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw — just lying on the news? This earned her a jab in Bill O’Reilly’s daily newsletter . (The instinct to defame critics, rather than engage them, is one of the qualities that separates Fox from legitimate news operations — see here , for instance.) The evidence that Fox disregards journalistic ethics, including outright “lying on the news,” is extensive . Imagine this: A news anchor uses talking points cribbed from a document released by a political party and presents them as his own news outlet’s research. So faithfully, in fact, that the outlet reproduces a typo in the original document. When pressured on the issue, the anchor apologizes … for the typo. Sound far-fetched? Jon Scott, co-anchor of one of Fox’s daytime straight-news shows, Happening Now , did exactly that on Fox News . Plenty of other Fox straight-news shows have presented Republican Party research as their own.

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