Three Weeks Behind A Starbucks Counter

If Aimee Groth wanted to know what working at a Starbucks was like, she should have sat down inside of one and watched what exactly they all did. "Leisurely" isn't one of their normal job descriptions.

It's safe to assume she won't be falling back on her experience in the service industry for a 'Plan B'.

I had recently moved to New York City, and I was freelancing at the time. But I had to get a part-time job in order to pay next month’s rent. So one afternoon, I printed off a stack of resumes,and hand-delivered them to nearly 30 Starbucks in Lower Manhattan and one in Brooklyn.

Only one manager called me back: the one from Brooklyn, just a few blocks from my apartment — and the last store I visited. She offered me the job at $10/hour; and if I worked part-time for three months, I'd be eligible for health insurance.

I'd later find out that the store is located next to the busiest transit hub in Brooklyn, which makes it the busiest Starbucks outside of Manhattan. My initial idea of working a leisurely part-time job was completely false. This was going to be hard work. And a lot of it.[Bold mine]

At Last: The Video Montage Of Each One Of Obama's Pivot's On Jobs

Where he keeps reaffirming his laser like focus on jobs, jobs, jobs until something shiny comes along.

From the Puff Ho of all places (link to Puff Ho, fair warning but worth a quick read).



You would think that once you lost the Huff Po, you lost the liberal establishment. Not so. Some of the comments are saying that Puff Ho has put on a mustache and gone the way of Fox News.

Some people still insist on tracing the woodgrain.*

Thanks to Viv.

*Exit question: Is Ender's Game too obscure for a sci-fi book regarding the woodgrain reference? It's one of the few references in literature where it illustrates the point I want to make.

Ronnie Bryant Goes Galt

I can't add anything more to this:

My name’s Ronnie Bryant, and I’m a mine operator. I’ve been issued a [state] permit in the recent past for [waste water] discharge, and after standing in this room today listening to the comments being made by the people…. [pause] Nearly every day without fail — I have a different perspective — men stream to these [mining] operations looking for work in Walker County. They can’t pay their mortgage. They can’t pay their car note. They can’t feed their families. They don’t have health insurance. And as I stand here today, I just … you know … what’s the use? I got a permit to open up an underground coal mine that would employ probably 125 people. They’d be paid wages from $50,000 to $150,000 a year. We would consume probably $50 million to $60 million in consumables a year, putting more men to work. And my only idea today is to go home. What’s the use? I don’t know. I mean, I see these guys — I see them with tears in their eyes — looking for work. And if there’s so much opposition to these guys making a living, I feel like there’s no need in me putting out the effort to provide work for them. So as I stood against the wall here today, basically what I’ve decided is not to open the mine. I’m just quitting. Thank you.

Thanks to Truman.

Video: EPA Admits That Jobs Do Not Matter With Their Policies

I'm shocked, shocked that the EPA doesn't consider the private sector when implementing their policies. The Blog Prof has more.



The video is over five minutes long but it's worth the viewing.

Joe "Scranton" Biden: Looking Out For The Little Guy

This video has been making the rounds. Joe Biden telling someone not to be "A Smart-ass". Videos of the event here and here and here and some background information here.

I do have an answer for Vice President Bite Me. No, the custard shop owner wasn't being a smart-ass. He was as serious as a brain aneurysm.

The Problem With Safety Nets

This helps define the problem with cushy unemployment benefits and multiple extensions. Why would someone jeopardize their guaranteed check from Uncle Gubmint than go out and work at a temp job. When they run out of extensions then it's time to go looking for a job, not beforehand.

Landscapers are having trouble filing temporary jobs in Michigan-- who has the lowest unemployment in the US-- because people don't want to give up their unemployment checks.

Landscape workers can earn about $12 per hour in Michigan and would make $480 per week before taxes working full-time, or about $350 per week after taxes. In addition, full-time landscape workers would face transportation costs and other work-related expenses. But collecting unemployment benefits and working zero hours per week, many of those unemployed workers can receive $255 per week tax-free for almost two years, which is only $95 less per week than if they worked full-time. For some workers who are getting the maximum of $387 per week in jobless benefits, they can receive even more from collecting benefits than they would get paid going back to work full-time.

It's policies like this that help kill the entrepreneurial spirit of a nation.

Ladies And Gentlemen, The Man In Charge Of The Nation's Economy

Tim "I never had a real job" Geithner.

What can possibly go wrong?

Via Insty who has more.

LINKED by Doug who also wants to know.

So Much For That Laser Like Focus On Jobs

Focused like a flashlight with dying batteries.

Why do I think he's never been about real jobs -- and not government jobs -- for America? Because of his actions like this. Banning offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico for domestic use.

Offshore oil production makes economic sense. It creates jobs and helps fulfill America's vast energy needs. It contributes to the gross domestic product and does not increase the trade deficit. Higher oil supply helps keep a lid on rising prices, and greater American production gives the United States more influence over the global market.

It's not about the environment, it's about handicapping the economy and keeping people at the behest of their government.

Video: Unemployment By County Throughout The Country

AKA: The Black Death. Watch it til the end and you'll see what I mean.



The full size version of the graph can be found here.

Thanks to Jim and Doc.

Shocking Report! Obama Seen As Anti-Business.

Whatever would give US investors that idea?

The global quarterly poll of investors and analysts who are Bloomberg subscribers finds that 77 percent of U.S. respondents believe Obama is too anti-business and four-out-of-five are only somewhat confident or not confident of his ability to handle a financial emergency.

The poll also finds a decline in Obama’s overall favorability rating one year after taking office. He is viewed favorably by 27 percent of U.S. investors. In an October poll, 32 percent in the U.S. held a positive impression.
[. . .]
Unlike other recent presidents, Obama hasn’t selected a leading business executive for his cabinet or a top advisory role. One year after taking office, he is coping with a jobless rate hovering around 10 percent and a federal deficit that rose to $1.4 trillion last year. In response, he has proposed a fee on as many as 50 large financial firms and yesterday called for limiting the size and trading activities of financial institutions as a way to reduce risk-taking.[emphasis and bold mine]

Shocking, I know. It's almost as if he has had no experience in the private sector at all.

Let's Play "Who Will You Believe"

In one corner there is the USA Today:

Even with the $787 billion stimulus package that Obama signed in February [Which didn't help], more than 4 million jobs have been lost in 2009, the worst year for job losses since World War II. The jobless rate that advisers projected would peak at 8% has topped 10%.

In the other corner, ABC News.

But the report from the President's Council of Economic Advisers said the economy is a lot better off than it would have been without the stimulus. Citing its own analysis plus a range of private sector summaries, the council estimated the annual growth rate last year would have been roughly 2 percentage points lower, and there would have been 1.5 million to 2 million fewer jobs.

So which is it? Jobs lost or jobs saved? Before the game starts, there's this to keep in mind about the 'Jobs Saved or Created'. Hide the jobs decline.

Via Ace and Jammie Wearing Fool.

Cross Posted at The Richmond Liberty Alliance.

Good News. . . Sort Of

Jobs loss wasn't as bad as economists thought.

The milk wasn't spoiled that bad [after reading that three times today, I think I finally have it right].

The movie did suck but it had a funny part to it.

Linked by No Sheeples Here from her round up.

Jobs Created, Saved And/Or Lost

As Jake Tapper notes:

The Obama administration's $787 billion stimulus bill directly saved or created about 650,000 jobs as of the end of last month, administration officials announced this morning.

That's barely a wash compared to last month's unemployment numbers. The numbers for October haven't been released yet, for obvious reasons.

This Is Scary

It reminds me of some disaster movie where they show the hero the graph of the potential outbreak and how it will take over North American if something isn't done to contain the Zombie Virus within the next 48 hours. Or something.

Via Ace.

The Obama Stimulus: Predictions vs. Reality

Thanks to 10000Pennies for putting this together.

The Case For ANWR

I found this gem while perusing Memeorandum.

Let's not forget: Only six months ago, oil was selling for nearly $150 per barrel, while Americans were paying $4 a gallon and more for gasoline. And today, there is potential for prices to rebound as OPEC asserts its market power and as Russia disrupts needed natural gas to Europe for the second time in three years.

. . .

•ANWR sits within a 20 million-acre refuge (the size of South Carolina), but thanks to advanced technology like directional drilling, the aggregated drilling footprint would be less than 2,000 acres (about one-quarter the size of Dulles Airport). This is like laying a 2-by-3-foot welcome mat on a basketball court.

Touches quite a few bases. She's been criticized for being only about energy. But when the basis of the economy for the entire country has been built on cheap, plentiful energy, it becomes much more than just energy. Jobs to mine the oil, build the pipeline, and refine the oil. Not to mention all the butchers and bakers and barbers and tailors to support those jobs. Sure, it is simplified but it is just scratching the surface. To get to a little redder meat, energy jobs will be actual jobs, injecting wealth into the economy and strengthening the dollar. Instead of the current stimulus bill going through congress, which will dump printed money into the economy to help create inflation and make work jobs.

Drilling in ANWR is the change this country needs.

Cross posted at Conservatives For Palin.