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[gutter_trash]

hey Ameri-Gaf

bringing in oil-sand gas from Canada is not gonna lower gas prices

proof?

Gas Prices are sky high up here in Canada too!

LOL

 

[Tim-E]

I would say that the Romney campaign isn't stupid enough to pick Ryan as their VP, but it's the Romney campaign we're talking about here. This would be hilarious.

As Romney and Ryan campaign across Wisconsin, ‘chemistry’ and talk of a ticket
Philip Rucker
Wednesday, Apr 4, 2012

MILWAUKEE — The business marketer noticed how plainly they talked about the nation’s mounting deficit problems. The boat parts supplier came away convinced that together they could fix the economy. The pharmacy clerk, well, she observed how when each of them spoke, the other was smiling — a kind of respectful smile.

And after seeing Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan trade compliments, banter about the Boy Scouts and take turns talking taxes and debt, these three Wisconsin Republican voters arrived at the same conclusion: This could be the ticket.

If Romney’s win in Wisconsin strengthened his claim to the Republican presidential nomination, then his five straight days of campaigning with Ryan amounted to a tryout for the youthful congressman as a potential vice presidential running mate.

Since Ryan endorsed Romney last Friday, he was at the candidate’s side at every turn — introducing him before formal speeches, vouching for him at town hall meetings and joining him as they eyed cherry pie, picked up fried cheese curds and handed out sub sandwiches. (Romney gave away turkey; Ryan, ham and cheese.)

Along the way, Romney’s aides were sizing Ryan up. And although chief strategist Stuart Stevens waved off any talk of the two forming a national ticket as irresponsibly premature, he did say they got along well behind the scenes and noted their “chemistry” on the stump.

To some Republicans, Ryan’s positive attributes are obvious. Where some conservatives see Romney as an ideological squish, they consider Ryan not only a conservative of conviction but one of the movement’s intellectual champions. Where Romney, 65, is a private equity patrician from Boston, Ryan, 42, spent his teenage years living off Social Security benefits in blue-collar Janesville after his father died prematurely of a heart attack.

All year, Romney has struggled to connect with working-class voters, but Ryan showed how he might help as he introduced Romney at a forum Saturday in Pewaukee. Ryan talked casually about having been on “a road to opportunity” when he flipped burgers at a McDonald’s as a teenager, sold bologna — “real bologna, by the way” — for Oscar Mayer and waited tables to help pay back his student loans.

“Anybody fill up gas lately?” Ryan asked. “I mean, I filled up my truck last night and I couldn’t even get it to full because it cut me off at $100 — the credit card wouldn’t even let me buy any more gas. It’s ridiculous.”

The Romney-Ryan road show did more than stoke the “veepstakes,” Washington’s favorite quadrennial parlor game, however. It also cemented Romney’s embrace of Ryan’s controversial agenda as chairman of the House Budget Committee.

President Obama made clear in a speech Tuesday that he would campaign for reelection against Ryan’s budget proposal and tie Romney to it. Labeling the plan “radical,” Obama said it would pit the poor against the wealthy in a form of “social Darwinism.” The president also mocked Romney for having called the proposal “marvelous.”

On the campaign trail here, Romney has alternately called Ryan “a great leader,” “a wonderful speaker” and “a great man.” After Ryan endorsed him Friday in Appleton, Romney said: “This is a guy who’s willing to stand for something. He didn’t just go to Washington to be seen and to have a little job there. He went to Washington to make a difference.”

Since then, their chemistry seemed to grow. By Sunday, Ryan was scheming with the campaign’s advance staffers to orchestrate an elaborate prank on Romney.

They ushered Romney into a ballroom for a pancake brunch. As Romney waited backstage behind a black curtain, Ryan introduced him with customary enthusiasm — “the next president of the United States!” Romney could hear the crowd applaud. When his intro song, Kid Rock’s “Born Free,” started playing, he emerged from behind the black curtain.

Only the room was empty, save for a few staffers filming it all on their iPhones, and the applause was merely a soundtrack.

April Fools!

Later that day, it was Romney making the jokes. “This guy here, this is not my son,” he told one crowd in Middleton, poking fun of Ryan’s relative youth. Addressing another audience, he joked that Ryan was only 10 years old when Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1980.

“I did have a Reagan bumper sticker on my locker in the third grade,” Ryan offered.

“This guy was born conservative!” Romney quipped.

By Monday afternoon, at a town hall meeting in Milwaukee, Romney was content to let Ryan answer questions on his behalf. When a voter asked Romney to explain his plan to simplify the tax code, he responded: “I heard the congressman answer this question better than I can last time we chatted, so I’m going to have him describe, just for a moment, his plans on the tax code, which are very similar to my own.”

And this is when Sherry Magner, the pharmacy clerk, decided who she thinks Romney should pick as his running mate.

“I thought the chemistry was really great between the two of them,” Magner, 61, said. “I was watching each one as the other spoke, and there was not only respect, but a smile they gave each other.”

Added Jeff Burns, 54, the boat parts supplier, who was also in the audience: “This election’s gonna turn on the economy and you’ve got two guys who know what it takes to fix the economy. You’re talking about a very successful businessman and the most knowledgeable congressman available.”

So if Romney does end up selecting Ryan — and it is a big if; Romney says he hasn’t even begun considering a short list — there’s one more thing they have in common: an uninhibited passion for patriotic songs.

Romney spent weeks on the campaign trail this year reciting the lyrics to “America the Beautiful.” At a rally one January night in The Villages, Fla., he was so moved that he actually broke out in song.

But Ryan, apparently, beat him to that feat.

On a family hiking trip near Colorado’s Snowmass peak, according to an account in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 6-year-old Ryan took in the mountain vista and spontaneously sang, “America the Beautiful.”

“We’re all there looking at each other smiling at this kid capturing the moment,” Ryan’s older brother, Tobin, told the newspaper. “I think there was something in his genetic makeup.”

http://mobile.washingtonpost.com/c....012/04/04/gIQAB4sCvS_mobile.mobile&cid=578815

 

[Clevinger]

It remains that ultra-conservatives and evangelical Christians would rather have philanderers, cheats, liars and weasels than vote for Romney or Paul in a primary. Romney's biggest roadblock will still be his biggest voting bloc in the GE, though, interestingly enough.

Wait, you're saying Romney isn't a liar and a weasel?

 

[Hawkian]

January 3rd.

I'm being a bit of a churl here, but (hello, hindsight!) Romney has been the overwhelming favorite to win from the get-go, despite some apparent challenges along the way. It was never possible that Rick Santorum would capture the nomination, any more than it was possible that Donald Trump or Michelle Bachmann would. That hasn't really changed.

Haha... of course you're right. I wasn't talking so much in pragmatic terms as just confusion as to the process, since I know the voting doesn't actually stop until the delegate threshold is hit or we reach the convention.

 

[RustyNails]

lol

please please please go with Ryan as VP. I want that asshole to crash and burn worse than Rick Perry.

 

[Tim-E]

lol

please please please go with Ryan as VP. I want that asshole to crash and burn worse than Rick Perry.

Maybe Rick will let Romney borrow some of his medicine before the first GE debate.

 

[Snake]

Make no mistake, Romney will be going all-in on stupid right-wing attacks on Obama:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/us/politics/romney-says-obama-is-hiding-his-true-policy-aims.html

WASHINGTON — The day after his clean sweep of Tuesday’s three Republican primaries, Mitt Romney attacked President Obama for a “hide-and-seek campaign”that disguises his real intentions on the budget, foreign policy, energy and other policy touchstones. Mr. Romney said it “calls his candor into serious question.”

Appearing before a group of journalists that had hosted the president on Tuesday,Mr. Romney began by recalling Mr. Obama’s recent comment to Russia’s leader, in a moment picked up by a live microphone, that his flexibility on foreign policy would increase after the election. Mr. Romney asked on what other issues Mr. Obama would disclose his plans only after re-election.

“He wants us to re-elect him so we can find out what he will do,” Mr. Romney said.

“His intent is on hiding,” he said. “You and I are going to have to do the seeking.”

He said there was no better example than on the question of federal spending, especially on Medicare and other entitlement programs, in which he said Mr. Obama had never offered a detailed plan that could pass Congress. “He has failed to enact or even propose a serious plan to solve the entitlement crisis,” he said.

Mr. Romney spoke before a gathering of newspaper editors and reporters in Washington, where Mr. Obama the previous day castigated him for supporting a budget plan approved last week by House Republicans that promises to be a dividing line between the two parties for the rest of the campaign.

Asked for his response to Mr. Obama’s speech, Mr. Romney said Republicans were “intent on preserving the vitality and dynamism of the American spirit.”

He said Mr. Obama’s remarks were full of “distortions and inaccuracies” too numerous to list. And as he did in his speech, he defended the House spending plan, saying Mr. Obama had relied on “straw men” to criticize its spending cuts. “You wouldn’t cut programs on a proportional basis — there are some programs you would eliminated outright,” he said — like the health care overhaul, which he said would save $100 billion a year.

Mr. Romney said Mr. Obama’s overhaul, which includes savings in the Medicare program, would destroy it.

The budget plan, developed by Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee, passed the House without a single Democratic vote and the approval of all but 10 Republicans. The Senate’s majority Democrats do not intend to pass any budget, relying instead on the outlines of last summer’s debt deal between Congress and the White House.

If the budget plan were ever to become law, Congressional committees would have to cut spending over the next 10 years by a total of $5.3 trillion below what Mr. Obama seeks.

It also would order House committees to draft cuts in projected deficits worth $261 billion in order to head off automatic cuts to the military that would otherwise take place next year in the absence of a broad deficit reduction plan, which Congress was unable to agree upon last year.

Politically, the Ryan approach would require making some unpopular choices in an election year. The Republican argument, which Mr. Romney echoes, is that the alternative is an irresponsible bleeding of the nation’s already debt-laden balance sheet.

The Ryan plan seeks to rein in debt largely through changes in entitlement and discretionary spending rather than through increases in tax rates, which it would reduce while eliminating many tax loopholes.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, under this plan revenues would rise from 15.5 percent of G.D.P. in 2011 to 19 percent in 2030, while spending on Medicare would rise from 3.25 percent to 4.25 percent, and Social Security from 4.75 percent to 6 percent. Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program would drop from 2 percent to 1.25 percent over the two decades.

But the cuts in other spending programs would be much steeper — from more than 12 percent to less than 6 percent of G.D.P., and even less another 20 years into the future.

The alternative, the plan’s supporters argue, is a future in which the economy is saddled with so much debt as to be unsustainable.

Mr. Romney said: “The new normal the president would have us embrace is trillion-dollar deficits and 8 percent unemployment.”

As he has frequently done, Mr. Romney said Mr. Obama’s economic platform has been an “antibusiness, anti-investment, antijobs agenda.”

And of course, after he makes this claim against Obama he then talks about examples that have nothing to do with the President's covert, probably-Smurf-killing agenda. He's simply bringing forward another empty line of Othering against Obama.

Just another example of Romney descending to the same level as Gingrich, Santorum, et al. He was far from perfect before, but now he's beginning to tap into "Obama secretly wants America to burn" level hatred, and that's where any reasonable person should draw the line.

I'll reserve my harshest words for when this escalates, but I couldn't feel worse for people who once supported the old Romney in good faith. What a disappointing turn for what could have been an honorable campaign between two men who are both violently hated by the fundamentalist right. Instead of fighting through that, Mitt will try and direct it all to Obama. Sad.

 

[jaxword]

Obama is a trekkie?

Are you kidding? Obama owes his presidency to Star Trek. Specifically, Star Trek : Voyager, and even more specifically:

 

[hydragonwarrior]

Romney going all-in on stupid right-wing attacks on Obama:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/us/politics/romney-says-obama-is-hiding-his-true-policy-aims.html



He offers specific criticisms on policy which of course have nothing to do with Obama's "secret desires," so he's simply carrying forward another line of Othering against Obama.

Just another example of Romney descending to the same level as Gingrich, Santorum, et al. He was far from perfect before, but now he's beginning to tap into "Obama secretly wants America to burn" level hatred, and that's where any reasonable person should draw the line.

I'll reserve my harshest words for when this escalates, but I couldn't feel worse for people who once supported the old Romney in good faith. What a disappointing turn for what could have been an honorable campaign between two men who are both violently hated by the fundamentalist right. Instead of fighting through that, Mitt will try and direct it all to Obama. Sad.

He has to use these lines to ensure the same crazies that vote for Gingrich and Santorum go over to his side, and the hope of influencing some Republican moderates to become part of said crazies.

Then during Primary, do some sort of 180 flip flop and try to appeal to moderates that don't buy into all of the "Obama is a super villain" crap.

 

[Invisible_Insane]

Make no mistake, Romney will be going all-in on stupid right-wing attacks on Obama:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/us/politics/romney-says-obama-is-hiding-his-true-policy-aims.html
And of course, after he makes this claim against Obama he then talks about examples that have nothing to do with the President's covert, probably-Smurf-killing agenda. He's simply bringing forward another empty line of Othering against Obama.

Just another example of Romney descending to the same level as Gingrich, Santorum, et al. He was far from perfect before, but now he's beginning to tap into "Obama secretly wants America to burn" level hatred, and that's where any reasonable person should draw the line.

I'll reserve my harshest words for when this escalates, but I couldn't feel worse for people who once supported the old Romney in good faith. What a disappointing turn for what could have been an honorable campaign between two men who are both violently hated by the fundamentalist right. Instead of fighting through that, Mitt will try and direct it all to Obama. Sad.

The Manchurian candidate stuff wasn't all that successful last time around.

In the words of Henry Francis, "Romney is a clown."

 

[Jimothy]

lol

please please please go with Ryan as VP. I want that asshole to crash and burn worse than Rick Perry.

He has the most punchable face.

 

[markatisu]

Make no mistake, Romney will be going all-in on stupid right-wing attacks on Obama:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/us/politics/romney-says-obama-is-hiding-his-true-policy-aims.html



And of course, after he makes this claim against Obama he then talks about examples that have nothing to do with the President's covert, probably-Smurf-killing agenda. He's simply bringing forward another empty line of Othering against Obama.

Just another example of Romney descending to the same level as Gingrich, Santorum, et al. He was far from perfect before, but now he's beginning to tap into "Obama secretly wants America to burn" level hatred, and that's where any reasonable person should draw the line.

I'll reserve my harshest words for when this escalates, but I couldn't feel worse for people who once supported the old Romney in good faith. What a disappointing turn for what could have been an honorable campaign between two men who are both violently hated by the fundamentalist right. Instead of fighting through that, Mitt will try and direct it all to Obama. Sad.

Remember he is just going to reset and the GE voters will completely forget about what he is saying now.....until the videos run showing him saying it over and over and over lol

Its is McCain 2008 Redux and it will end as badly. McCain 2000 people would have voted for, McCain 2008 in the early stages people would have voted for. Romney fighting Santorum is on the same level as McCain picking Palin, it forced them both to go to places they don't really want to go and will end up regretting.

 

[thezerofire]

Isn´t it usually the first Friday of the month?



Also it looks like every politician in AZ is a loon. The state really is trying to out crazy Florida. I think its all the crazy old people who make the politics so much fun.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsme...rson_arizona_violence_accusations.php?ref=fpa

apparently smokes weed but has anger issues? I call shenanigans

 

[SouthernDragon]

Ryan, 42, spent his teenage years living off Social Security benefits in blue-collar Janesville after his father died prematurely of a heart attack.

Delicious. "I got mine, so fuck you."

 

[Clevinger]

Ryan, 42, spent his teenage years living off Social Security benefits in blue-collar Janesville after his father died prematurely of a heart attack. It was around this time that he began reading Atlas Shrugged.

.

 

[Hawkian]

Are you kidding? Obama owes his presidency to Star Trek. Specifically, Star Trek : Voyager, and even more specifically:

More posts like this in this thread, I say my good sir

.

...

Was his birth name Andrew by any chance?

 

[Chumly]

Delicious. "I got mine, so fuck you."

Haven't you heard black people need encouragement to work otherwise they will just live of the government - republicans

 

[Officerrob]

Ryan as VP? Obama isn't that lucky

 

[Aaron Strife]

The BLS report comes Friday. ADP is a payroll processing firm and only has private-sector clients, so they only report private sector.

Related, the ISM non-manufacturing reading was strong:


The forward looking readings were strong, which implies continued good news for the next couple months.

Yeah, too bad the economy's going to stagnate and Obama's going to lose bigger than George McGovern.

 

[cartoon_soldier]

Yeah, too bad the economy's going to stagnate and Obama's going to lose bigger than George McGovern.

I know right.

 

[Kusagari]

Does Ron Paul still have all the delegates?

 

[Puddles]

Paul Ryan looks a lot like Ryan from The Office (US), but about 15 years older.

 

[Invisible_Insane]

Does Ron Paul still have all the delegates?

Ron Paul has always had all the delegates.

 

[eBay Huckster]

Does Ron Paul still have all the delegates?

Ron Paul IS all the delegates.

 

[The Librarian]

My hero, Newt Gingrich, is visiting my campus. I was unable to see him. My heart, she is sad.

 

[Tim-E]

Does Ron Paul still have all the delegates?

I still can't believe the media isn't covering Paul's delegate master ground game that's going to bring home the nomination for him. When he accepts the nomination at the convention, the lamestream media will likely just cut away and show some Justin Bieber shit. Americans are sheeple, maaaaaan.

I gotta get going, guys. I'm running late for my 100 level philosophy course.

 

[AlteredBeast]

I gotta get going, guys. I'm running late for my level 100 philosophy course.

fixed

 

[Hawkian]

fixed

lol

Rabid Ron Paul fans take classes within World of Warcraft?

 

[Diablos]

Does anyone else get absolutely disgusted by Nikki Haley? How can she champion such undoubtedly anti-immigrant, anti-woman policy? Her views on abortion alone... yikes.

Wonder if Romney will pick her for VP.

If Obama wins, I bet she'll be a frontrunner for Pres in 2016. Gross.

 

[Allard]

Does anyone else get absolutely disgusted by Nikki Haley? How can she champion such undoubtedly anti-immigrant, anti-woman policy? Her views on abortion alone... yikes.

Wonder if Romney will pick her for VP.

If Obama wins, I bet she'll be a frontrunner for Pres in 2016. Gross.

You mean the same Governor Haley who is likely to be indicted for Tax Fraud? Guess she would fit right in.

 

[sc0la]

The pharmacy clerk, well, she observed how when each of them spoke, the other was smiling — a kind of respectful smile.

Pics or it didn't happen! I have seen how Romney looks at other people talking during the debates.

Less of a smile than a contempt scowl.

 

[GTI Guy]

I still can't believe the media isn't covering Paul's delegate master ground game that's going to bring home the nomination for him. When he accepts the nomination at the convention, the lamestream media will likely just cut away and show some Justin Bieber shit. Americans are sheeple, maaaaaan.

I gotta get going, guys. I'm running late for my 100 level philosophy course.

I don't get these Ron Paul supporters. What do they think is going to happen that will allow Ron Paul to win the nomination?

I'm looking for a serious answer, I suspect there isn't one though....

 

[Invisible_Insane]

I don't get these Ron Paul supporters. What do they think is going to happen that will allow Ron Paul to win the nomination?

I'm looking for a serious answer, I suspect there isn't one though....

Deus ex machina. Short of that, nothing.

There is a reason for this. Women can become pregnant which complicates their health insurance plans. Another way to think about it is that men are charged more for car insurance because statistics paint them as riskier drivers. Women can become pregnant which is an expensive medical procedure. That is why their insurance is more.

I'd missed this earlier: I think Democratic public language on this issue was intellectually dishonest. "being a woman = preexisting condition, etc" As you state, there are legitimate actuarial reasons that women cost more to insure. But I also think we should require the government/insurers to eat that cost: I hardly think it fair to force women to pay extra because they happen to be the gender responsible for keeping the species going.

 

[XMonkey]

There is a reason for this. Women can become pregnant which complicates their health insurance plans. Another way to think about it is that men are charged more for car insurance because statistics paint them as riskier drivers. Women can become pregnant which is an expensive medical procedure. That is why their insurance is more.

I don't much like that analogy to car insurance in this case. I suppose I should have included this line right after that quote...

The new health care law will prohibit such "gender rating," starting in 2014.

 

[gutter_trash]

I'm only willing to keep a certain amount of info in my head regarding the republican primary and caucus process, so I'd love if somebody could help me out here..

Major news outlets (in a bid to find fucking anything to call a "milestone") have focused on the fact that Romney has just passed the "halfway mark" in terms of delegates necessary to secure the nomination. Obviously this is pretty arbitrary but it really made me start wondering.

This is the breakdown at present:
http://i.imgur.com/fgPpF.png

Is is still even possible- literally possible, not practical or likely- for Santorum to get the nomination?

Well, obviously it's mathematically possible, if he gets 888 of the remaining 1166 delegates up for grabs. But if he were to win every remaining primary with close margins, would the states with proportional distribution allow him to wind up with enough?

Just to simplify what I'm talking about, if every state remaining awarded delegates proportionally and they all split down the middle, just Romney and Santorum, that'd be 1238 for Romney (clinching) and 856 for Santorum, still a full 310 delegates away from the nomination.

I guess my question is, are we past the point yet where this process is completely meaningless, and if not, when is that point?

New York + California alone makes it impossible for Santorum to over-take Romney.

The Bluer the state is, the more Mitt wins in the GOP Primaris.

 

[Black Republican]

damn, Martin Bashir went HAM on Rick Tyler

 

[Hawkian]

New York + California alone makes it impossible for Santorum to over-take Romney.

The Bluer the state is, the more Mitt wins in the GOP Primaris.

Do those two states divide proportionally or not?

 

[Invisible_Insane]

damn, Martin Bashir went HAM on Rick Tyler

Link? HuffPo? Anything?

 

[DasRaven]

Do those two states divide proportionally or not?

CA is winner take all
NY is proportional

Not that it matters, Santorum will be lucky to break 15% in either.

 

[Clevinger]

Romney is now saying Obama wants to end Medicare. Rove tactics go!

 

[Here_Try_This]

He has the most punchable face.

Looks like someone beat you to it.

 

[markatisu]

Romney is now saying Obama wants to end Medicare. Rove tactics go!

Man he keeps digging the well deeper and deeper, I cannot wait till the debates

 

[Measley]

Romney is now saying Obama wants to end Medicare. Rove tactics go!

That makes no sense.... I thought Republicans and the tea party types were against entitlement programs. Wouldn't Obama ending Medicare be something the Republicans and the Tea Party applaud?

 

[The Technomancer]

That makes no sense.... I thought Republicans and the tea party types were against entitlement programs. Wouldn't Obama ending Medicare be something the Republicans and the Tea Party applaud?

No, because Medicare already exists and lots of republicans and tea party members benefit from it, so its...different. Ya know.

 

[Clevinger]

That makes no sense.... I thought Republicans and the tea party types were against entitlement programs. Wouldn't Obama ending Medicare be something the Republicans and the Tea Party applaud?

Old people hate welfare except the parts they use.

 

[Averon]

Old people hate welfare except the parts they use.

It's the "I got mine so screw you" mentality.

 

[markatisu]

Man does the GOP live in a bubble, did anyone watch Romney's speech. I love how he said Obama was hiding and that we don't have to wait 4 years to find out what he (Romney) stands for and has planned.

I may have missed something but does someone care to enlighten me on Romney's vast plans for the economy and the US if he becomes President. Because right now outside him agreeing with the Ryan Budget I am at a loss lol

 

[RustyNails]

It's the "I got mine so screw you" mentality.

Actually if you talk to such people, they will justify it in the lines of "Well I worked my ass off for it" or other such variant of "I deserve it". It's just that everyone else is lazy and Cadillac welfare queens. It's really hard to talk to these people.

 

[Bulbo Urethral Baggins]

Romney is now saying Obama wants to end Medicare. Rove tactics go!

And Obama has never accused Republicans of wanting to end Medicare?

 

[Jackson50]

CoB has an informative article on the recent NIC report regarding future global water security. The actual report is a bit dry and tedious. But the article does a solid job of distilling the main points. I've noted before that water security is a significant problem that receives short shrift. Yemen, where we've focused inordinately on the military at the expense of water management, provides an unfortunate preview of the pernicious effects of water insecurity on political stability.

By Brett Walton
Circle of Blue

The world’s demand for fresh water is growing so fast that, by 2030, agriculture, industry, and expanding cities on three continents will face such scarce supplies that the confrontation could disrupt economic development and cause ruinous political instability, according to the first U.S. cabinet-level report on the global water crisis.

The report, “Global Water Security,” prepared for the State Department by the National Intelligence Council, found that, unless there are serious changes in conservation and water use practices, global water demand will reach 6,900 billion cubic meters (1,800 trillion gallons) annually by 2030, a figure that is about 2,400 billion cubic meters (634 trillion gallons) higher than today. The authors of the report concluded that level of consumption is “40 percent above current sustainable water supplies,” and will “hinder the ability of key countries to produce food and generate energy, posing a risk to global food markets and hobbling economic growth.”

http://goo.gl/Z9MxS

While they are not a perfect predictor of the BLS figures, ADP reports 209,000 private sector jobs added this month, and revised February up. Combined with the jobless claims this month, it's a good sign that the BLS report will likely be 200k+ again.

The continual positive revisions are encouraging. And with the positive trajectory of manufacturing, I wouldn't be surprised to see a relatively robust advanced GDP estimate later this month. The systemic trajectory is clearly ascendant.