The “End of Austerity” in France

Let’s see if it works...

The Socialist candidate has promised to raise taxes on big corporations and people earning more than 1m euros a year.

He wants to raise the minimum wage, hire 60,000 more teachers and lower the retirement age from 62 to 60 for some workers.

Firearm Business Booming

Good news/bad news.

MILWAUKEE - Firearms-related businesses in Wisconsin say they are having a difficult time meeting demand from rising gun sales in the state.

Wisconsin’s gun sales follow a national trend, and businesses say the rising demand is being driven by various factors, from Wisconsin’s concealed carry law to presidential politics.

“It’s incredible,” said Steve Lauer, owner of Lauer Custom Weaponry, which manufactures firearms, firearm coatings and accessories in Chippewa Falls. “We can hardly keep up.”

The good news is that it’s great for Wisconsin’s firearms industry and it’s great to see more folks exercising their rights. The bad news is that it’s driving up prices. Ah well…

Business Journal: Wisconsin Lost 36,500 Jobs Since 2002

We’ve got a long way to go to get back.

Out of all of the states and the District of Columbia, only seven states lost more jobs than Wisconsin, with Michigan faring the worst with a loss of 433,600 jobs in the private sector. That was an 11.4 percent drop for the Wolverine State.

Wisconsin’s private-sector job loss represented a drop of 1.5 percent, which bested only 10 other states. Across the country, 32 states and the District of Columbia added jobs. The private sectors of seven states cranked out more than 100,000 new jobs during the past decade.

Texas added 1.15 million private-sector jobs during the past 10 years, putting it far ahead of the pack. The other states with six-figure increases were New York (up 340,800 private-sector jobs), Washington (up 180,700), Arizona (up 161,900), Virginia (up 137,200), Florida (up 132,100) and Utah (up 127,400).

Tomb in Timbuktu Sacked By Islamists

That’s a shame.

Bamako, Mali (CNN)—Elderly men were keeping watch Saturday over Timbuktu’s main library after Islamists burned a tomb listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The attacks Friday were blamed on Ansar Dine, a militant group that seeks to impose strict Sharia law.

The ancient city in Mali was captured by at least two separatist Tuareg rebel groups—one of which is Ansar Dine—in an anti-government uprising in the northern part of the country that began in January.

The rebels burned the tomb of a Sufi saint where people come to pray, said Sankoum Sissoko, a tour guide familiar with the place. He said the library and other heritage sites remained under threat.

Montoya Joke-Free Zone

It’s good to see that the folks who wun NASCAR’s website have a sense of humor.

Facebook Acquires Glancee

Interesting.

Facebook has scooped up another startup in its path toward mobile dominance. This time, it’s Glancee, an ambient location-based service that competes with Highlight.

Making the Phone Calls Stop

I think the GOP is targeting likely Republican voters in its most recent round phone calls, so I think next time they call (which should be in about 30 minutes) I will tell them I intend to vote for a Democrat. That will make me not a likely Republican voter, and they will stop calling. Then maybe they will stop harassing their supporters.

Honestly, the phone calls are the reason I stopped contributing to the party or any particular candidate. If you donate once, you get on a donor list and they call you (weekly, it seems) to get you to donate more, even if your donation was small.

I know they say that these calls are effective, but they are full of crap. And it’s repulsive that the same folks who passed “no call” legislation have no problem using telemarketing for their own benefit.

Mommy Falk

Um, no thanks. It’s creepy when politicians want to be our parents.

Falk likened the state to a broken family. Sometimes, she said, it takes a mother with a firm, strong hand to bring it together again.

“We need a mom and I’m anxious to be that mom and bring us back together,” Falk said.

Dr. Shaq

Good for him.

(CNN)—Shaquille O’Neal has donned many monickers during his basketball career, including Shaq Fu, the Big Aristotle, Superman and Shaqtus. This weekend, he will add “Dr. O’Neal” to that list.

The former NBA player will graduate from Florida’s Barry University on Saturday with a doctorate degree in education focusing on organizational learning and leadership.

“This is for my mother, who always stressed the importance of education,” O’Neal said. “I am proud to have achieved a doctoral degree and wish to thank my professors and Barry University for helping make this dream a reality. I’m smart enough to know that, even at my tender age, my pursuit of education is never finished.”

Employment Perspective

Something to think about.

If the same percentage of adults were in the workforce today as when Barack Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be 11.1 percent. If the percentage was where it was when George W. Bush took office, the unemployment rate would be 13.1 percent.

We Are

Why yes… I do have a book of poetry written by Leonard Nimoy. Thank you for asking. Here’s a sample:

And now
at last,

We are.

Whoa.

FDR’s Power Grab

It’s very interesting to listen to FDR justify his proposed usurpation of the power of an equal branch of government. In doing so, he uses the spectre of the crash of ‘29. Some things never change.

Proxmire’s Plugs

We’re digging through some old boxes getting ready for a rummage sale and this turned up.

History Thief Sent in Jail

Wow.

From his home in Connecticut, filled with antique radios and tape reels, Goldin launched an amateur sleuthing effort that helped uncover a thief ripping off the country’s most important repository of historical records. The heist turned out to be an inside job. The culprit was the recently retired head of the video and sound branch of the National Archives and Records Administration — the government agency entrusted with preserving such documents as the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

On Thursday, a judge in Maryland sentenced the thief, Leslie Charles Waffen, to a year and a half in prison and fined him $10,000. Waffen, who had worked at the National Archives for 40 years, acknowledged stealing thousands of sound recordings from the archive. Prosecutors said more than 1,000 were sold on eBay in thefts that started as early as 2001. The stolen recordings ranged from a recording of the 1948 World Series to an eyewitness report of the Hindenburg crash.

Election Fraud

Name the name...

The complaint alleges Yadira Colon forged signatures on nomination papers for Pedro Colon, and registered to vote under a Milwaukee address when she actually lived in Oshkosh. She voted via absentee ballot in Milwaukee for the 2008 primary.