What's New in the Polls today? Gingrich and Romney "Acceptable"

Republican voters consider Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney "acceptable".


From Pollingreport.com :

1. 62% of Republican-leaning voters consider Newt Gingrich "acceptable" as their candidate according to a Gallup poll conducted in late November-early December.  54% of those same Republican voters consider Mitt Romney "acceptable".  41% feel that Rick Perry is "acceptable", 37% feel that Michele Bachmann or Herman Cain are "acceptable".  34% would give a nod to Ron Paul, 28% to Jon Huntsman, and 27% to Rick Santorum. 
2. Obama is up in Gallup's Daily Tracking poll with a 43% approval rating.  He's been in the range of 40% to 44% approval since early November.  The range has gone up a few points since late summer.
3. The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index seems to have stalled at the -50 level (yes, that is a negative) over the past few weeks.  Over the past few years, the CCI was at its nadir in late 2008/early 2009 with a reading of -54.  It hit the negative 30's in early 2011, but then went back down.  So.. people are still pretty "uncomfortable".
4. From mid-October through late November, Ron Paul's favorability rating has been around 32 to 38% favorable; 34-35% unfavorable. 
5. From mid-October through late November, Mitt Romney's favorability rating has ranged from around 38% (now) up to 49% (mid October) and does seem to be decreasing.  His unfavorables  range from 35% to 38%.
6. From mid-October through late November, Newt Gingrich's favorability rating has ranged from 35 to 36%.  His unfavorables show more variation, from 39% up to 50%.
7. As of mid-November, 72% of people who lean Democrat want to renominate Obama as their candidate.  (This number has been fluctuating between 70 and 83% since early 2010.)  26% said find another candidate.
8. In terms of possible 2012 presidential matchups, Obama leads Gingrich 49 to 40%, and Romney, 45 to 44%.  Obama and Romney have been trading leads of 1 to 6% for a year now.
9. As of mid-November, 45% of people felt that Obama deserved to be re-elected, and 48% said that he did not deserve to be reelected.  
10. In a generic Congressional ballot, the Democrats are outpacing the Republicans by 1 to 4 percentage points.  In late October, 48% of the people said they would vote for the Democrat in their district in 2012, and 43% said they would vote for the Republicans.
11. The Democrats in Congress are getting 24 to 30% approval ratings in October through mid-November; the Republicans in Congress are getting 19 to 23% approval ratings in the same timeframe.
12. The overall Congressional approval rating averaged 11% in November.  To be fair, Congress has not received very good ratings in the last 6 years, which represents the available time frame of data at pollingreport.com . The highest ratings were in early 2007 and late 2005.  In both timeframes, Congress reached an approval rating into the low 40's%.  November 2011 has the lowest ratings, even lower than October 2011 ratings.
13. On the Supercommittee and its collapse:  53% of the country said they were following the Supercommittee "very closely" or "somewhat closely".  54% felt the committee members should have "compromised more".  24% blamed the Republicans for the collapse, 15% blamed the Democrats, 55% blamed both parties equally.    

Detaining American Citizens? Senate Bill 1867?

New Links and Information added daily! 
Added December 9, 2011:  A Letter from Senator Ben Nelson explaining this law. (Best explanation I have read to date) 
Scroll to the bottom... 


Added December 13, 2011:  Two recent links with comments about this bill.... Scroll to the bottom...


Added December 20, 2011:  An excellent and final explanation written by two attorneys who are national security experts.

Senate Bill 1867, the Department of Defense Appropriations Bill was passed by the Senate Thursday night, December 1st.  A House version of the bill, HR 1540, was passed earlier.  These bills have become very controversial due to the "detainee" provisions in section 1031 and 1032.

The two sections have similar functions: To provide for the detention of "terrorists" under the "law of war".

This bill is not yet law; let's get that straight.  It needs to be reconciled with the House version of the same bill and sent to President Obama.  Obama has threatened to veto the bill if he feels that the detainee provisions in the final submitted bill are not clear enough and/or strong enough to clarify the role of the Department of Defense in the detention of terrorists or terrorist subjects.  Also, the Department of Defense and other federal agencies were not happy with the language of the bill without the amendments.  Get that?  The Department of Defense wanted amendments to clarify what powers and authority they did or did not have.  (Picture below from reason.com )    

I've read much back and forth about this bill, but few people seem to actually have read the controversial sections.  So here is Section 1031 as amended and passed by the Senate:

How Many Jobs Created in 2011 to date? (November update)

December 2012 data has been released, and this report is currently being updated with December data.  Please check back later in the day!

How many jobs were created in all of 2011, from December 2010 to November 2011?   1,448,000

How many private-sector jobs have been created in 2011?   1,711,000

Have jobs been lost in 2011?  NO.  I'll repeat that:  NO jobs have been lost (net) in 2011. 

The numbers on this page reflect activity as of November 2011.  For the latest reports and numbers, click one of the links below.


2011 Jobs Summary

How Many Jobs Were Created in all of 2011?

What Was the Maximum Number of Jobs Created by Month by Obama? (May 2012 update)

How Many Jobs Have Been Created in the Last Two Years? In the Last Three Years?  Since 1999?  HERE!

Other Latest (May, all 2012 & all 2011) reports HERE
          

Jobs Created Month by Month (Private & Govt) HERE

• In seasonally adjusted numbers, 1,448,000 jobs have been created in 2011.  That's 132,000 jobs created per month in 2011.
• In "raw" unadjusted numbers, 1,909,000 jobs have been created in 2011.  That's 174,000 jobs created per month in 2011.
• In terms of total jobs and private-sector jobs, we have ONLY JOB GAINS in 2011.  

How many private-sector jobs were created in all of 2011, from December 2010 to October 2011?  Have private-sector jobs been created or  lost in 2011?

How Many Jobs Were Created in November 2011?

Latest (January & all 2011) Updates HERE!!

120,000 new jobs were created in the month of November 2011.

The private sector generated 140,000 new jobs, but the government sector continued to shed jobs, 20,000 jobs, in November 2011.


278,000 more people reported themselves as working in November 2011. 

          

The unemployment rate dropped four-tenths of one percent to 8.6%, declining from 9.0% in October.  The unemployment rate has exceeded or equaled 9.0% for 7 months this year.  The last time that the unemployment rate was at or below 8.6% was March 2009.  Though this is a big step in the right direction, much of the improvement in the unemployment rate this month was due to people dropping out of the labor force.  The size of the civilian labor force (consisting of people working and people actively looking for work) had been increasing for most of the this year. 

How Many Jobs Has Obama Gained or Lost? (November 2011 update)

Private/Govt Jobs Gained/Lost by Month 2011, 2012, 2013 HERE

Latest (2013 to date and all 2011) reports and jobs numbers HERE!!

The following are numbers for November 2011.  For the latest numbers & reports, please click one of the links above.

How has Obama done on jobs?  
2,462,000 gained since "trough" of recession.


How Has Obama done on private-sector jobs?
2,947,000 gained since the "trough" of the recession.


How many jobs have been lost or gained during the Obama administration?  Have more new jobs been created or have more jobs been lost under Obama to date?  Still in negative jobs territory in net jobs gained/lost.

(Remember that monthly jobs numbers are NET numbers:  That is, the number of jobs GAINED after all jobs lost are subtracted, or the number of jobs LOST after all jobs gained are subtracted.  Increases in the monthly number of jobs mean that more jobs were gained than lost.  Decreases in the monthly number of jobs mean that more jobs were lost than gained.) 

Breakdown of private and government jobs lost and gained?  HERE!

These questions will be answered.  Keep reading!   All data based on the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.    

Other current & former (All 2012 & 2011) reports HERE!! 

Summary of November jobs activity: 

Jobs increased 120,000 in total in November 2011 (vs. a revised increase of 100,000 in October). Private sector jobs continued to increase while government sector jobs continued to decrease. Private sector jobs increased by 140,000 (vs. 117,000 in October), while government jobs decreased by 20,000 (vs. a decrease of 17,000 in October).  

Is it true that over 2 million private sector jobs have been created in the Obama administration as the Democrats claim?

(Summary of gross and net jobs activity since Obama was inaugurated is below the jump---  Keep reading!)

What Was the Unemployment Rate When Obama Took Office? (November 2011 update)

What was the unemployment rate when Bush left office and Obama took office?  7.7%

How high did it go?  10.1% 

What is today's (November's) unemployment rate?   8.6%

How many people were looking for work when Obama was inaugurated, how many were working?  And how many people are looking for work and how many are employed now?   Keep reading!

Information about jobs numbers, unemployment rate past and present indexed HERE!

The following numbers are as of November 2011.  For current numbers, please click the link above!

• The Unemployment Rate: What does it measure? Where did it come from?

The Unemployment Rate when Obama took office:

• For the record, when Obama took office in January 2009, the "official" unemployment rate in seasonally adjusted numbers was 7.7%, with 11,919,000 people reporting themselves as unemployed and actively looking.  142,221,000 people were working in January 2009. 
• In "raw" numbers not adjusted for seasonal variance, the unemployment rate was 8.5% with 13,009,000 people reporting themselves as unemployed and actively looking for work.  140,436,000 people were working in numbers not adjusted for seasonal variance.

The Unemployment Rate at its Peak: 

• At the "trough" (bottom in terms of jobs) of the recession in late 2009/early 2010, the "official" unemployment rate in seasonally adjusted numbers climbed to 10.1% in October 2009 with 15,612,000 people (out of a labor force of 153,854,000) reporting themselves as unemployed.   138,242,000 were working in October 2009; however, the lowest number of people working was reported in December 2009, when 137,792,000 people (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were working.    
• In "raw" numbers not adjusted for seasonal variance, the unemployment rate reached a peak of 10.6% in January 2010 with 16,147,000 (out of a labor force of 152,957,000) reporting themselves as unemployed and actively looking for work.  Only 136,809,000 were working (in "raw" unadjusted numbers) in January 2010.

The Unemployment Rate Now:

• Now, in November 2011, the "official" unemployment rate in seasonally adjusted numbers is at 8.6%, with 13,303,000 (out of a labor force of 153,883,000) unemployed and actively looking for work.  140,580,000 people are working now.  (Last month 140,302,000 were working.  This is an increase of 278,000 people working.) 

• In unadjusted "raw" numbers the unemployment rate is now 8.2%, a decline of .3% (three-tenths of a percent) since October.  In "raw" real numbers, 12,613,000 (out of a labor force of 153,683,000) are unemployed and actively looking for work.  141,070,000 are working now in "raw" numbers unadjusted for seasonal variation.  (This is an increase of 83,000 people working.)

To Summarize the Unemployment Rate Now Compared to When Obama Took Office:

• Using seasonally adjusted numbers, the unemployment rate was 7.7% (and rising quickly) when Obama took office, and it is 8.6% today.   11,919,000 were officially unemployed back then, and 13,303,000 are unemployed today.  
• Using nonseasonally adjusted numbers, the unemployment rate was already 8.5% when Obama took office, and it is 8.2% today.   13,009,000 were officially unemployed back then, and 12,613,000 are officially unemployed now. 

(Note:  All of my employment number reports are based on monthly reports and data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Monthly numbers reports are based on the monthly Employment Situation Report.  The Employment Situation report includes month over month and year over year jobs numbers.  My analysis is taken from the monthly BLS data copied to an Excel spreadsheet every month.  I calculate detailed percentage increases/decreases, 3 month numbers, 2011 to date numbers, and I compare jobs numbers to those at the time of Obama's inauguration and at the "trough" of the recession.)

Extend the Payroll Tax Holiday! Sign Senator Durbin's Open Letter to GOP!

Sign Dick Durbin's Urgent Open Letter to the GOP: 

Tell the GOP to extend the payroll tax holiday for hardworking middle class families -- before tonight’s vote!

Here's another petition.. (They are coming "fast and furiously" these days!)

There is a vote on payroll tax cut extensions this evening, and Senator Dick Durbin (D) of Illinois would like to present a letter with thousands of signatures:

URGENT: VOTE TONIGHT!

Tell the GOP to extend the payroll tax holiday

Use the form...to co-sign my open letter to my Republican colleagues urging them to extend the payroll tax holiday for hardworking middle class families -- before tonight’s vote! --Dick

Here is the letter that Durbin is going to present:

Dear Republican Senate Conference,

According to the stunning admission that Senator Jon Kyl made when I appeared with him on Fox News Sunday last weekend, you are poised to vote to force average working families to pay $1,000 more in taxes next year by blocking an extension of the payroll tax holiday -- instead of asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share on income over $1 million.

If Senator Kyl’s admission reflects your true priorities, they aren’t just the wrong priorities for middle class families; they are the wrong priorities for our struggling economy. Economists estimate failure to extend the payroll tax holiday could bring our fragile economic recovery to a screeching halt and cost 750,000 jobs.

I urge you to stand with hardworking families -- instead of coddling those (and only those) earning over a million dollars a year -- when the payroll tax holiday extension comes up for a vote tonight.

Thank you,

Dick Durbin and undersigned

Shame, shame, shame on these selfish Republicans who care more about making sure their rich friends  and corporations keep every last penny than they care about the American people.  As I watch Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) on this and related videos, blathering on about the deficit, all I can think is that the man looks like a CEO:  And a wealthy CEO who has never had to worry about how he is going to pay his mortgage, keep the electric turned on, pay school expenses for his kids. 


His only concern, like the CEO he resembles, is the bottom line:  What do I have to cut to maximize the profit of this corporation?--- without concern for how many lives are going to be impacted by those cuts.    And somehow convincing himself that the most important tax cuts are those for the "job creators."  


"Job creators", my foot! 

Are those of us who are completely disgusted with this greedy bunch a majority yet?  Anyway, this letter does not appear to require an address; as I know some are concerned about this.

So... click and sign.. NOW!  The Senate conference vote appears to be tonight!  There's no time to waste!

Sign Dick Durbin's Urgent Open Letter to the GOP!  HERE! 


Update 10:54 p.m.:


The Payroll Tax Cut Extension was rejected by the Senate, but it will be brought up again.  Huffington Post reports:

The Senate failed Thursday to pass an extension of a payroll tax cut, leaving in limbo a break that saved working class households about $1,000 a piece this year.Democrats sought to extend and expand the break, while paying for it with a 3.25 percent surtax on incomes over $1 million. Just one Senate Republican, Maine's Susan Collins, voted for the middle class break, which died 51 to 49 in a filibuster. Three Democrats opposed the bill.

"I am extremely disappointed that Republicans' insistence on protecting millionaires from paying a penny more in taxes has blocked our effort to extend and expand the payroll tax cut for millions of middle class families and small business owners," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).

More about this vote HERE!

Stayed tuned, as I'm sure there will be more letters to send and petitions to sign.