Unemployment Rate Drops To Below 8% The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released the latest batch of unemployment numbers and the jobs report, and it seems like things might be finally starting to look up. Think Progress According to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 88,000 jobs were created last month, and the unemployment rate ticked down to 7.6 percent largely because the participation rate dropped. Analysts had expected 190,000 jobs. The private sector added 95,000 jobs, while the public sector contracted again, losing another 7,000 jobs. The February job numbers were revised from 236,000 to 268,000, while January’s numbers were revised from 119,000 to 148,000. Although these actual numbers don’t quite add up to those that were projected, it’s certainly an improvement from where we were last time this year. Shutterstock
Democratic Senator Supports Provision Allowing Mentally Ill To Purchase Guns The gun control debate is still a hot topic across the nation , and the recent decision of a Democratic Senator Mark Pryor to speak out in support of a seemingly controversial NRA gun provision has added fuel to the fire. via Think Progress Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) hinted on Tuesday that he would oppose a Democratic initiative to expand background checks to all gun purchases, but reiterated his support for an NRA-backed measure that would permit individuals deemed mentally ill or incompetent to purchase firearms more freely. Pryor emphasized removing records from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, rather than broadening the requirement: “I do support improving the background check. I want to make sure that when we put data in the background check that we have the right kind of mental health data. We need integrity in that data to be in there and we also need a process where people can get their names out of there when the time is right. Either they got their name wrongly in the first place or they’ve gone through some issue or whatever and that’s behind them and they need to get their name out of the database. So I support a bipartisan bill on that, in fact I think it’s endorsed by the NRA, so I’m not like totally opposed to every single thing. I try to be reasonable on this.” Do you agree with what the Senator is saying?
Democratic Senator Supports Provision Allowing Mentally Ill To Purchase Guns The gun control debate is still a hot topic across the nation , and the recent decision of a Democratic Senator Mark Pryor to speak out in support of a seemingly controversial NRA gun provision has added fuel to the fire. via Think Progress Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) hinted on Tuesday that he would oppose a Democratic initiative to expand background checks to all gun purchases, but reiterated his support for an NRA-backed measure that would permit individuals deemed mentally ill or incompetent to purchase firearms more freely. Pryor emphasized removing records from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, rather than broadening the requirement: “I do support improving the background check. I want to make sure that when we put data in the background check that we have the right kind of mental health data. We need integrity in that data to be in there and we also need a process where people can get their names out of there when the time is right. Either they got their name wrongly in the first place or they’ve gone through some issue or whatever and that’s behind them and they need to get their name out of the database. So I support a bipartisan bill on that, in fact I think it’s endorsed by the NRA, so I’m not like totally opposed to every single thing. I try to be reasonable on this.” Do you agree with what the Senator is saying?
“I’m not gay and I make the laws. So you shouldn’t be gay either!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Republican Lawmaker Says Opposes Gay Marriage Because He’s Not Gay GOP Goon Saxy Chambliss has joined in with the Republican meat head motor-mouth bandwagon that manages to spew ridiculousness at every turn. Today’s topic? Gay marriage. via Think Progress Since Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) announced his support for marriage equality last week, other Republican lawmakers have been asked to clarify their own positions on same-sex marriage. Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), for example, both explained that they would still oppose marriage equality even if they had children who came out as gay. But Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) offered Politico a different explanation: Chambliss: I’m not gay. So I’m not going to marry one. Though context is lacking, his conflation of the adjective “gay” and noun “one” is offensive on its face (i.e. he’s not going to marry “a gay.”) But Chambliss’s comment reflects a common sentiment among Republicans who oppose policies that don’t apply to them — particularly any with specific protections for minorities. So, he’s basically not in favor of marriage equality because the people who are looking to get married are not “like him.” Oh.
Here this fool goes. SMH. It seems that everyone has an opinion on Bey’s new song “Bow Down” including the a$$hole better known as Rush Limbaugh. Via NYDailyNews reports : Rush Limbaugh is giving Beyoncé’s new single two thumbs down in the feminism department. The talk show host, 62, spent part of his show on Wednesday criticizing the pop singer for pulling a “total 180″ with her new single “Bow Down/I Been On.” Citing a story in The Telegraph , Limbaugh claimed that, rather than extolling women’s independence in her song, Beyoncé is encouraging women to be subservient to their spouses. “Bow Down,” according to Limbaugh, advises women to “put up with it.” “She married the rich guy,” Limbaugh continued. “She now understands it’s worth it to bow down to men.” “She’s going to call herself Mrs. Carter on the Bow Down B——s tour,” Limbaugh added. Beyoncé, who has gone on record as a feminist in the past, might not agree with Limbaugh’s interpretation of her single. “I love being a woman and I love being a friend to other women,” the superstar said in an interview with The Daily Mail in 2010. “I think we learn a lot from our female friends — female friendship is very, very important.” We’re pretty sure Rush Limbaugh didn’t even listen to this song. He just likes to run his mouth. WENN
Oh, so they wanna buy us all over again huh? GTFOHWTBS! Republican National Committee Plans To Spend $10 Million To Attract Black And Latin People Via BlackEnterprise The Republican National Committee plans on spending $10 million to send hundreds of party workers to Hispanic, black and Asian communities to promote its brand among voters who overwhelmingly supported Democrats in 2012. Committee chairman Reince Priebus announced that the RNC would be making strategic efforts to help the Republican party’s chances of winning the 2016 election including changes in debate moderators, hiring new staffers, and crowning a nominee earlier to avoid self-inflicted damage within the party. “Mitt Romney was a sitting duck for two months over the summer,” Priebus said of the 2012 Republican nominee. “It will include hundreds of people — paid — across the country, from coast-to-coast, in Hispanic, African American, Asian communities, talking about our party, talking about our brand, talking about what we believe in, going to community events, going to swearing-in ceremonies, being a part of the community on an ongoing basis, paid for by the Republican National Committee, to make the case for our party and our candidates.” Will you be stumping for Republicans in exchange for a couple dollars? Image via AP
C’mon son. If a black politician said “our fat white governor…” it would have been a problem. New Jersey governor Chris Christie is under fire again, this time for referring to New Jersey’s first black female leader of the state Assembly using her race and gender instead of her name! Via NYDailyNews reports : Republican Gov. Chris Christie has been asked to apologize for referring to the first black female leader of the state Assembly by race and gender, not by name, during a church-hosted meeting. Christie, who’s white, told an audience Tuesday that an “African-American female speaker of the Assembly” is blocking a vote on a school voucher bill that would let children in failing districts attend classes elsewhere. Democratic Speaker Sheila Oliver later said she was “appalled” that Christie injected race into the discussion on education. Oliver, who represents a district with some failing schools, has said she believes the state should make a larger investment in public education. On Thursday, the pastor whose church hosted the meeting asked Christie to apologize. He said the governor was disrespectful to the speaker and missed a chance to unite the community. “I was and am saddened by the governor’s blatant attack (on the speaker),” said Kenneth Clayton, pastor of St. Luke Baptist Church in Paterson. “The words that the governor chose to use in speaking of Oliver, while not even respecting her enough to call her by name, defy his earlier assertion that political leaders, himself included, need to learn to respect all views and work together.” A Christie spokesman said the governor’s comments were misinterpreted. The flap comes at an inopportune time for Christie, who has been courting the black and Latino vote for his re-election bid in November. It’s definitely disrespectful, but do you think the pastor made too big of a deal out of this? Or was Christie merely trying to point out that Oliver wasn’t protecting her own?
Conservative CPAC Member Defends Slavery And Recommends Segregation The GOP goon s quad is at it again…. via Think Progress A panel at the Conservative Political Action Committee on Republican minority outreach exploded into controversy on Friday afternoon, after an audience member defended slavery as good for African-Americans. The exchange occurred after an audience member from North Carolina, 30-year-old Scott Terry, asked whether Republicans could endorse races remaining separate but equal. After the presenter, K. Carl Smith of Frederick Douglass Republicans, answered by referencing a letter by Frederick Douglass forgiving his former master, the audience member said “For what? For feeding him and housing him?” After the exchange, Terry muttered under his breath, “why can’t we just have segregation?” noting the Constitution’s protections for freedom of association. Watch it: ThinkProgress spoke with Terry, who sported a Rick Santorum sticker and attended CPAC with a friend who wore a Confederate Flag-emblazoned t-shirt, about his views after the panel. Terry maintained that white people have been “systematically disenfranchised” by federal legislation. B-b-b-uut wait, it gets worse. This babbling bigot also gave life to the idea of black people being inferior to white people and women ‘staying in their place’ in front of men. When asked by ThinkProgress if he’d accept a society where African-Americans were permanently subservient to whites, he said “I’d be fine with that.” He also claimed that African-Americans “should be allowed to vote in Africa,” and that “all the Tea Parties” were concerned with the same racial problems that he was. At one point, a woman challenged him on the Republican Party’s roots, to which Terry responded, “I didn’t know the legacy of the Republican Party included women correcting men in public.” Is this fool serious?? SMMFH.
