Most Important Story of the Day

Yes those tax breaks the Grand Obstructionist Party is proposing is gonna help all those unemployed people, you betcha. Seems the GOP also seems more interested in nitpicking the stimulus program than they were three months ago when the banks were getting handouts without any conditions on how to use the money.

If the GOP manages the economy the same way the manage peanut butter inspections then we are all in trouble.

http://thefiresidepost.com/2009/01/29/republican-peanut-butter/

I agree, it is the most important story of the day. Second most important story of the day would be this -

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/06/gop-opposes-pay-limits-on_n_164544.html

So they do they or don't they want to punish the greedy execs who helped precipitate this crisis? It's time that you and the rest of your colleagues start asking the Republicans some questions I think...I would have thought that capping exec pay would be one measure to get total bipartisan support. It's obvious that Republicans, for all their talk of caring about the little guy (tax cuts will solve all your problems!), could care less about public opinion. Also, non-sequitar, but as a young (22 year old) person who doesn't see her generation represented in Congress at all, one thing I've always wanted a reporter to ask of Republican leadership is the following: Why are you so against family planning when a) it would save the government money in the long-term and b) you don't want to provide unemployed people health insurance (this is obvious, but when people have babies, those kids and moms need health care)? Isn't this contradictory to your position on fiscal discipline?

Krugman had a pretty good column that I missed yesterday
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/opinion/06krugman.html?_r=1
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A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to economic recovery. Over the last two weeks, what should have been a deadly serious debate about how to save an economy in desperate straits turned, instead, into hackneyed political theater, with Republicans spouting all the old clichés about wasteful government spending and the wonders of tax cuts.
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Go to Columnist Page » Blog: The Conscience of a Liberal It's as if the dismal economic failure of the last eight years never happened — yet Democrats have, incredibly, been on the defensive. Even if a major stimulus bill does pass the Senate, there's a real risk that important parts of the original plan, especially aid to state and local governments, will have been emasculated.
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Somehow, Washington has lost any sense of what's at stake — of the reality that we may well be falling into an economic abyss, and that if we do, it will be very hard to get out again.

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It was amazing listening to Scarboough this morning trying to argue economic with a Nobel Prize winning economist. But thats where journalism is today

KT-- Do you make up these headlines? Because the most important story is the one that's not being written.

Some of that 7.6% is us.
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Speaking of which -- Friar, if you're out there, how you doin'?

OUCH

... ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/05/AR2009020502766_pf.html

Is there somewhere a clear chart showing what percentage of jobs are in which sectors and another one showing what percentage of lost jobs are in which sector. It seems to me that if we are writing legislation designed to throw money at the problem, then the legislation itself should be guided by that information. It also occurs to me that since it was a housing boom that led to our troubles in the first place, then infrastructure constuction would indeed target the people who's skillset is most affected by lower demand.
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KT, I already posted a link to an article saying Republicans are not in favor of capping bank exec pay. Could you do your job and figure out WHY this is? The public (conservative and liberal) is united on this issue - and I thought the GOP was all about "average Joe six-packs"?

Joe, thanks for asking!
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I'm now working as a temp for the company that let me go. Ironically, it turned out that they needed my expertise to finish closing out the facility that's being shuttered.
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I'm good until April 30th.

Yes, I do write the headlines. I do these "of the day" postings for two reasons: 1. to call attention to the story itself 2. to get commenters discussing what they think the story should be.
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Thank you so much for that explanation, KT.
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Sometimes I can't tell whether or not some of the posters here have editors making headline decisions or not. I'm so happy that you do not.

Good luck Friar!
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I'm good till June 31, then I'm half time.
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I hope...

Thanks KT.
Unfortunately what this tells me is that a huge percentage of total employment is in just the sort of activities that Republicans like to bash as money waster's. The largest sector is Government followed immediately by Education and Health.

Hmmm, and here I though the most important story was that the structural unemployment rate is nearly double the percentage you offered.
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Or perhaps the most underplayed, nay ignored, story of the day is that Repuglicans don't actually know that the word stimulus means, or how it works. Failing chapter 2 of Econ 101. As Obama said last night (via Steve Benen):
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"[Y]ou get the argument, 'Well, this is not a stimulus bill, this is a spending bill.' What do you think a stimulus is? That's the whole point. No, seriously. That's the point."
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Or perhaps the most utterly underplayed story, perhaps because it would be so embarrassing to mention, is that the media is enabling the nonsensical talking points from repuglicans who failed Econ 101 while ignoring anyone who actually knows something about economics.
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Or perhaps it's that the repuglicans are the ones who have failed at bipartisanship.
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Or maybe it's this: http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/02/06/underplayed-story-of-the-day-5/#comment-41047

4% of which are unemployable (malcontents, druggies, criminals, predators, in-laws excluding any imbibed Kennedy) making the actual rate about 4%.

Not good -- but not close to a human crisis. Zimbabwe would be a human crisis. Rwanda would be a human crisis. Somalia would be a human crisis. North Korea would be a human crisis. Marin County would be a humus crisis.

This is an opportunity for people in poor industries (duplicate autos, duplicate mega banks, duplicate retail, duplicate guvment) to Move On to places where there will be work in 30 years: Medicine, rehab (see CALISTAN), medical rehab, Indian dentistry, homicidal nursing, fish oil injections, transcontinental pneumatic tube building, roach clip phlegm removal, rich AIDS patient NBA stretch mark removal, anything off Broadway, Mexican dentistry, Russian journalist alley jumping, bong water recycling, Peruvian orthodontia, Blackberry e-mail erasing, legacy rehab at Trader Vic's (extended Happy Hour only), union busting, and proud Americanizationersezzizzezzezzfashizzlin.

= LET'S ROLF =

And yes, I am very angry at the media/RW noise machine complex.

With sentiments like hulagate's, who needs terrorists...

I think hulagate is just bitter 'cause he doesn't get any.
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Money, I mean (tongue firmly in cheek)...

DKOS: Unemployment Soars Again. Official Rate Softens Reality

I just saw the headlines this morning. I'm actually kind of relieved to see that 7.6% of the population was still employed.

As one of the legions of unemployed, yes this is an important story. To me even more important are the antics of Nelson and his gang of "centrists" trying to strip out funding from the stimulus/recovery bill. Do they not listen to economists who are worried that the $800 billion was not enough? Do they not understand that money for education will help school districts avoid massive layoffs and shortened school years? It's time for the Democrats to stop kowtowing to the idiots and get this bill passed. We need the money NOW.

Sorry to beat a dead horse, but I was under the impression that KT directly replied to provocative concerns/queries. I realize I'm a newbie on this blog, but surely she and the mainstream media want to pursue a lead suggesting that Republican leadership is not in favor of bank exec caps, especially in light of the failures with the first batch of TARP funding? It's one thing to allow conservatives to share their opinions, but you have to be fair about it. Calling them out on the origins of our deficit would be a start.