Ten for Tuesday


 

1)      Each week 72,000 jobless Americans will lose their unemployment benefits unless Congress acts.  These people will stop seeking work and will could drive the unemployment rate down by 0.2% in January.

2)      The New England Patriots and Coach Bill Belichick are about to play in their 8th AFC Championship in the last 13 years.  The closest team to that run is the Pittsburgh Steelers with five AFC Championship appearances.  That’s dominance.

3)      According to Crime & Delinquency journal, by the age of 23 49% of black males, 44% of Hispanic males, and 38% of white males have been arrested.  Incarceration nation.

4)      You can’t blame the violence in Iraq because the Obama administration removed all of the troops while ignoring the fact we shouldn’t have been there to begin with in the first place.

5)      The Bush administration did a bang up job spreading democracy in the Middle East, if by democracy you mean sectarian fighting.

6)      If the Obama administration chose not to prosecute the CIA interrogators who may have tortured detainees at Guantanamo Bay, does that not  suggest Snowden should get pardoned?

7)      Prime suspect in the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that claimed the lives of ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans was a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay.  Abu Sufian bun Qumu was released in 2007 and sent back to Libya.  Hmm 2007, wasn’t that during the Bush administration?  I am sure Darrell Issa will call for an investigation.

8)      Is it any wonder that New York City with the global financial hub of the universe Wall St. has such a wide income disparity?  I don’t think Mayor De Blasio will be able to make a significant dent.

9)       While you can argue the effectiveness, legality, and morality of stop and frisk, there were 2,245 murders in New York City in 1990 and only 334 in 2013.

10)   Retired Florida captain Curtis Reeves Jr. shot and killed Chad Oulson because the victim was texting during the previews at a screening of Lone Survivor. Apparently Stand Your Ground now includes threats from Twizzlers and Hot Buttered Popcorn.

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