Unemployment (new claims) came out today.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose more than expected last week while those remaining on benefit rolls hit a four-year high, the government said on Thursday.

It was the seventh straight week claims were above 3 million, evidence that unemployed workers are having a hard time finding a job.

Reuters story here.

Obama has to be able to claim the majority of pledged delegates with MI and FL counted as-is. This is independent of the final allotments decided upon by the Rules or Credentials committee, which will undoubtedly result in an Obama majority. Demonstrating that Obama has the majority even using Clinton's ridiculous claims, is a major PR victory and  the only way to get Clinton and her followers to STFU. The cannot be allowed an opening, even one that is illegal, unreasonable and unfair, to claim that the nomination was 'stolen'.

Here are the numbers we have to use to show them the door (I am using the numbers from the Obama campaign, which differ slightly from those of demconwatch):

Obama has 1612.5 pledged delegates (NOT counting the two Clinton pledged deleates who have said they will vote for Obama at the convention)

Obama will probably get 85 of the remaining 189 pledged delegates. (This is  perhaps a bit conservative but the proportional rules mean that this could not increase by more than 2 or 3)

Total Obama pledged delegates before FL and MI:1697.5-well over the 1626.5 needed for the nomination if FL and MI are not counted at all

Follow me below for what happens when FL and MI are seated as-is.

Short but sweet.

Pittsburgh – The United Steelworkers today issued the following statement of endorsement of Senator Barack Obama for President:

"When the presidential primary contests began last year, our Union felt strongly that because of Senator John Edwards’s deep commitment to working people and because of our shared beliefs, he deserved our strong endorsement.  His belief that unfair trade policies must be changed, his commitment to pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) to restore workers’ rights to freely choose workplace representation, and his proposal for universal health care were widely shared by our members.

"Today, by virtue of a unanimous vote of our International Executive Board, we find ourselves once again in agreement with Senator Edwards, this time with his decision last evening to endorse Senator Barack Obama.  And thus today, the United Steelworkers enthusiastically endorses Senator Barack Obama to be the next President of the United States.

I know, I know, not enough substance for a diary but there's no open thread topping the front page right now. At least give me credit for not using BREAKING!!!

IFPTE, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers has endorsed Barack Obama.

IFPTE’s Executive Council agreed that Senator Obama is the candidate best suited to address the major concerns of America’s working men and women, particularly those issues that directly impact IFPTE’s diverse membership. The Senator believes we need to reform the H-1B program; he will immediately reverse the last eight years of the union busting promulgated on our nation’s Civil Servants; will stand against free trade agreements like NAFTA that fail to protect American workers; will address our nation’s dangerous health care crisis; will work to oppose irresponsible privatization schemes in the public and federal sectors; will work to protect the pensions and retirement security of working Americans; and will not only support the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), but will actively use the bully pulpit of the Presidency to work with Congress in ensuring that this all important labor law reform legislation becomes the

According to demconwatch several states will be holding conventions this weekend to choose their add-on superdelegates.

Here's what's coming up:

   * April 3 - DC - 2 add-ons - Selected by the DC Democratic State Committee
   * April 5 - DE - 1 add-on - Selected during the State Convention by a committee of district-level delegates
   * April 5 - MO - 2 add-ons - Selected by the Democratic State Committee
   * April 6 - ND - 1 add-on - Selected at the State Convention by a vote of all the caucuses

Today, in the Washington Post's Business section, columnist Steven Pearlstein wrote about Barack Obama. In a column title There's the Beef Pearlstein had more than a few good things to say about Obama, starting with:

During the course of our endless presidential campaigns, lots of silly things are said by the candidates and the press. But few are more ridiculous than the idea that Barack Obama is just an empty suit.

He gets off some zingers on the other candidates, too:

Let's begin with the fact that he has written two books (all by himself, unlike a certain other candidate). The first offers a compelling personal narrative that, for some reason, is dismissed as puffery by a presumptive Republican nominee who first ran for office on the strength of his compelling personal narrative.

and then explains how Obama has detailed plans on every issue (15 single spaced pages, with footnotes-and that's just health care).

I was a little worried about turnout, as my polling place at 7:30 this morning had a slightly longer line than usual, but nothing extraordinary. And a number of people have posted reports of low turnout in their precincts. But an overall view in a Washington Post article is showing a different story:

Sec. of Labor Cho was on Bloomberg TV trying to spin the abysmal employment statistics that came out this morning. If you haven't been on top of the economic news:

The U.S. economy unexpectedly lost jobs in August for the first time in four years, sending stocks lower from Warsaw to Wall Street and increasing speculation that the Federal Reserve will be forced to reduce interest rates to counter an economic slowdown.

The drop in employment, following a month-long increase in the cost of credit prompted by losses in the mortgage market, is the clearest sign yet that the U.S. expansion is in jeopardy. Payrolls are one of the main indicators, along with sales, wages and production, which help determine the start of economic contractions.

Employers cut 4,000 workers, compared with a revised gain of 68,000 in July that was smaller than previously reported, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The unemployment rate held at 4.6 percent as almost 600,000 people left the workforce.
---Bloomberg News

Bruce Reed over at Slate has a funny article about how the GOP used micro-targeting to keep people out of a Cheney appearance. The rally took place near the small town of Hayden, which used to be home to the Aryan Nations compound of evangelist Richard Butler.

According to the conservative local paper, the Coeur d'Alene Press, a small businesswoman and lifelong independent named Melodee Watt who wanted to attend the Cheney event was turned down when her name was rejected by the party database. "I thought, 'What? I've never been arrested or anything,'" Watt said. Her crime: the Republican voter vault had her pegged as a possible Democrat.

and...

I've done some analysis using the most recent polling data on House races from electoral-vote.com

The outlook is not as rosy as it may seem.

Following the practice of electoral-vote.com, the analysis uses only results from non-partisan polls or the results of the 2004 election if there is no non-partisan poll.

I have diaried here and here  about the relationship between Bush approval and the price of gasoline. I've pointed to the correlation graphed by Dr. Pollkatz. And the message has been ignored or disparaged.

Well today Bush's approval on Rasmussen is up to 47%, up six percentage points in three days. Rasmussen has this to say:

Those are by far the best numbers for the President since mid-February.

Apparantly the wayward Republicans are coming home to Daddy.

Does anyone think it is a coincidence that mid-February was the price of gasoline at the pump started going steadily up until its  peak in July and at the same time Bush's approval started going down.

Was anybody just watch CNN? I just caught the end of Cafferty's riff. He was talking about our real fight against fascism in WWII and his closing line was (approximately): If anyone is looking for fascists, maybe they should look inside the Beltway. And we defeated the fascists in a shorte period of time than we've been in Iraq.

People, I think this has become a relay race. Olbermann to Cafferty. Who is the next to grab the baton?

I appologize for the short diary but this was amazing.

Professor Pollkatz has a very enlightening graph demonstating the relationship between Bush's approval rating (an average of recent polls) and the price of gasoline. Basically, when the price of gasoline goes up, Bush's approval falls, and what is important right now, when the price of gasoline goes down, Bush's approval goes up.

The price of gasoline at the pump has gone down 15 cents in the past couple of weeks; it is now at $2.87 (these are national averages, YMMV). Gasoline futures are also dropping significantly, so the pump price will continue to decline. In addition, gasoline prices have a cyclic decline in the Fall.

Evelyn "Evy" Dubrow, 95, an indefatigable lobbyist for garment workers for almost 50 years and the only person on Capitol Hill allowed to share the congressional doorkeepers' chairs outside the House chambers, died June 20 of a heart attack at George Washington University Hospital.

Evy Dubrow was a shining light in the labor movement, serving working people into her nineties. Everyone loved and respected Evy, including Bill Clinton, who awarded her a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her history is impressive.

She got her start in labor activism handing out fliers about the Spanish Civil War in New York's Union Square.

And...

According to the WP:

Top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi sent letters to party members asking them to hold at least one event in their home districts over the Memorial Day holiday recess at the end of this month to discuss high energy prices, according to a letter obtained by Reuters.

This is a big mistake, one that the Rethugs are just waiting for the Democratic Party to make. While people blame Bushco for the price of oil, the will also give him some credit when the price goes down. And the price of gasoline, which is all that most people are aware of, will go down by November.

It seems to me that Jack didn't roll on anyone significant.   If he had, he would have gotten a lighter sentence. The maximum he could have gotten was 7 years and this is pretty close to the max. I know this isn't a sentence for the main case against him but I'm sure that prosecuters talk to each other and make deals across jurisdictional lines. The Feds could have told the FL prosecution to lighten up if they were getting anything interesting or useful from Jack.

I think we can probably give up any hope of some real juicy indictments coming out of Abramoff's disclosures.  It seems that he is keeping his mouth shut.  Besides, Bush will pardon him, anyway.

Abramoff, DeLay, Ney, Pombo, Blount, Cunningham, ad nauseum. What do they all have in common? No, not just that they are Republicans. It is that they are all serving the interests of corporations and the rich. They all have declared war on working people, including their faithful Republican base.

The corruption is not just in the money. Actually, the money is small potatoes. It's in the legislation they passed, such as the prescription drug company give-away, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, the bogus bankruptcy bill, the $20 billion airline bail-out after 9/11, etc. It's in the no-bid contracts. It's in the jobs that Bush hands out to cronies.

Any legislation should target the people who are paying the bribes and getting the spoils, not just their bag-men. Yet, as we sit here, those are the people who are writing the so-called "reform" legislation.

Earlier this week, while everyone was gloating on how horrible Bush's press conference was, I said

Here

that the media was praising Bush and that his poll numbers would turn around. (This was even before I saw the WaPo poll that put him at 47% approval.)  I said that Bush would break 50 in the Rasmussen tracking poll before the end of the year, possibly before the end of the week.  Well, Chimpy got 50% in Rasmussen this morning.  I know the criticisms of Rasmussen but what I'm looking at is the trend. Bush has gone up 6 points in 4 days!

It seems that people really like the destruction of the Constitution. I don't know what will bring his numbers back down.  If this trend continues we screwed in the midterms.