US Sheds 651,000 Jobs, Unemployment at 8.1 pct

Washington (AFP) - The economy shed 651,000 jobs in February, pushing the unemployment rate up to 8.1 percent, according to government data Friday highlighting the worst month for the labor market since 1983.

The number of job losses was in line with most forecasts but underscored the dire state of the economy as companies reduce their workforce to cope with the deepening slump.

The Labor Department also revised up its estimate for losses for the previous two months -- 655,000 in January from 598,000, and 681,000 in December from 577,000. The figures showed December's losses as the worst on record since October 1949, officials said.

The jobless rate rose from 7.6 in January to 8.1 percent in February, the highest since December 1983.

Officials said 4.4 million jobs have been lost since the recession began in December 2007, with 2.6 million in the past four months.

The goods-producing sector shed 276,000 jobs in February while services lost 375,000. Within the goods-producing sector, manufacturing lost 168,000 jobs.

Among the few sectors showing modest job gains were education and government.

The number of persons who worked part-time for economic reasons in February -- sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers -- rose by 787,000, reaching 8.6 million. This includes people who would like to work full time but were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find full-time jobs.

The jobs report underscores the challenges facing President Barack Obama's administration in stabilizing a teetering financial system and pulling the shrinking economy out of a second year of recession.

Based on the most recent government estimate, the US economy contracted at an eye-popping 6.2 percent pace in the fourth quarter of 2008, and some analysts say the downturn may be even worse in the first quarter of 2009.

Newt Gingrich Eyes 2012 Run
Susan Davis reports on politics.

Newt Gingrich is keeping an eye towards 2012, the former speaker of the House told reporters Thursday evening before a speaking engagement at Randolph Macon College.

Gingrich said he and his wife, Callista, “will look seriously and we’ll probably get our family totally engaged, including our two grandchildren, probably in January 2011, and we’ll look seriously at whether or not we think it’s necessary to do it,” he said, according to the Richmond Times Dispatch.

“And if we think it’s necessary we’ll probably do it. And if it isn’t necessary we probably won’t do it,” he said.

At the Feb. 28 annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., Gingrich garnered 10% in a straw poll of potential 2012 candidates. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won—for the third straight year—with 20%, followed by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal with 14%, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin—both of which received 13%.

Even if he opts not to run, Gingrich intends to be very involved in the Republican Party’s soul-searching. “I think it’s conceivable that by 2012 you could have a second Contract for America,” he said. Gingrich is credited as the architect of 1994’s Contract with American that swept Republicans into power in Congress.

Dean Under Consideration for Surgeon General

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Howard Dean, a practicing physician before entering politics, was under consideration by the Obama administration for the post of U.S. surgeon general, CNN reported Friday.

Dean, who recently wrapped up a four-year term as Democratic Party chairman, has been a supporter of health reform, and has privately made clear that he is interested in the job, according to the cable network.

CNN said two White House officials noted that, while it is too early to compile a list of candidates for surgeon general, they did not rule out Dean getting the job.

"I would not dismiss it," one of the White House officials said of the possibility that Dean will be selected.

CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta Thursday withdrew his name from consideration for the post to focus more on his family and career as a surgeon.

The surgeon general leads the 6,000-member commissioned corps of the U.S. Public Health Service and is the top federal government spokesman on matters of public health.

Obama Foreclosure Plan to Aid Refinancings
If you haven’t been able to refinance because you lack equity in your home, check out the plan.
By Kenneth R. Harney / The Nation’s Housing  |  Sunday, March 8,2009  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Real Estate

Key details have begun surfacing about the extraordinary refinancing deals that President Obama’s foreclosure-prevention plan will offer an estimated 4 million to 5 million U.S. homeowners.

Obama’s plan aims to help borrowers who are current on their loans, but can’t refinance into today’s low rates because these homeowners have little or no equity in tbeir properties.

Homeowners generally need 20 percent equity to refinance into cheaper loans. However, many people bought homes with less than 20 percent down during the housing boom.

Worse, declining property values mean that even those who did make 20 percent down payments often find they no longer meet the 20 percent rule.

Now, you can still refinance in such cases if you pay for private mortgage insurance (PMI). But it’s tough to get PMI these days in some parts of the country. PMI firms are reluctant to write policies “declining” markets large areas that the firms fear could face further home-price declines.

As a result, tens of thousands of Americans are finding that they can’t refinance. Even though mortgage rates are currently running around 5 percent, these homeowners are stuck with 65 percent mortgage rates or worse.

But under Obama’s plan, government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will essentially waive the 20 percent rule on any mortgages they back.

In fact, they’ll even allow homeowners to be slightly “under water,” owing more on a home that its current market value.

Limbaugh Rooting for Planet to Explode
Could Help GOP, Radio Host Claims
BOROWITZ REPORT

In remarks that seemed guaranteed to create controversy, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said today that he was "rooting for the planet Earth to explode" because it would help the GOP retake the White House.

Mr. Limbaugh elaborated on his planet explosion theory, explaining that if the world blows up in the next four years "it will happen on Barack Obama's watch."

"Let's face it, the world exploding would be great for the GOP and Barack Obama knows it," he said.  "That's why he is doing everything in his power to keep the planet from blowing up."

While asserting that he had his fingers crossed that the planet would detonate sometime in the next four years, he said that there were other scenarios he found equally appealing.

"If the population of the U.S. was suddenly afflicted with plagues, locusts and open sores, that would be fantastic for the Republican Party," he said.  "I'm rooting for all of those things to happen."

In an appearance on CNN, Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele seemed to distance himself somewhat from Mr. Limbaugh's remarks, telling Wolf Blitzer, "Rush is a great entertainer who just wants to make people laugh, like Bobby Jindal."

Hedging a little, Mr. Steele insisted that despite perceived differences, he and Mr. Limbaugh are on the same page: "Rush is rooting for me to fail, and I am in fact failing."

John McCain Twits on Twitter, Sort of...

Although seemingly every journalist and politician now feels compelled to share their every thought and experience via the magic of Twitter, we never expected the trend would reach John McCain.

Keep in mind, this is the same man who, during the campaign, admitted, "I don't e-mail, I've never felt the particular need to e-mail," and whose aide once had to assure the public, "John McCain is aware of the Internet."

But it's true! McCain is getting with the times, and he not only has a Twitter page, but, supposedly, personally bangs out his own tweets, sort of.

"YEs!! I am twittering on my blackberry but not without a little help!" reads one unnecessarily enthusiastic tweet from this morning, prompted by God knows what. Who knows how much help he gets — he definitely didn't figure out Internet shorthands like "ICYMI" on his own. Give the man some credit, though; he's come a long, long way.

U.S. Is Arms Bazaar for Mexican Cartels

Rush Limbaugh's Address to the Nation

Mourners pay tribute to radio legend Paul Harvey
By Rupa Shenoy
Associated Press Writer

CHICAGO (AP) -- The son of radio legend Paul Harvey used his father's words for the eulogy Saturday at a public funeral service in Chicago, the city from which he launched his national news and commentary show.

"A great tree has fallen," said Paul Harvey Jr., quoting his father's send-off for President Franklin Roosevelt. "An empty place has opened up against the sky."

The broadcaster died Feb. 28 in Phoenix, where he had a winter home, less than year after the death of his wife of nearly 68 years, Lynne Harvey. He was 90.

Their son recalled the couple's long romance and his father's start on radio for the 200 mourners at the Fourth Presbyterian Church on the city's Magnificent Mile. When his father first applied for a job on radio, he was given a broom and told to sweep up, Harvey Jr. said.

The elder Harvey would have wanted to help mold reaction to the country's current difficulties, his son said.

Harvey's newsroom colleagues, ABC Radio Networks executives and Doug Limerick, one of two broadcasters chosen to fill Harvey's time slots, attended the service.

"You can hear his father in his words," Chicago Tribune media columnist Phil Rosenthal said of Harvey's son. "I think people are starting to realize what we've lost."

"It was a dignified eulogy delivered in a 'rest of the story'-type style," said Bruce DuMont, founder and president of the Museum of Broadcast Communications. "It exemplified the dignity of Paul Harvey."

Standing outside the church in overcast weather, Chicago resident and businessman Gregory Fischer said he felt compelled to attend the service because he could remember listening to Harvey as a child.

Fischer said that as an adult, he's realized that he was listening to a broadcasting trailblazer.

"He was a part of Americana," he said. "It was like he was talking directly to you."

Harvey had been heard nationally since 1951, when he began his "News and Comment" for ABC Radio Networks. He was credited with inventing or popularizing terms such as "skyjacker," "Reaganomics" and "guesstimate."

Staccato delivery, long pauses and phrases like "Stand by for news!" were Harvey's hallmarks.

In 2005, Harvey received the presidential Medal of Freedom. He also was an inductee in the Radio Hall of Fame, as was his wife.

"Of all the classes of men, I dislike the most those who make their livings by talking - actors, clergymen, politicians, pedagogues, and so on. .... It is almost impossible to imagine a talker who sticks to the facts. Carried away by the sound of his own voice and the applause from the groundlings, he makes inevitably the jump from logic to mere rhetoric." - H.L. Mencken, "Sententiae"

"Sir" Edward Kennedy

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's announcement this week of an honorary knighthood for Senator Edward M. Kennedy prompted some questions about the constitutionality of a member of Congress accepting such an accolade.

But according to the senator’s office, the British government, and others Kennedy appears to be taking the necessary steps to make it all above board. (For a fuller explanation, click here.)

The Constitution says that no person "shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.”

But there's also a federal law that allows a member of Congress to accept such a "decoration tendered in recognition of active field service in time of combat operations or awarded for other outstanding or unusually meritorious performance, subject to the approval of the employing agency of such employee.”

In Kennedy's case, the employing agency is the US Senate, and the body that approves gifts or decorations is the Senate Ethics Committee. It operates with strict rules of confidentiality, and committee officials don’t comment on individual cases.

Anthony Coley, a spokesman for Kennedy, said the senator has indeed taken the necessary steps with the Ethics Committee to receive approval for the honorary knighthood.

And so, while Kennedy won't be called "Sir Edward" because only British subjects may use that title, it appears he’ll have no obstacle to using the initials KBE after his name, signifying Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Rape Row Sparks Excommunications
By Gary Duffy
BBC News, Sao Paulo

A Brazilian archbishop says all those who helped a child rape victim secure an abortion are to be excommunicated from the Catholic Church.

The girl, aged nine, who lives in the north-eastern state of Pernambuco, became pregnant with twins.

It is alleged that she had been sexually assaulted over a number of years by her stepfather.

The excommunication applies to the child's mother and the doctors involved in the procedure.

The pregnancy was terminated on Wednesday.

Abortion is only permitted in Brazil in cases of rape and where the mother's life is at risk and doctors say the girl's case met both these conditions.

Police believe that the girl at the centre of the case had been sexually abused by her step-father since she was six years old.

The fact that she was pregnant with twins was only discovered after she was taken to hospital in Pernambuco complaining of stomach pains.

Her stepfather was arrested last week, allegedly as he tried to escape to another region of the country.

He is also suspected of abusing the girl's physically handicapped older sister who is now 14.

Intervention bid

The Catholic Church tried to intervene to prevent the abortion going ahead but the procedure was carried out on Wednesday.

Now a Church spokesman says all those involved, including the child's mother and the doctors, are to be excommunicated.

The Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, told Brazil's TV Globo that the law of God was above any human law.

He said the excommunication would not apply to the child because of her age, but would affect all those who ensured the abortion was carried out.

However, doctors at the hospital said they had to take account of the welfare of the girl, and that she was so small that her uterus did not have the ability to contain one child let alone two.

While the action of the Church in opposing an abortion for a young rape victim is not unprecedented, it has attracted criticism from women's rights groups in Brazil.